A lot of you keep on talking about wanting to start a business, or launch this great new product…
What are you waiting for? What will change by tomorrow if you wait?
Unthink Now!
Below is what I hope a working checklist on getting yourself ready for business Keep in mind, I'm only talking about setting yourself up to do business:
1. Get your Employer Identification number (EIN). – online –
An EIN is like a social security number representing an entity as a federal tax number. Every business has its own EIN for government (IRS) tracking purposes. Unless you are forming an LLC or plan on having employees you don’t need one by law in most states.
Still, get one, is cheap or free in some states if you go through the IRS site directly, by getting one you get to do everything under this EIN and not your personal information.
2. Get your business license. – online / person –
This varies from city to city, and some don’t require one but ask anyway. You can use your newly issued EIN to register and like most new business forms this one is easy to complete as well.
This forms requires basic forecasts of your business for the year… no big deal, just do your best when completing this forms.
3. Complete a Business/Personal Property tax form.
This is not always required but most cases should call for one. If you do start with business assets such as equipment or other large tag items that will be “owned” by the business you should be prepared to fill this info. Businesses are taxed on personal property, just like individuals.
Depending on the type of business you might need further permits such as a sellers permit (ask your local office)
4. Get a basic business bank account.
You absolutely need this, if you are going to be running transactions off mobile card readers or conducting business constantly and especially if you have followed items 1 – 3 you need a bank account. Trust me, not having one can get tricky for you and the IRS. You need to keep everything related to the business separate from your personal finances, remember you ae two identities now when it comes to the IRS, your household gets reviewed separate from the business. Avoid getting in trouble and get one, besides this is easy and cheap often times only needing the EIN, a description of the type of business you are about to conduct and a minimal deposit fee (the same as personal accounts) but for now remember to not get suckered into a fancy bank account and only get the bare bones as in a savings account and business depository.
If you are having an online web store you no longer need to pay for processing fees or merchant accounts or machines for the code, use sites like Stripe.com for processing your site’s shopping cart.
5. Set up an accounting spreadsheet.
Create a new spreadsheet or go to Entrepreneur.com and download basic financial tracking forms suitable for most startup or part time businesses, modify this to match your expenses and possible revenues and use this to keep track of things for now.
Don’t go on buying fancy software that you don’t know if you’ll need yet.. stick to what’s basic and cost effective.
6. Move on to making money.
Ok, now go agonize on the branding, the name and marketing efforts (depending on your business)
Get a domain name once you have the name chosen.
Hint: For online stores is critical to have social media accounts to whatever name you pick cross check the web through this social accounts to see what name variations are most widely available so that your domain, name and social presence matches (as much as possible)
Go get set up wherever you need to be, or talk to landlords and merchants who will provide your inventory, find out about their credit lending (often available for large established companies) but you never know who works with who for what. ALWAYS ASK.
You’re now an entrepreneur, getting the ball rolling so just don’t let the momentum outpace you and keep at it.
random quote I love:
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UNTHINK
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