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1005
Joined
10/18/2016
Location
Southern, CA
US
I was wondering if there were any of you Vital guys out there who have started up their own business in the recent few years that could give some of us that are entertaining the idea of starting up our own a little rundown on the Pros/Cons of owning your own business or company, as well as any other tips or pointers of the whole startup process. I've been putting a lot of thought towards an idea of mine lately, but am completely ignorant to the whole startup process.
If any of you have any pointers that might help I would greatly appreciate it!
If any of you have any pointers that might help I would greatly appreciate it!
Con's: You're going to work a shitload more than you ever thought.
Tip's: Work harder than you ever have before.
Are you planning on starting a retail, service or web based business? Will you have employees? Building or storefront? Equipment required to start up? S-Corp, LLP or LLC?
Pro's. It's yours. Use it to your advantage. Hard work pays off.
Cons. It's yours. You may find out that you don't actually own it, it owns you. It can consume you and limit what else you can do.
Don't be mad you've worked for someone else your entire life?
The Shop
The one general piece of advice that I would give is to get in touch with your local SCORE group (https://www.score.org/). I have had some tremendous interaction with some of their volunteers over the years and still maintain contact with some of the folks I met with when I originally started my own business.
If you haven't owned or high-level managed a business before, it's amazing the things you don't know that you don't know......
You will learn a lot of it the hard way, but the SCORE folks can also be useful in giving you some heads up about an awful lot too.
The idea, basically, is to open a 3D/4D ultrasound studio. I've researched the cost of the machines, the prices for local rental spaces, the cost of utilities, and the overhead on product and various other items... I'm just at a loss as to where I should be looking next for information on the differences between LLP or LLC, and how to go about submitting for business licenses.
I myself believe a good relationship with a lawyer, insurance guy and accountant are important parts of the business puzzle.
What an asshat, go back to stroking your little ego junior before the elders of MotoDrive come in and give you a good old fashioned thumping.
There are forms to fill out at first for changing the tax structure , otherwise initially an llc is just a sole proprietorship tax wise.
Your line of work is Chinese to me. Just think about writing every expense you can think of off on Taxes. Don't get in trouble with it. Good luck!
The only people willing to work 80 hours a week so they don't have to work 40 hours a week!
TM
just some good ideas to ponder.
Pit Row
They will encourage you to write a business plan and will help and guide you along the way. This will help you to determine your entity and if the business is feasible. WV has sole proprietor LLC's so in regards to filing a sole proprietor LLC it is extremely easy to do and does not require a lawyer, an accountant or anyone that is going to charge you $100's in fees. I did a sole proprietor LLC last year, online and it took 10 minutes. It was linked to the IRS as well and was able to get an FEIN, which took another 5 minutes. It also had a form for articles of incorporation which pertained to the entity that was an easy form to file for your records. I was able to get my business license number and FEIN in 15 minutes and go to the bank and open a checking account in the same day, damn near the same hour. This used to take about 10 days to get you numbers back before the use of internet for filing. So easy. The cost was $125 to start the LLC and I just renewed it today for $25 for this year.
If you go through the SBDC, they will help you to keep you from doing any mistakes. If you was doing a partnership LLC, or a corporation, I would use a lawyer to write up the articles of incorporation and partnership agreement but I would not use them to license the business. Twice I have used a lawyer to license and twice I got screwed when they messed it up. Once for $800 on a bad filing of Workers Comp and again around $1000 when they screwed up my unemployment office filings. As far as the State of WV goes, it would be hard to mess it up doing it online yourself, especially with SBDC assistance. A lawyer would file it online the exact same way and convince you that they need $350 to do it and $600 plus for the articles, even if it was not a partnership.
The Medi-Cal people kept telling her that she had to go through Covered California. The Covered California people kept telling her that despite the fact that they had a link on their website to renew your Medi-Cal account she had to renew through the local Medi-Cal office.
She finally was able to get someone to explain to her that the two agency's computer systems weren't connected together and regardless of the fact that she was sent the notice to renew through Covered California it was impossible to do so.
Here is a link for the California SBDC where you can make an appointment and meet with a representative that will give you assistance. http://californiasbdc.org/
Here is a link to the business registration page of the Secretary of State for California where you will do the actual busniness registration. It looks similar to the one in WV that I explained above.
http://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs
Be prepared for the hassles.
Avoid debt, it will kill you in a slowdown. The money is not rolling in but the payment is still due.
Be prepared to spend lots of time doing stuff that is required of you but not in the production loop. This is the stuff that will make late for dinner almost every night for some time. I hope you have an understanding wife.
Did I mention avoiding debt.
It sounds like you have partners. The fewer the better. I was lucky with mine. Make sure you know about their own financial condition. How is their family situation? If even one of them are deep in debt or constantly having marital issues then seriously rethink the situation. You will essentially be married to your partners. Just because they are fun to hang with does not mean they will be a good business partner.
Partners
It's a lot to shoulder but we're digging out.
Also, heed the warnings of partnerships. You'll lose good friends on Facebook...And in real life. Unless you're battle hardened Marines you'll likely dislike each other tremendously when things get hard....And believe me they will.
Other than that, good luck! Life's too short for missed opportunities and shoulda, coulda, woulda.
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