So I was thinking this past weekend, as we were booking our flights to Portland for this year’s Family Reunion, the costs to run our business.  Now being a sceptical person I keep records for every single expense related to our business and keep a running total to make sure that we are actually making money over what we spend to run our business.  I do not include the products we buy because 95% of the products we buy are products that we already bought before.  Examples, Multi-Vitamin, Protein Bars, Granola Bars, Water, Energy Drinks, Cleaning products, etc.. That’s all stuff we bought and as a business owner you shop from your own store.

So going back to our hard business costs such as our voicemail system, our digital audio files, books, any business related marketing tools, conferences that we attend, local functions that we go to… ALL of that are for the most parts the cost of doing business.  I may break it down at the end of the year but probably not because our costs of doing business will differ from other people’s because not everyone uses all the tools and people build different business’s.  However the best thing about all of that, 100% tax write offs.  We did our taxes last year and were able to write off every thing that was related to our business.  That even includes any samples we gave and KM’s we drove to any meetings that we had.  We basically got a cheque back from the government and that cheque covered ALL our costs.  So those who say “the tools are a scam”, well I don’t know what to tell you but as a cost of business they were covered by my cheque back from the government.

However having said all of that what business do you know doesn’t cost money to run?  Last time I checked it costs traditional business’s like McDonalds, Shoppers Drug Mart, Banana Republic, Gap, etc… TEN of THOUSANDS of dollars a month to operate.  They also have employees to manage and pay, lease payments for a building, and a whole whack of other expenses to pay out.  We have roughly a FEW thousand dollars to run and 1000% less headache to worry about.  Based on that it just makes sense and honestly how can you argue that.  I’m sure you’ll try, however this is my own experience and what we are doing. What others do or claim to have done may or may not be what was recommended or advised and if you read it, take it with a grain of salt.

So to wrap it up, does this business cost money to run? Absolutely!  Do you get to write it off on taxes? YES.  I did it, I got the cheque!  Next year when I file, I’ll post the cheque as proof for the seeing is believing folk out there.  All business’s cost money to run, just depends on what kind of business your in.