{{B}}Am I Making Any Money?{{/B}}
Correct Most people and most businesses are in business to make a profit. At the
On simplest level, profit means making more money than you spend on. Many
34 confuse profit with income. As a result, they can't grasp it why all their income
35 isn't getting them ahead; why no one wants to invest in their high-sales
36 company; why the bank won't extend to their line of credit. Most people are very
37 good at tracking their income. When someone pays for you, that is income.
38 Income is usually related to production levels, but is not tied to it directly. You
39 may produce more or less than you sell. For instance, if you have already 100
40 widgets in the warehouse when you receive an order for 150, you only have to
41 produce out 50 additional widgets. If you make widgets for skis, you may make
42 20 widgets every month during the summer even though you don't sell any, just
43 so that you have enough in the warehouse when winter arrives. So income is
44 something when you actually get paid, not when you make the product you are
45 going to sell. Total income is just the total of all your payments received during the year.