End of Year Business Numbers

[gcextreme 475]

Ok guys, this was my first full year in business. I started this last spring 2013, doing decals, then in October started with shirts and hats as well.

That partial year, with all the business startup costs, purchasing equipment and supplies, and spending alot of time learning, i had about $1,000 in recorded sales. (sales not profit).

 

I am glad to announce that this year, 2014, was a pretty good year for sales.

Doing a preliminary audit of my sales, I'm sitting at just about $4,500 in sales. Again sales, not profit.

 

$4,500 in sales isn't bad for just weekend and a few nights a week doing this part time from home.

 

My wife and I still have to add up all my receipts for supplies, tools, and shipping costs. But I'm confident its under $1,000.

 

I am hoping within another 2 years I will have enough saved up to lease a store/office/shop somewhere within 20 miles of home. Because right now, most of my work is done out of our spare bedroom, which will eventually become a nursery room for our future baby we are trying for. Which again, I know a baby will cut into my work time and funds to help the business grow.

 

 

I want to set some goals for next year, some realistic business goals. 

I also want to invest in a nicer light table/work station, as well as some other tools.

I want to do a little more glass etching, I bought a $249 blast cabinet and have yet to really make money off that. I've sold maybe 4 glasses at $20 each.

 

I also want to spread my business name around more locally. I live within 15 miles of three nice size towns/cities. But there are many other vinyl businesses in all three, so i need to set myself apart from them and make myself unique. I ran an ad for 2 months in one local paper, spent $150 ($75 a month) and I didn't have one bite.

 

It seems most of the time, my sales online are $10-20 here and there. It goes directly into my paypal, and then i end up spending that money to buy more shirts and more vinyl. Right now my paypal is at about $200, and my business checking is about $280. So my business has less than $500 to boot right now. 

Should i restructure, to keep my account balances higher? By only buying vinyl as i need it? Or is it better to have the most common stuff already on hand and keep stock in so my customers won't have to wait an additional 3-5 days just for me to get in the material?

Looking behind me i have about 15 rolls of different HTV, another 30 rolls of 24" 651, 3 rolls of 21" 751, and another 10 rolls of 15" 651 and 6 rolls of 8" 651.  Plus several totes of shirts and hats.

 

 

I just want some advice from people with years of experience on this..

Any advice and suggestions to improve my business would be great.

Thanks

 

 

 

[jaybyrd 3,770]

When in business the irs treats inventory the same as money in the bank for tax purposes. I keep stock on hand but most of my work is walking on a time crunch.

[gcextreme 475]

Yep, i know that.

But its still not money in my bank or wallet. I can't send the electric company a roll of vinyl as payment, lol.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

That's kind of what I'm saying. I have to keep inventory up but many work from home setups have enough lead time to order as needed. I prefer my money in cash, not in the bank acct. Whenever possible

[gcextreme 475]

Same here..that why i love family and friends and coworkers that pay me cash for small decals.

Last week i had about $30 in cash sales from coworkers....shhh dont tell uncle sam

[jaybyrd 3,770]

Sorry Uncle Sam but a man's gotta eat. All joking aside the inventory issue is a fine line between not having what you need and stuff just sitting collecting dust.

[eashonk 24]

In the t-shirt business I've found that it is mostly go big or go home.  If you are trying to keep inventory on hand for those 1-10 shirt orders you're never going to make $ because all of your profits are always going to be tied up in trying to keep stock just in case someone comes in wanting 5 shirts by tomorrow.  In my opinion, that's not really worth my time, so if someone wants something like that, I send them down the road to the other guy.  I only do the high profit jobs in the time frame that suits my business.  Rushing things only ends up with dissapointed customers and a small bank account.  I am alost completely out of the t-shirt part of the business and may not ever really get back into it.  It is just too involved to be doing it out of my house.  Too many chemicals, to many things can go wrong with screens.  Unless I'm doing a larger order, it just isn't worth it.

[gcextreme 475]

Im not doing screen print..just HTV shirts.

