Properly want to vet ideas a bit before executing.
‘Results! Why, man, I have gotten a lot of results! I know several thousand things that won’t work.’
I spent two years launching tiny projects
31–40 of 199 posts
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#32Does anyone let the tax implications of launching (several) tiny projects prevent them from even starting? I know LLCs allow for pass-through taxation and you don't have to file as a business, but I get frozen by the idea that generating a few hundred dollars in revenue from some silly side project means I have to spend hours/days of my time the next Spring figuring out how to properly pay taxes on it.
(assuming you're in the US) if you've never had a business before, a couple hundred dollars of extra income is not material to your taxes and I wouldn't worry about it at all.
Once you get to the scale of a few thousand dollars a year, you can file what's called a Form 1040 Schedule C which allows you to declare your business income, claim expenses and other deductions, and include it in your taxable income. For that scale it's an extra 10 minutes with your tax software or even by hand, as long as you keep good records, and you're done.
The point at which an LLC or other more formal business structure makes sense is fuzzy and can have different ranges depending on the business, but typically you probably don't need or want to invoke the expense of a CPA until you're making more than six figures (or if you've taken outside investment, obv).
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#33This reminds me of Don Lapre’s placing tiny classified ads verbiage.
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#34> Previously I'd used this code to buy facebook.网站, only for Marky Z to snatch it back from me. Cheeky bugger. LMAO. The emoji emails is really cool though. [1] [1] https://tinyprojects.dev/projects/mailoji
That is odd that he would be involved with auditing duplicate domain names. You'd think FB the company would of done the snatching, not Mark Zuckerberg. neat.
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#35Does anyone let the tax implications of launching (several) tiny projects prevent them from even starting? I know LLCs allow for pass-through taxation and you don't have to file as a business, but I get frozen by the idea that generating a few hundred dollars in revenue from some silly side project means I have to spend hours/days of my time the next Spring figuring out how to properly pay taxes on it.
As a side hustler, even with pass-through taxation, you will still have to pay the self-employment tax (15.3% of net earnings) on top of taxes at your federal and state tax bracket. However, side-hustle money spent on qualified business expenses, is not taxable. (Tax people please chime in.)
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#36I really like this idea of creating small projects instead of just building a startup as it would be too much work for me. Can you guys give me more examples about projects that generate money or least a lot of people use it for free.
Check out the #buildinpublic hashtag on Twitter. You’ll find many good examples.
Also Indiehackers.
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#37There's an undercurrent of subversive genius here, which is awesome. Great read!
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#38Does anyone let the tax implications of launching (several) tiny projects prevent them from even starting? I know LLCs allow for pass-through taxation and you don't have to file as a business, but I get frozen by the idea that generating a few hundred dollars in revenue from some silly side project means I have to spend hours/days of my time the next Spring figuring out how to properly pay taxes on it.
(assuming you're in the US) if you've never had a business before, a couple hundred dollars of extra income is not material to your taxes and I wouldn't worry about it at all. Once you get to the scale of a few thousand dollars a year, you can file what's called a Form 1040 Schedule C which allows you to declare your business income, claim expenses and other deductions, and include it in your taxable income. For that…
The part about "just don't worry about it" is not really great advice, IMO. I think the rest is good, particularly the part about using tax software and/or doing a Schedule C. Just do what it says - it's pretty simple for small businesses - the amount in taxes paid will be fairly minimal. If you use tax software, use the business version and answer the questions and it'll figure it all out for you basically (might even find some deductions if you had expenses, like domain names, hosting, etc.).
While the IRS likely won't audit you for a few hundred dollars (US), there are laws about what you have to do. You don't need to become a tax expert, but knowing the very basics so you don't run afoul of any laws and end up owing some $$ or penalties is probably worth taking a bit of time to do at the end of the year.
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#39I've been following these, and it seems like such a fun thing to do. He seems to have been lucky that he caught on to his real product on day 1 -- semi-viral blog posts.
Still I imagine it's hard for most people to go 2 years on a few thousand of sporadic revenue.
Re: I spent two years launching tiny projects
#40Properly want to vet ideas a bit before executing.
Depends on how much time you plan on putting into it and if it sounds like fun. Most people have a bit of free time to spend on side projects, even if they're silly.
Or if you're going to learn something new. I do side projects when I want to learn websockets or something like that. Even when the project doesn't go anywhere, I got something out of it.