Two unrelated businesses as one business?

[Sapple]

Hi,

I'm a personal chef and an artist/designer. I make a decent living as a personal chef and it has very little overhead and very few deductions. The art/design has more overhead and also the possibility of many deductions - studio space in my home, buying tools, traveling for shows, etc. I'm making some money as an artist and am confident I'll be selling more in the future (trust me, I know the odds). But for now, the cooking is bringing in the money and the artist/design is in the red, breaking even at best. I want to get a seller's permit for the art, sell to larger stores, start declaring that income, etc. Is there any reason that I can't have these two businesses as one? Primarily for the initial purpose of deductions from the art/design basically being deducted from the personal chef income. Any thoughts or questions? Thank you!!

[Steve B]

I can't think of any reasons why you can't have two unrelated business pursuits. I've had a few different things going at the same time for the last several years. In my case, I usually set them up as different companies, but the effect on my personal income is the same. You would probably want to set them up as different companies in case one of them incurrs a liability that it can't afford to cover. This way you could protect the assets of the other company.

[huggytree]

im not sure if there is any advantage since YOU pay the tax on both of them at the end of the year....both business taxes go through YOU....so they are merged already in a way.

your question is one for an accountant....not a business blog.....its a black and white issue....either there's an advantage or there's not and the accountant can quickly tell you.

good luck!

[vangogh]

I think you can connect the businesses as far as taxes are concerned, though like huggy said it's mainly a question for accounts. We do have some here so maybe one will notice this thread. If you operate both as a sole proprietor it shouldn't make any difference, but there's probably some benefit to incorporating in some way.

From a business perspective I would offer both services under one business. Keep them separate as far as customers and clients are concerned. In a sense both are related as cooking is an art after all, but customers will more likely look at a combined business offering unrelated services and questioning how good you can be at one if you're doing the other. Also you probably wouldn't market the two businesses in exactly the same way or in the same places so it'll likely be easier to treat them as separate.

Now that doesn't mean they can't both operate under one umbrella company. And you don't have to hide that both businesses are you. It's more about thinking how customers will view things. Will the customers for one business be the same customers for the other business? Perhaps some, but for most probably not. Since they aren't the same you'd want to market to each group of customers differently and offering both services as the same business (under the same business name) waters down the message you're communicating.