Income breakdown – 2019 retrospective

This is the last thing I feel the need to post from my year of transparency, which is the income breakdown from Quickbooks from my end of year earnings.

Income – $120,254.94

The first thing in this to notice is that if you were following along every month I reported $126,242 in total earnings compared to $120,254 in this report. I don’t know what happened, but my calculations were based on some pulling from reports all over the place, and perhaps I just didn’t calculate properly, but Quickbooks has my entire income, so I’m going to go with that. Interesting, the difference between this income and the income I reported throughout the year is about the difference between breaking even and having a loss, which you’ll see below.

Advertising – $15,880.70

I broke out convention advertising into its own section, which means this is simply online advertising, and almost completely advertising for builders and for marketing campaigns. Most of my advertising spend for my own work comes from shows, and is included in that expense, but if you want to see how much I spend on advertising throughout the year, then this is where I’ve been the last couple of years.

Car and Truck – $5,384.77

I don’t even know why my income report has this feature, as I take my money off from mileage and not from this expense, but this is how much I spent on insurance, gas, and repairs this year for my work car. It does not include personal mileage.

Contract labor – $44,493.37

This is my biggest expense item, even accounting for the $13,000 payment I made to myself last year. Producing books is my main source of income, which means I have to spend money on artists and editings and cover designers to make sure they get produced. Most of the work for this site I do myself, and while I’ve tried to hire a personal assistant twice, neither has worked out.

Utilities – $3,772.28

This is inclusive of utilities for my whole house, including the part that my office is NOT part of, so the actual expense is a little lower, but I give my accountant the whole number and they churn out the right number for me.

Insurance – $80.83

This is insurance for shows. I don’t always have to get insurance for shows, but sometimes a do, and when I do, it is included in this line item.

Legal and Pro services – $2,024.14

I have lawyers and accountants, just like any business.

Research – $1,105.42

I have to buy books and courses and other materials to stay current as a publisher, and this is that line item.

Saleable Material (books, pins, etc) – $5,931.34

This is material line pins and prints and other things that I sold in 2019. I made significantly more than this cost  back above these expenses.

Assets – $3,528.40

These are the books and such I DID NOT sell this year. In the USA, you cannot write off merchandise until you sell it, so I am carrying over a significant amount of inventory from one year to the other, and that is accounted for in this line item.

Meals – $4,009.15

One of the only good things about owning a business is that you get to write off most of your meals, and I write off a LOT of meals with business associates, clients, customers, and on travel for work.

Office Expenses – $12,246.50

All other office expenses, like paper and such, is accounted for in this line item.

Charity – $795.65 (this does not include personal charity)

I need to up this in 2020, for sure.

Convention tables – $3,876.80

This is how much money I spent on convention tables this year, but it does not include food, shipping, or other expenses related to convention travel. This is just the table cost from 20+ conventions.

Taxes and Licenses – $2,336.49

Every year I have to pay a franchise tax for the privilege of running a company in Los Angeles, plus City taxes to Long Beach, plus sales tax. Since I run a loss most years, I don’t pay other taxes, but I do pay personal taxes.

Travel – $9501.03

I travelled all over the world this year, from Italy to Denver to Phoenix to Seattle, and more for work this year, and this is my travel expenses.

Healthcare – $6013.78

My company pays for my healthcare, which is another nice benefit of owning a company, especially one taxes as an S-Corp.

Rent – $6994.8

I owe 30% of my mortgage to lease 30% of my house as an office space, and this is 30% of my mortgage of $1943/mo.

Total: -$7,720.51 

Oof. So, there’s the breakdown, and in total I made -$7,720.51 this year. However, these numbers also include a payment of almost $13,000 to myself as an employee, which is required when you file as an s-corp, trips around the country, and a lot of food. It also included a $6,000 payment for an IRA contribution, maxing it out for the year.

However, I can’t say that I’m happy about spending a year of my life to make -$7,720.51. Weirdly, somehow I ended up with more money in my coffers at the end of this year than at the beginning.

Thus ends the year of transparency. I hope you learned something from it. And even if you didn’t, I hope you at least got some entertainment value watching the ups and downs of my company as it tries to navigate the perilous waters of independent business ownership.