Episode 20: Being Prepared for Major Business Expenses

This is episode 20 out of 31 in the Courier MBA series, where MBA stands for Mastering Business Attitude. This is a weekly podcast but we are kicking of with this 31 day series.

There are always surpises that happen when it comes to money. But too often independent contractors in on demand delivery for Grubhub, Postmates, Uber Eats, Doordash, Caviar or any others are surprised by things we shouldn't be surprised by. Here's the reality when driving your car to earn money:

You will owe taxes on the money you earned

You will wear your car out by driving.

We talk about taking steps to be prepared. Ultimately, we recommend that you NOT treat the money deposited by delivery companies as your income. You treat it as a business does their revenue. Your PROFIT is your income. It's the money that's left after expenses that is your income.

Quit spending money as soon as it comes in
Get away from instant pay
Save money for taxes

The big one when it comes to preparing for vehicle costs.
Calculate cost per mile on your car and set that money aside very week based on how many miles you drove. Then as you have vehicle costs (gas, maintenance, insurance, etc) take that money out of your vehicle fund.

Take control of your money, don't let it control you. This practices helps you be realistic about what you are really earning, as there's less money left over when you do this. Make decisions based on that reality that you're not making as much as it appears.

Some episodes that might help further:

Episode 6: Understand your financial requirements
Episode 7: Develop an exit strategy
Episode 16: Reduce your miles driven per dollars earned
Episode 17: Understand Profit and Loss
Episode 18: Understand your actual expenses

For a complete list of episodes past and future in the series, you can go here.