Self Employed Folks?

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I am wondering if anyone here is self employed, and how they handle the logistics relating to this. Right now my hobby is getting pretty big so there are some things that I may consider such as incorporation.

It's also becoming a bit of a challenge to balance my day job with the hobby, considering that I don't have enough spoons for life, period. Right now quitting the job isn't a possibility because my investment income plus revenues are not high enough, but it's starting to change. How are the self-employed folks here handling this? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Also, how do employers here deal with hiring people - is 1099MISC a good idea for those that don't want to deal with Obamacare issues?

I had my own business in the '90's. I provided health insurance to my employees because it was the right thing to do. it also prevents turnover. whenever I find out a business is gaming the system to not provide health insurance to its employees, I boycott that business.

there are other problems with using the 1099 for employees. they then would have to pay all the social security tax themselves. i'm fairly sure you would run into legal troubles.

I'm not at that level, though I'm working towards it. I've only been at it since January. I got a day job about two months ago and it's a challenge to maintain my business and put in the hours and energy at the day job because my sales have increased and I know that being successful in dealing with items of the kind I sell is a tad bit more about volume than per-item profit. While both are important, I'd say that it's a 60/40 split as far as importance.

Time-wise, I try to work around my day job's erratic schedule as best I can and set goals for each day. I plan to quit once it becomes truly unsustainable to keep my day job and maintain the daily aspects of my business.

Philosophically, what I started doing is bearing in mind that when I'm at my day job, I'm serving someone else's interests more than my own, which is fine because that's obviously what they're paying me to do. I just need the money to pay bills, save up for a vehicle, and put a little into the business or test new products. That and observing people are the only things it's good for. Above all, it's a McJob in which going into management would be the only way to make what I would consider a decent living. I know from past experience that management is not an area I want to go into. Knowing that I have no desire to move up makes it a lot easier to justify taking certain liberties that I ordinarily wouldn't. The other day I chose to go to the post office to keep my promise of shipping within 24 business hours. It made me late for work, but my employer is so bent on keeping labor costs down that they make people leave early, take a longer lunch, or arrive late if they've worked more than 5 minutes over their scheduled hours. I already had 15-20 minutes to "burn off," as they say, and I took the opportunity to do so that day.

The one thing I have the most trouble with is consistently keeping up with the accounting spreadsheets I set up. Obviously, I have to improve on this if I want to be successful. Does anyone have tips on handling this? I think I need to block out .5 - 1 hr to be spent only on records maintenance 3-5 times a week.