| Starting a small business can be a large task if you | | | | proprietor, general partnership and move on to |
| don't know what you doing, so I have an outline you | | | | corporations as soon as they have positive cash flow |
| can follow to get things up and running. | | | | and have validated that the business and business |
| 1. Know your market. | | | | model is viable. |
| This means you don't start a business that isn't needed | | | | Establish what name you want to use for your |
| or their isn't a market for the product or service you | | | | service, if it is anything but your personal name or you |
| are going to provide. You need to do some research | | | | have a partner then you will need to get a fictitious |
| in order to determine if there is a market. | | | | name or dba ( doing business as account with your |
| An example of this would be calling the state and or | | | | county). So you pull out the phone book or go to the |
| city and find out if their are currently people doing the | | | | yellow pages on the web and do a search for the |
| service that you want to do. If their are allot of them | | | | county office. From their they will direct you where |
| you may want to choose something different so that | | | | you need to go to get your name. If it is just going to |
| you don't have allot of competition. | | | | be you and your going to use your personal name |
| Another example would be using the Internet and | | | | then you can call your local city office instead of your |
| phone book to search for related services to make | | | | county office because you wont need to check the |
| sure your not getting into an overcrowded market. | | | | fictitious name registry. |
| The last step in this phase would be to do some polling | | | | Once you have your name in place you will need to |
| to find out if there is an interest in your market that | | | | secure a EIN or tax id if you are going to be a sole |
| you want to establish. This can be done with flyer's or | | | | proprietor and use your name then you can skip this |
| billboards, and using local events you can setup a | | | | step and you can use your social security number as |
| booth and have people put their name down if such a | | | | your tax id. If you are going to form a partnership then |
| thing interests them. | | | | you will need to get a tax id, these are issued from the |
| So you have a target market that isn't over crowded | | | | IRS. Here is a link to them to get your EIN. |
| and now its time to move on to the phase of the | | | | After you have your EIN and the business name, The |
| nasty paperwork that everyone dreads. | | | | next step you will want to do is to go to your local city |
| 2. Personal or fictitious, Partnership or sole proprietor | | | | office or county if your not in a city and apply for a |
| Starting the paperwork is only hard if you don't know | | | | business or home occupation license. This will allow |
| where to look and what to do. I would start off by | | | | you to do business in the area of which you live in. |
| calling my local city and county governments to check | | | | Local taxes will be paid here on the items and services |
| to see what the requirements are for running the | | | | that you sell, usually do quarterly or yearly. |
| particular business from home. This will vary from | | | | After you have your business license you will want to |
| state to state. The basics are usually the same though. | | | | go and setup a bank account to be used for business |
| Is this business going to be just you, or are you going | | | | only. Do not mix your personal account in any way |
| to be partners with someone else. If its just you then | | | | shape or form. This will confuse things and make it |
| you can use your social security number and your | | | | very hard come tax time. To limit you liability use your |
| personal name if you like as your business identity. This | | | | tax id or EIN for the account instead of your social if |
| way is the cheapest way to start a business but also | | | | your not a sole proprietor using the same name as |
| carries the most risk. If you get sued they can come | | | | what is listed on your birth certificate. |
| after your personal assets such as house boat cars | | | | That's the first stages of starting up a business from |
| etc. Most people start off going personal or sole | | | | home. |