March 16th, 2010
Six Things to Know About Starting a Business
Starting a new business can be confusing and difficult. Both fortunately and unfortunately there is no right way to do it, but that doesn’t mean that there is no wrong way to do it. There are a few things you should not do when starting a new business. Depending on the type of business you are starting these may not apply to you.
Don’t Incorporate: As long as it is just you, or even you and a few friends, there is not need. Think about incorporating when you are very profitable and ready to go public. Start off as a Sole Proprietor. The truth is you don’t even have to go public when you become a large company like transglobe , UPS has never gone public, but they are incorporated.
Don’t Quit Your Day Job: This is particularly true if you can do most of the work on your new business in your free time. Remember that some big names like Scott Adams, the artist behind the Dilbert Cartoons started drawing those cartoons while he still had his day job.
Don’t Hire Anyone You Don’t Need: If you don’t need a lawyer right this second, don’t hire them. You don’t need an accountant right this second, use a program like Quickbooks . Only bother hiring people when you have to have their services, or when your business is big enough that you can quit, go to work, and still can’t finish it all on your own.
Work From Home: It leads to having a lot of tax breaks. Not as many as you might hope for, but enough that it will help a lot. Remember that your tax breaks are based on how often you are required to work from home. They will be higher breaks if you work from home five days a week than if you work from home one day a week. Make sure you save receipts for rent/mortgage, and for utilities.
Don’t Buy Office Supplies: If you can help it don’t buy office supplies. If you are working from home you shouldn’t need to anyway. Use a pencil you already had laying around. This will save you a lot of money.
Advertise for Free: Put your name everywhere on the internet. Use all social media sites and put your name anywhere you can.
There are some companies that can not be started this way, such as an art foundry, but these are few and far between.
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