Is Bridal Trial Session Time Deductible as a Cost of Doing Business?

Not directly — your own time isn't deductible as a business expense, since the IRS doesn't allow you to deduct the value of your own labor, but the actual product and supply costs used during a bridal trial session are deductible the same way they would be for any paid appointment. This is a distinction that trips up a lot of service-based businesses: you can't put a dollar value on your own time and deduct it, even for a trial session you don't separately charge for. What you can deduct is...