If you file with Intuit Turbotax, it will ask you the total of all our household bills that are also used for the business, and then automatically apply the % of space you use (exclusively) for the business to those bills, and end up with the deduction you can take. If you use it off your mortgage also, it does what's called depreciation, and can affect how much you get to keep tax free from selling the home. ... View related article.
You'll find that for almost every single kid who wets the bed it is NOT a medical problem, it is merely a sleep problem. Our son wet the bed for years, and we discovered that when he sleeps he falls into such a deep sleep that he cannot wake up enough to hear his body telling him that is is about to pee. We paid a fortune for a consultant and large pad that would sound when the pad got wet. He had to wake up and change his sheets etc. It was such a waste of money. A friend gave us an alarm that is attached by velcro onto the undies, so that the very first drop sets it off. The other end of the alarm is velcroed to his t-shirt, so it buzzes right into his ear! We were watching a movie the first night it went on, and heard this yelp from his room ... HUH??? It was hilarious. He was in a daze, so I told him he needed to pee. It only went off once more after that, and the alarm taught him to wake up as soon as the pee muscle was about to go into action. Don't bother restricting fluids, don't bother with pills, don't bother with counseling, just get el cheapo alarm and watch the magic happen. ... View related article.
I did a google search on manufacturers in the US, and decided that to be competetive I would need to manufacture overseas. I found a site called alibaba.com, and they list various countries, and have gold seals on the businesses that have proven to be honest and make good quality merchandise. I talked to one company that were not able to make the packaging, only the product, so then I found one in Taiwan that does everything for me. They charged around $260 for each case (lower and upper) to tool the machines for printing, made the magnets according to our specs., printed the packaging (another $260 for each kind), packaged them, and shipped them to an import company in Houston. I had to pay a lawyer $1,000 to draw up an agreement that they would not print them for any other company. She was the most costly. I found her through a lawyer referral service online. The import company cost about $250 to sign off the goods and send them on their way to my house, and the freight charge was approx. $100. The website set-up took a while as I had to get one that offered shopping carts. They charge around $60 per month for me to be able to let customers use credit cards. The graphics and logo were free as my sister does them, and the website html was free too as my husband does that. He's also a photographer, so he did my product shoot, and the models did the work TFCD, (time for CD). We found them on a kids' modelling site. The UPC codes cost about $360, and it's another $75 a year to stay registered. I applied for my trademark through teas.uspto.gov for $335 I made my company an LLC for $200 online through the Secretary of State's articles of organization www.sos.state.tx.us for TX. Thhis means that if the business fails the business debts wil not be covered by the sale of our personal items, only business office items and inventory. I had to go out once :) to file the business name with the county clerk. The marketing is the hardest part of all. To get people to your site you have to let them know you exist. I pay Toy Directory $100 a month to let retailers see me and my product. Magazine ads cost a fortune. I think I would have been better off letting a large distributor sell the product, but then I would have only gotten 5% of gross sales, which is what my sister gets for being the designer, and I still owe her for all her graphics work on the site. All in all, I think I paid about $8,000 to get it up and running. BTW, I've heard that there is now patent software available to help you patent your invention for a few hundered, compared to the $6k to do it through a lawyer. ... View related article.
My sister, an animator in Ireland, had designed phonic letter magnets for her daughter - so she could learn her letters and sounds, and when she sent me a set I knew I wanted to sell them in the States. In answer to your question, I now have a wholesale business selling preschool educational items. I also sell them retail on the site just to boost my business income. www.eagermind.com ... View related article.
