Top 25 Success Secrets – Record Keeping

Posted by Steven Wagenheim on September 09, 2010 in General

In the last installment of 25 Success Secrets, I went over product creation, which, for, has made a huge difference in my success level after starting out as an affiliate marketer. In this installment, we’re up to success secret number 21, which might come as a bit of a surprise and seem a little odd to many. Trust me, you don’t do this one thing and you not only run the risk of not being as successful as you could be but literally run the risk of putting yourself into bankruptcy or worse…jail. I’m talking about record keeping.

Okay, so what’s the big deal? Why do we have to keep records? As long as we’re earning money and earning more than we’re spending and able to keep a roof over our head and food on the table, isn’t that all that matters? Well, ultimately, in the grand scheme of things…yes. But unfortunately, the rest of the world isn’t going to agree with you when it comes to tax time.

Now granted, the tax laws are going to be vastly different depending on the country where you live. And I am quite sure that there are even some countries out there that don’t have any tax laws at all. But if you live in the US or one of the other hundreds of countries that DO tax their citizens, you might want to think twice about not keeping records.

And if you’re thinking that just because you don’t work for an employer that nobody is going to know what you earn anyway, think again. Even PayPal, which never used to report earnings to the IRS, is going to start doing this very soon. So, if you make a good portion of your income from PayPal, like I do, if you haven’t been keeping accurate records, you better start.

The consequences of not doing so could be dire. For example, if for whatever reason the IRS decides to audit you and they find that you haven’t declared all your income, not only will you owe them the taxes you didn’t pay them, you will also owe them the interest on those taxes. Depending on how much income and how outstanding the taxes are, the interest could literally bankrupt some people.

Okay, so what’s the answer? What if you’ve never kept records before and have no idea how to do this? What if you don’t know what’s taxable and what you can write off? The answer is simple.

Go talk to a professional like H&R Block. There are people in this world who do this stuff for a living. You don’t have to brave the jungle alone. And if you’re thinking you can’t afford to go to H&R Block, think again.

You can’t afford not to.

And for simple record keeping, all you need is something like Quicken or Quick Books. Heck, I just use an Excel spreadsheet to add up all my income and expenses. It’s not hard.

Don’t risk your business because you either don’t know or don’t want to pay your taxes.

It’s just not worth it.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

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