I woke up this morning to find that the Fender journal sold last night on Etsy. I was a little excited, but I went through all of my email first. I had to keep the excitement in check. When I got to it, I discovered that I had to register for a business account in Paypal, presumably because the user didn’t actually have a Paypal account but used them to process her payment; which is all fine and well, but I didn’t realize I would have to do that. I went through the process, and it looks like everything is the same – I don’t pay any extra, but if my volume exceeds a certain amount (which I’m sure it won’t) I’ll qualify for a discount on the fees, which come off the top anyway. That sounds like a rebate to me.
The interesting part is that I look like a business now. Now people aren’t paying me, they’re paying DragonGear Books. That says to me that I need to start keeping track of the materials I buy. Paypal will keep track of my transactions for me, and likely will provide some tax forms for me at the end of the year even – but if I start keeping track now, I won’t be at a loss for write-offs when tax time rolls around. Maybe someone with experience has something to say about that. Comments? Leave them!
(On a side note, the travelogue has been added to another seller’s favorites list, but has not been purchased as of yet.)
Rob's Surf Report 
Hey Rob,
Congrats on your sale! That’s a sweet journal. Nice work!
Track your expenses and your sales. Keep your receipts. It’ll be a huge help come tax time.
You’d be amazed at how much you can legally deduct when you turn a hobby into a business. You might be interested in these links here and here.
There’s an excellent book that I have on doing your own bookkeeping as a small biz, but it’s in storage so I can’t get the name to you. If I spot it during the move to new storage space I’ll send it to you.
Congrats again! Have fun building your business!
Thanks! I’ll definitely check out the links, and let me know if you do get the title of that book. I’ve already gone back through my receipts (because I do keep everything in PDF format) and copied out stuff that I bought this year in anticipation of making books . . . paper, glue, board, needles, a Japanese screw punch, etc. Not sure if books about bookbinding count, so I’m going to wait until I’m sure, and I’ve started a folder for business documents. Hopefully that constitutes a decent start.
You only need to worry about taxes and such if the sales exceed a certain dollar amount. I can help you with this when the time comes. In the meantime, set up a spreadsheet to track your costs for materials, time (to make the book), and shipping. Save all of your receipts – keep them in a separate file and when you make purchases, make sure there are no personal items on the receipt. That will help come tax time.
Thank you. I’ll definitely start a spreadsheet; if there’s one thing I’m sure of, it’s that I can rock a spreadsheet.
Oh, and congrats on your first sale!