Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with self-employed

Is there any way I could get a loan or mortgage?

lgyre — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:47:37 -0800

Can I get a loan or mortgage in any way? We currently live in a building that we more or less own. Technically, we own an LLC, and the LLC owns the building (and that's all it does), so home equity is probably out. We would like to buy a new house about half the value of this one, preferably without selling. However, that would require a loan, and we have lousy credit. Details: Our current building is completely paid off. We are self-employed and our income is not impressive, but our expenses are low. I'm sure we could afford mortgage/loan payments, and we'd be happy to sell our current building to pay off the loan if for some reason we weren't able to come up with the money.

Our credit is pretty much non-existent because we don't have credit cards, house or car payments. We can't get credit cards at this point, as far as I can tell. We do have utility payments that we pay, but not always incredibly punctually.

Family members might possibly be willing to cosign. Would that be enough to do it, if they have good credit?

I'm not particularly frightened of high interest rates, I just want to know if there's any chance this could happen. If so, how can I tell reputable loaners from crazy internet scams, considering that we probably won't be dealing with a major bank (or is this an incorrect assumption?).

Business owner getting unemployment?

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 07:34:53 -0800

This weekend I might (finally) give up my business and close it down ... been losing money all year, cash gone, prospects not looking good, etc etc. I'll lay off the 5 employees. And they will all be able to claim unemployment benefits on Tuesday (we're in NJ, USA). But what about me? I'm not an employee as such, I haven't paid myself anything for 10 months. I've hardly taken any kind of 'owners draw' in those 10 months (maybe $1000). My understanding of unemployment is that the benefit is paid based on average wages earned over the last xx months. (ie approx zero for me). Can I get unemployment? Or some other financial help? If I did struggle on with the business should be start paying myself some huge salary to make myself eligible for unemployment later? (or should I have been doing that?). Please - nice (but helpful) answers only. Not going to be a fun few days. Thanks

UK Tax Matters

missmagenta — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 01:54:25 -0800

I'm recently self-employed and I need some advice about tax deductions. I'm going to be getting a new, rather expensive computer but I also want to make sure I have enough money to pay my taxes. The computer will be used for business and home use - so where do I stand tax deduction-wise? I want to do the right thing but I dont want to pay more tax than I should.
So if I buy something that will be used for work and play do I deduct all/part/none of the costs from my profits? The computer will cost nearly £5,000 will this get me a big red flag on my accounts if I deduct the whole cost?
I also read something about deducting the cost of business equipment over a number of years - depending on how long it will be in use - does this apply here?

On a related topic - I may potentially have a large job coming in paying about 5x what I would normally make for the whole year - I know theres going to be a huge tax bill on that this year but my question is - do I need to save most of it to pay my tax bill for the next year then wait for a rebate a year later or will the fact I've only been in business a few months mean I wont get an estimated bill for a couple of years?

Software to track project/client information?

iguanapolitico — Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:42:41 -0800

What kind of software can I use to keep track of information on each client and/or project that I'm working on? I do all my work on a computer. But I carry around this three-ring binder that contains all of the information/notes that I need for all of my projects and clients. I start with one sheet for each client (a form that I designed using Excel) and all of these client sheets are filed in the binder alphabetically (complete with A-Z tabs). I staple on additional sheets for each client as necessary.

I also use these little color-coded tags for flagging clients that have active projects, or that I provide web hosting for, or that I have a question about, etc.

It's some stellar organization and it has worked for years, but boy does it seem stone-age. Plus, what if this binder is washed away in a flash flood? (I really, really don't lose things, ever, but the flash flood thing is always a possibility.)

So I'm thinking of keeping track of all this stuff with a computer. Are there software programs that handle this sort of thing that are customizable? So I can customize all the information I need to store, such as client name, contact information, FTP information, billing dates/info, dates and notes on project progress, etc, etc? So I can flag or color code clients that are active, or that need attention, etc? So I can sort by different criteria? Do I just need to break down and create my own database, or do you have recommendations for existing software? And ... software that is both Mac- and PC-compatible? (My laptop is a Mac, desktop is a PC.)

(Or, is this something that I can manage with Excel, without creating/drawing a form by hand for each client? I'm really not up on Office-type products past basic word processing.)

It shouldn't be web-based because I might need to use it on a laptop somewhere without internet access.

(But is this something that would be do-able with Excel, that I could import into Google Spreadsheets so I could access the info remotely? I wouldn't need a tutorial on that, but if the answer is "yes," I could go figure it out.)

I really like using the binder. I like to be able to grab a pencil and jot down a note without having to fire up an application. And I like to keep as few apps open as possible. But now I'm beginning to worry about safety. This information should be backed up. I back up my computer regularly, and make fun of people who don't do the same, after all. Sheesh.

I feel that this is a supremely stupid question, but that the right answer will be based on a consensus of recommendations, or will be just too hard for me to go through with. (I just don't see myself building my own database any time soon; I can't even make the time to get my client login section operational on my own web site.)

Should my wife and I (with drastically different incomes ) file taxes together or seperate?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 21:00:29 -0800

TaxFilter: My wife and I have drastically different incomes. She made about $45K this year and I only made about $15K, mostly from freelance gigs, so no taxes were paid. Should we file jointly or married but filing separately? I have my own business so I have deductions for travel and some equipment purchases. However, my income is so low I am not sure if they will matter much.

So is it better if we use my income to drag down the average between us or should I file myself since I basically have paid almost no taxes?

The only job that has taken out taxes for me is a consulting firm that took $400 in Federal Income and $415 in social security tax on $6700 in income. So that leaves almost $10K with no tax paid.

I should also mention I recently moved to NJ so basically no state tax was taken out at all (I think I have paid about $20 in state income tax from a part time hourly job in Dec). However, my car and drivers license are still based in Florida, but my address I will be filing the insurance will be NJ. How does this affect things?

Looking for Toronto self-employed mortgage advice

pasd — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 09:47:33 -0800

My partner and I are thinking about buying our first home in Toronto and are looking into mortgage options, but it gets a little complicated as I'm self-employed. Looking for advice on self employed mortgages or good brokers in Toronto. Between us we made about $60k each in 2006, and expect similar in 2007 and onwards. The complication comes in the fact that I'm a self-employed web developer, I left my permanent government job in January 2006 so I'm just approaching one year self-employed and expect to remain that way. My partner has a steady, professional job in healthcare.

From mortgage calculators, it looks like with our relatively low debt ($10k of student loans) and incomes we could expect to borrow around $400k from a bank *if* we were both employed.

We don't actually need that much, we're looking at condos around the $250-280k mark and expect to have a 10% down payment.

So, my specific question is regarding Canadian self-employed mefites mortgage experiences. I've googled up plenty of self-employed mortgages, but all seem to want you to have been self-employed for 3 years+, and we're not up for waiting another two years to meet that criteria. Anyone know good alternatives to this? Any advice on good, trustworthy mortgage advice in Toronto would also be appreciated.

Any advice from self-employed web designers on how to deal with delinquent clients?

phyrewerx — Sat, 10 Jul 2004 19:08:56 -0800

Any advice from self-employed web designers on how to deal with near delinquent clients? (More inside) A client (and friend) has asked me to develop a personal website for them. The professional relationship between them and myself has been good based on the previous work I have done for them. But this time, they have been avoiding my calls/emails after I have finished the draft and submitted to them. I do not want to escalate this to a level that might force me to argue with them since this project is not worth a lot. But on principle sake, I still want to get paid.

What suggestions do other web designers have? What should I have done different? Are there any good resources out there on how to make preliminary agreements/contracts?