So when you started your blog, podcast, streaming, or video channel you had the dream of becoming wildly successful and making a lot of money. You've built that audience, you have subscribers sign up on Patreon, and you get your first sponsorship check. You are officially now a business. So where are you going to put that money? How are you going to keep track of it once you start earning enough money that you have to pay taxes on your revenue? Are you going to put it in your personal bank account? Are you going to give your partners access to your personal bank account? No way, right?
There are many reasons to keep your business revenue in a business bank account:
- Keep track of your business sales/expenses
- Have a place to direct deposit funds from Affiliate Marketing partners or sponsors who pay via direct deposit
- Allow your partners access to deposit and make purchases
- Storing business revenue in a personal bank account could lead to legal issues in the future
Step 1 - Officially Start Your Business
Not a lawyer, but you knew that. These instructions are for US-based people, so if you're not in the US you'll need to check around and find the local rules for your country. Before you can open a bank account, you need to register your business with the IRS. There are plenty of good resources out there to check out, so we're just going to refer those out.
If you're a sole proprietor, the rules are different and you can typically use your social security number to register for your bank account.
Step 2 - Open Your Bank Account
Once you have some tax information set up, you can open a bank account and move your money. We highly recommend using the online banking platform, Novo, powered by Middlesex Federal Savings F.A. Novo offers small business checking with no fees, no minimum deposit, a free debit card with no ATM fees, and a slick mobile app.
Novo's online banking system includes integrations with some of the more popular banking integrations including Stripe, Square, Shopify, Quickbooks, and many more. We use Stripe for our business transactions and we're very impressed with how easy it is to transfer money from Stripe back to our bank account. The no fees for start-ups like ours are great, because that is more money back in our pockets versus some of the banking platforms that could charge $10-20 a month for starter business banking accounts!
It's very simple to sign up and with no minimum to start your account, there's no reason not to get started!
Note: We are affiliate partners with Novo. If you click on a link, open an account, and fund your account we receive a small commission that goes a long way to helping Stadium Scene succeed in promoting the top up and coming sports publications. Thank you for your continued support.
