I graduated from university in 2001 with a business degree but somehow managed to avoid learning anything. I scammed out of taking calculus altogether and couldn’t draw up a balance sheet if my life depended on it. Come to think of it, I’ve forgotten pretty much everything I learned in school except maybe how to mix some lethal cocktails and how to sleep in for an obscene amount of time.
I might not have absorbed much useful information in my years at uni but I did learn a bit about revenue and expenses. Based on this alone I can see that website publishing is a great business to be in.
My operating expenses consist of hosting and domain registration. I suppose I could factor in my laptop cost and yearly depreciation and all that complicated stuff but let’s just assume I’d have a laptop whether or not I was running a business and conveniently forget about it. I have, in the past, paid for links but let’s forget that too so I can stick to the minimum cost of keeping my websites running for a year:
- Domains - At the moment I have 15 which cost $10 per year for a total of $150.
- Hosting - I host all of my sites with Dreamhost which is about $150 a year.
- Internet - At the moment I pay £5 per month but when I start travelling I’ll be relying on free wiFi.
So my total yearly costs come in at around $300. My hosting is paid up until mid 2009 and most of my domain names are locked in until 2010 so I’ve got no operating expenses to worry about for awhile which is pretty sweet. Even when the time comes to pay the bills again, they’re not really that much when compared to the revenue this gig brings in. Actually, at the rate I’ve been going lately I’d able to cover my yearly operating expenses after one week.
If the internet collapsed tomorrow I would only be out of pocket a few hundred bucks but the earning potential is virtually unlimited. I don’t need a degree to know that publishing websites is a good business to be in!
Ah, the Inter-Webs. Who’da thought the future was so cool, huh?
I don’t know which tax regime you fall under, in fact I don’t know which tax regime I fall under either, but you might want to find some more expenses for the tax man to deduct – aren’t your travel expenses due to your research of Asian locations for your website empire?
Oh ya… tax. That’s something I’m looking into now and have to get sorted out very soon. No idea how it all works but I would imagine I can claim back anything I’ve bought to do with website building and might even be able to scam back travel expenses since my sites are travel related? No idea. I’ll be sorting this all out soon and will give a detailed report on what I find out.
it can really pay off to find someone who can help you interpret all of the tax issues without charging you an arm and a leg. At least here in the states there are a LOT of murky areas in the tax regs that can set your head spinning.
That is a real advantage to all this web business stuff – you really have no overhead whatsoever, so yo can really focus on driving the revenue without a whole lot of cash tied up in the business.
Got to wonder why more people wanting to start their own business don’t go this route, except maybe for the huge learning curve.
Ohhh yeah, just wanted to emphasize the HUGE learning curve to learning all this website design /coding stuff. Man, somedays it is hard not to get discouraged.
I hear ya about the learning curve Steve… in fact you’ve just given me an idea for a post! I think I will pay for some tax advice… things get even more complicated for me because I’m from Canada but haven’t lived there for seven years… no idea what that means to the Canuck government.
Its a great buis to be in if you can get past the earning nothing in the begining for many hours !
That’s why it’s so important to pick a passion!! The early days are long and rewardless so writing about something you love will make it a lot less painless and maybe even enjoyable!