Business Set Up

Business Setup

The absolute hardest part of this whole thing is setting up your business
right. I cannot over emphasize the importance of doing it right. Don’t worry
that you don’t know what to do. Just follow this guide and you will have the
bases covered. I said it before and I will say it again, nothing worthwhile is
easy. So you have to do a little legwork. Being legitimate says volumes
about yourself and to your customers. You need to be legal when you’re
doing your taxes so you can benefit from all the tax benefits. For example,
you can write off the room in which you use as an office. If you have a
workshop that makes two rooms you can write off. For example, say you
have a 6-room house with a mortgage of $1200. If you use two rooms you’
re entitled to write off $400 towards your taxes. But you have to be legal;
see where I am going here?

1.        Go to your local township or city and get a business license. Tell
them you want a reseller’s license or you can characterize yourself as a
manufacture if you feel that applies. In almost every state you are required
to have a resale certificate. Some states call it Sales and Use Tax
certificate or Tax ID (see item #3) Business licenses are very cheap. Go
make 20 copies of the license.

2.        Go to the bank and open a commercial checking account. Again
this is easy, deposit some working capital.

3.        Go online and get yourself a Sales Tax ID Number. This allows you
to buy your materials tax-free. It also gives you the authority to charge
sales tax if your customer lives in the same state as you. . Most states are
getting it together and have their own web sites. Usually its www.yourstate.
com , be sure to insert your state name after the three www (this is not a
link)

4.        If you’re going to write letters, use Microsoft Word to create a simple
letterhead. You don’t have to pay for expensive stationary. If you do most
of your dealings online, you probably won’t use it much.

5.        Go to Ebay and sign up as a new user if you have not done so
already. Register as a seller.

6.        Go to www.paypal.com and sign up for a new account. (standard
plan) This is free and gives you some great flexibility. (I highly recommend
this) Make sure you use the same user id as Ebay. This greatly simplifies
things. Paypal allows you to accept credit cards without going through the
hassle of opening a merchant account. Paypal charges a small fee for
each transaction, believe me it’s worth it and very worthwhile.

7.        Register with Yahoo as a seller.

8.        Get a separate folder and write down all your passwords and user id’
s to separate websites you will join and use. Having them all in one
notebook will help you keep organized as well keep things secure.

9.        You don’t need to incorporate your business unless you want to.
You can simply operate as a DBA (doing business as) and use your social
security number as your ID number. If you incorporate you should get a
Federal ID tax number. All this information is available online.

That’s all there is too it. If you’re a mover and a shaker you could do it all
in one day. Now when you make contacts you have what you need to
legitimize yourself. Don’t let the paperwork stop you. Make sure you check
you’re states requirements, some are different.

Tax Time

If you’re like me, you don’t love tax time. There are some great services
out there to help with your tax workload. I really love using Turbo-Tax
Home and Business for my taxes. However there is another service out
there that can be an invaluable service to your small business. The
company is called the tax club and you can find them at www.thetaxclub.
com. Their phone number is 877-829-2582. They are a small business
that specializes in taxes for new and small businesses. They work with you
one on one. They offer free evaluations to determine the correct
strategies and deductions for you.
They are a serious professional service, they charge you a monthly fee to
manage the tax portion of your business.
If you can afford to start your business off right away by using a
professional service, your mind will be relieved of one less headache thus
allowing you to concentrate on products and ideas.

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