I have a website, TeensandTaxes.com , to help teenage business owners understand if and when they owe any taxes on their business income.

Taxes can be confusing, so grab a copy of my ebook, Teens and Taxes: A Guide for Parents and Teenagers.  It will clear the confusion for you.

A 42 page ebook with chapters on

• employees
• independent contractors
• household employees
• kiddie tax on investment income
• business income

Read more about the ebook here

Read a sample chapter here

View the Table of Contents here

Available for immediate download for $4.99, or bundle with an audio for $7.99.

Read more HERE

Carol Topp, CPA

Start with a simple spreadsheet

Microsoft Excel or the free Open Office Calculate programs work well for keeping records for  thousands of micro businesses. Business expenses can be categorized in columns to make tax preparation easier. Totaling income by month, by customer, or by product is quickly accomplished. You can get a little more sophisticated and use multiple worksheets for each month that flow into an annual summary sheet. The spreadsheet is a powerful tool because of its simplicity and flexibility.

Personal Money Management Software

Some micro owners find that personal money management software like Quicken can work well for record keeping. Although these programs were not designed for business use, these may already be familiar software from your personal life. They are very intuitive because they look just like a checkbook register and they will generate simple reports showing income and expenses.

But personal finance software cannot create invoices or bill customers, record payroll, record sales tax, or track inventory. For those business-like functions you’ll need accounting software.

Small Business Accounting Software

Accounting software such as Quickbooks works better than personal financial software if you send your customers forms such as invoices, receipts, or statements for progress billing, or if you manage inventory. Accounting software can:

• Print checks, pay bills, track sales & expenses

• Reconcile bank accounts
• Create estimates, invoices & reports
• Track employee time and calculate payroll withholding
• Generate reports
• Download credit card & bank transactions
• Track inventory and set reorder points
• Create business plans, budgets & forecasts

Start with the simplest method you can for keeping your micro business records and graduate to more sophisticated systems as needed. A good CPA can help you set up an easy to use system whether on a spreadsheet or using software.

The important thing to do is to keep good records.

Carol Topp, CPA

In the book 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs, the authors, Nick Tart and Nick Scheidies interviewed Savannah Britt, who runs GirlPez.com, an online fashion magazine. She shares some great advice about managing your time while running a business.

On Time Management and Business Plans:

Savannah Britt is in high school,plays basketball and runs a magazine. She works on her mag on Saturday mornings and keeps a calendar in front of her. She also planned her business: “Basically, I wrote an outline. It was pretty brief, but it covered everything about the magazine: who I want to serve, who it will circulate to, and where I see myself in ten years.”

On learning:

“There is no reason to be hesitant. I know they might be nervous, they might be shy, and they might want to give up after their first try – but becoming an entrepreneur is a learning experience. You are going to use a lot of the things that you learn now as an entrepreneur when you’re an adult. Just try it. If you don’t like it, then you can stop – but at least you will be able to say that you tried. And it’s fun.”

I highly recommend Nick & Nick’s book. You’ll find more great stories of teenagers, like Savannah, who have started their own business. You can learn a lot from them!

Carol Topp, CPA

My friend, Janice Campbell, of Everyday Education shares 5 reasons entrepreneurship should be part of your teenagers education:

Mindset: We live in a society that teaches passivity, rather than active exploration and initiative. … Entrepreneurial training takes this a step farther by teaching students how to act with freedom, integrity, and purpose in their work life.

Flexibility and Preparedness: Entrepreneurial education provides a way for anyone of any age or financial condition to be better prepared to independently generate personal income. Business transitions are a fact of life. Factories close or automate, corporations merge and shift focus. It’s critical to be prepared to observe trends and be ready and able to move into another field or to supplement income with a microbusiness.

Learning:  Teens who choose run a business rather than flip burgers for the summer learn not only the service or product they are selling, but they also learn about business structures, bookkeeping, customer service, marketing, creative problem solving, real-world communication, and much more. Real bookkeeping for a small business is a lot more memorable than exercises from a consumer math textbook. Best of all, the skills and knowledge gained can be applied to many other parts of life.

High-School Transcript: A small business is a great addition to a high-school transcript. … entrepreneurship demonstrates initiative, hard work, creativity, perseverance, and other valuable skills and character traits. It’s likely that you’ll be able to grant credit for many of the business functions (bookkeeping, salesmanship, web design basics, etc.) your student learns as her or she builds a business.

Using the Micro Business for Teens curriculum will earn you 1/2 credit of high school credit and running your business can be another 1/2 to a full credit.

Fun: Finally, entrepreneurship is just plain fun. It empowers individuals– moms, dads, teens, pre-teens– to create something of value and share it with others in a profitable way. A young person who starts a microbusiness gains a lot more than spending money. He or she gains confidence, valuable experience, and a host of new skills that can be used for life.

Janice, you are so right. There are so many things a teenager can learn by starting their own micro business-and earn money while learning!

So, don’t delay, get an idea and get started. Start with reading the blog posts here and then my books will help you launch your own micro business.