Right now i love doing the small orders...1 shirt here and there, then 8 shirts, then 16 shirts...

My most recent order was 9 shirts and 3 hoodies, A $180 order from a wife's coworker friend. Simple design took maybe 2 hours to do everything from design to pressing.

Eventually when i have a larger place i will get into screen printing, right now i have a friend Shawn aka mopar on here, that i go to for big orders.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote'data-author="eashonk" data-cid="380957" data-time="1419305037"><p>

In the t-shirt business I've found that it is mostly go big or go home. If you are trying to keep inventory on hand for those 1-10 shirt orders you're never going to make $ because all of your profits are always going to be tied up in trying to keep stock just in case someone comes in wanting 5 shirts by tomorrow. In my opinion, that's not really worth my time, so if someone wants something like that, I send them down the road to the other guy. I only do the high profit jobs in the time frame that suits my business. Rushing things only ends up with dissapointed customers and a small bank account. I am alost completely out of the t-shirt part of the business and may not ever really get back into it. It is just too involved to be doing it out of my house. Too many chemicals, to many things can go wrong with screens. Unless I'm doing a larger order, it just isn't worth it.</p></blockquote> if you were string up to screen 5 shirts either youre charging a pile of cash or losing money before you even start. Like GC I do heat transfer for custom work and like yourself I screenprint when the quantity is high enough but I also do photo transfers on a regular basis. The key to inventory is knowing how long your average customer is willing to wait and about 5 shirts next day being a rush job most times we handle that same day or if really basic while you wait. $15-20 a shirt with htv is decent money most of the time.

[gcextreme 475]

Well bumping this thread of mine.

Almost done doing my end of the year figures.

$4550 in "recorded" sales.

$2780 in basic supplies (shirts, vinyls, garments, glassware, etc).

Estimated profit $1770.

Kinda disappointing...but still double over my $800 profit last year.

Now together the wife and i had a combined income of about $56K.

We paid in a combined $8500ish in State and Federal taxes.

Looks like we are only getting back $600 total from fed/state.

Extremely depressing.

Seems like a shit load of work and money sunk in, to make a mere $1770 profit..but i gotta keep with it...not going to quit.

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

I'm with ya - usually get back and this year with the business going to pay in a substantial amount . . . but got the taxes done and sales tax paid so that bandage is ripped off . . . . along with the scab. 

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

hardest part this year was normally I can pull sales from my records - this year I had paypal with the 1009-k and had to differentiate between what was being reported by them that was also included in my regular sales - again that would have been easy to subtract the 1099 from gross sales but when you have to  separate taxed, non taxed out of state and non taxed exempt it got pretty deep separating it all.  I pay on it all but don't want to pay on the same money twice

[jaybyrd 3,770]

What is this refund you speak of? I haven't done my yet (no hurry when you know you're paying in) but me "recorded" sales are going to be between 60 and 70K. Profit is way lower but if you really want to know where you are at keep a notebook with all those little jobs that didn't quite make it on the books. and square sent me a 1099-k this year for exceeding 20k in card sales which is just another way of reminding me of how much I paid them in fees throughout the year.

[gcextreme 475]

How do u get that form from paypal?

I just went thru and added up all my email receipts.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

1099-k is required when you hit $20k. I had to look it up when I got one from square 

[gcextreme 475]

Ok. Dam it would be nice to just get an end of the year statement.

[mfatty500 454]

Cash, cash is king....(when possible)

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

glen you can go into your paypal account and pull a report for the year if you really want to know - part of what hurt was a portion of the paypal included selling the college books, stuff for family etc - not all was business but it all gets reported as business when they do that way.

[signyouup 178]

You need a secound account for personal stuff.

 

glen you can go into your paypal account and pull a report for the year if you really want to know - part of what hurt was a portion of the paypal included selling the college books, stuff for family etc - not all was business but it all gets reported as business when they do that way.

[jaybyrd 3,770]

I don't separately list the 1099k because the money is already counted for in my books. Only need to show it once but I don't have the sales tax mess you've got to deal with.