Keep things separate to run a better business - Finance - column - Tutorial

Home Office Computing, March, 1992 by Linda Stern

Opening a business savings account can be an inexpensive way for a small business to deposit checks made payable to a company name without going the more expensive and complicated business checking route. I did just that when I started selling a computer disk outside of my writing business. The disk doesn't sell enough to justify yet another checking account; by using a savings account I can easily deposit the checks and even let them accumulate for a while and earn a few pennies of interest.

The truth is, in a small Schedule C business, your personal and professional finances are never totally separate. You are always free to pull money from the business and put money in. There are always trips to the post office where you buy stamps for Christmas cards for friends and clients.

But it's worth making some effort to draw the line, in your head and on disk and paper. It will make business planning and tax filing a lot easier for you. And we'll all be a lot more comfortable.

Contributing editor LINDA STERN stays on top of financial and government-related topics from her home in the suburbs of Washington, D.C.