Carol Topp, CPA

Here’s an interesting idea for a micro business. Ten year old Alex McDuffie of Ohio raises and sells worms for composting.

Worms make great soil for gardens; it’s called “black gold” because the soil is so rich. Alex sells 10 pounds of worms with a bin, newspaper, and dirt. He leaves his business cards at an a garden store for customer to contact him.

This type of micro business is not very time consuming, but you do have to spend a little time caring for the worms. You probably need a large backyard because compost bins can attract bugs and animals.  They can be a bit smelly too. You don’t want them too near your house.

As with any business, you will need to do some research to learn how to raise and sell your worms. Selling compost worms is a great business for a teenager or even a pre-teen!

My daughter, Emily taught piano for three years while in high school. She had up to 8 students at one time and was turning away more students, as I write about in my book Starting a Micro Business. She charged $8 for a half-hour lessons. That’s about half what other piano teachers charged, but double what she could make working at the mall!

Emily could have benefited from this book, Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business by Marcia Washburn.

Here’s my review of the book,

I read Marcia’s book with interest because my daughter gave piano lessons when she was a teenager and, as a CPA, I advise small business owners in running a successful business. In Talent to Treasure Marcia covers the technical aspects of teaching piano, such as practicing techniques, sight reading, and recitals.

Additionally, she also covers many business aspects including how to find students and how much to charge. She includes a series of questions which I consider to be a business plan. By answering questions such as ‘when will you teach?’ and ‘how will you handle childcare?’ Marcia helps a potential teacher avoid pitfalls and problems. Marcia generously shares her experiences in many areas so the reader can learn from her and launch a successful business teaching piano.

The book is well done, enjoyable to read and full of helpful information. I highly recommend it to anyone wishing to start a business teaching piano.

Marcia shared a digital copy of Talent to Treasure with me, but I received no other payments or commissions for reviewing this book.

If you are considering starting a micro business offering piano lessons (or any music lessons), you’ll find Talent to Treasure: Building a Profitable Music Teaching Business very helpful.

When my son started his teen business—which he eventually sold in a million dollar deal—he had little knowledge about how to structure it and handle the tax side.

It was Carol Topp who helped him learn how to set up his business, keep records, plan for future growth, and put money away for retirement. Starting a Micro Business is thorough and easy to understand.

It should be required reading for all high school entrepreneur and business classes, as well as for young adults thinking about starting their own business.

Chris Santoro
Madeira, Ohio

Chris’s son, Phil, was one of my inspirations to write the Micro Business for Teens book series. While you may never get a million dollar offer for your business like Phil did, you can still call yourself an entrepreneur!

See what Chris is talking about. Order the book Starting a Micro Business today.

Print $9.95

Ebook (immediate download as a pdf) $9.95

Of those polled, 74 percent identified risk (39 percent) and failure (35 percent) as the biggest discouragements from starting their own business, compared to 56 percent who cited lack of money to fund their ideas. The Junior Achievement 2010 Teens and Entrepreneurship Survey was sponsored by Sam’s Club.

Review of 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs by Carol Topp, CPA

Nick Tart & Nick Scheidies did interviews with 50 young entrepreneurs for their new book 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs that will inspire and encourage every teenager who wants to “make more money than your parents.”

The teenagers featured in the book have all been successful, but come across as normal kids. They share their experiences and advice freely. They are not bragging, although most have plenty to brag about! They also don’t intimidate the reader.

Many times a book about young entrepreneurs can make a normal kid feel inadequate or incompetent, but the teenagers featured in 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs come across as genuine, warm and approachable.

They are generous with their advice, sharing wisdom learned from experience such as

“You are going to use a lot of the things that you learn now as an entrepreneur when you’re an adult. Just try it. If you don’t like it, then you can stop – but at least you will be able to say that you tried.”-Savannah Britt

“We want instant results. But nothing is instant. Don’t give up so easily. Some blogs only last one or two weeks before [the writer quits] because the blog’s not making millions of dollars. Come on! You’ve just got to give it time.” -Alex Fraiser Blogussion.com

“I don’t really pay myself. To me, it’s really more of learning experience. It’s more about finding the next step, how to get there, and what it’s going to cost.” -Emil Motycka motyckalawns.com

I am impressed by the common-sense advice these young entrepreneurs share. The book 50 Interviews: Young Entrepreneurs may start off as an inspiration, but it will quickly become a textbook on business success. I highly recommend it and may make it required reading in my micro business classes!

Buy your copy today!

One of the best sources for cheap (or even free if you use of of their stock designs and don’t mind their ad on the back of the card) business cards is Vistaprint.com. They are an on-line printer and can put your name and logo on anything. I’ve used them for my business cards, letterhead, banners and more. I’ve been 100% satisfied with Vistaprint.com

I also found a designer that has some gorgeous designs for business cards. She designed a really cool card for babysitters.

She has an entire teen entrepreneur series of business cards.

Go to the Greek Cookie’s website to see her other  business card designs.