Читать книгу Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business - Dan Furman - Страница 11

3

Starting And Naming Your Business

The first thing I’m going to tell you is to go start your home-based business. Really — if you don’t go out and actually start a business, nothing further will happen. If you have already started a business, read this part anyway, as it’ll probably be helpful.

What Type of Business to Start?

For the purposes of this book, I am going to assume you will be starting a simple sole-proprietor business.

There are several different business structures, such as corporations, LLCs, and partnerships, but your typical small, home-based business will likely start as a sole proprietorship (or DBA, which means “Doing Business As”).

You can start a corporation or LLC if you want to, but for most people, it’s a daunting thing to do, and usually a roadblock to progress. Although I myself am now incorporated, I did not do so until 2004, several years into my current business. I know if I had tried to form a corporation right out of the gate, I likely never would have done it. There are boring legalities to investigate, forms to complete, searches for similar names, lawyers to hire, etc. Compare this to starting a sole proprietorship: one quick form to fill out, a few bucks to pay, and I was done. Elapsed time: 15 minutes.

The choice was pretty easy for me. And when the time did come to incorporate, my wife volunteered to do it, much to my relief. (All I had to do was sign what she put in front of me, which I always immediately do. She could put a document that ruins my life in front of me, and I’ll happily sign it.)

So if forming a corporation seems daunting to you, forget about it for now and just start a sole proprietorship. You can worry about incorporating later when you actually make money. If you are concerned about the liability protection a corporation gives, you can always ask a lawyer for advice.

Some of you may want to start a partnership — which is the same as a DBA except there are two or more people — but I do not recommend that. (Read more on partnerships in Chapter 4.)

Avoid Meaningless Roadblocks

I’m also going to advise you to avoid meaningless roadblocks and not get caught up in things that don’t really matter. Let me illustrate this point with a brief story. I have a friend who recently wanted some advice about starting a business. She wanted to actually run two companies that were intertwined, with one being a nonprofit entity donating money to a particular cause.

She was concerned about how to set this all up: What are the rules regarding a nonprofit? How would it be structured? How should she put the donation aspect in her marketing? How would she determine which entity would get the lion’s share of the money? How much should she donate?

Essentially, my one comment was: “Why don’t you go make some money first, then worry about how to divvy it up?”

Really, it was that simple. Why worry about how you are going to donate the profits before you even make one sale? She hadn’t even made a prototype of her product yet, and she was worrying about how to donate the nonexistent profits.

I tell this story not to make my friend feel bad, but to illustrate something that is very common with people who are starting a business. I did the same thing years ago in my first business. I was worried about how much commission I was going to pay my salespeople and how I would word a non-compete agreement. This was before I made a single sale on my own — I didn’t have any sales to pay commission on, yet I was worried about how much I was going to pay my future sales force. This was a roadblock that served no logical purpose. Don’t worry about the money until you actually make some. Paying a lawyer to form a corporation is a bridge you can (and perhaps should) cross later on, but at the beginning, before you’ve made a single dollar, it’s a meaningless worry.

So go start your business. It’s very easy to do. Pick a name. Go to your local county building (or in Canada, your CRA office) with some ID, fill out a simple form, and pay the fee. That’s all you need to do to get started. This can also be done easily online.

The business you start won’t change your life at all unless you do something with it. In other words, you can start it, and if you never do anything with it, well, so be it. Nobody will call you, and no men in dark suits will come to your house and make you do push-ups or anything like that. So you have nothing to lose by starting it.

I want you to start it because in order to succeed, you actually have to do something. Starting your business is that little step that puts you ahead of 99 percent of people who are all talk and no action.

Select a Business Name

Naming a business is one of those psychological roadblocks that prevents many people from starting in the first place. They hem and haw trying to find the perfect name. They ask family and friends. They design endless logos on the computer. They go over all kinds of names in their heads … “Bill’s bug killing”? No … “Bill the bugman”? No … “Buggy Bill blasts the belligerent black bugs back into the big blue — ” No …

If you can’t come up with anything, use your initials or your name. If your name is John Smith, call it JS Enterprises, or Smith Technology, or JS Tech, or something similar. And don’t worry if someone else in the country has the same business name — chances are, they do (how many Tony’s Pizzas do you think there are?). It’s likely only your local area that you have to worry about, and the people who help you register your business will let you know if your name is okay.

What I’m trying to stress to you is do not let the name stand in your way. Since starting a business is so easy and inexpensive, if you come up with a better name later, you can easily go file that one. For now, get started.

Try not to let your business name pigeonhole you. That’s why a nice generic name is best. Naming your business Bill’s Slug Removal pretty much limits you to removing slugs. If someone wants to have bees or ants removed, they likely won’t call you, even if you do remove bees and ants.

Bill’s Pest Services is a much better name. Then, be it slugs, bees, or even stink-bugs, you’re covered.

Also, don’t worry too much about an Internet domain name for your business. If you can get www.billspestservices.com, great (just go to register.com or godaddy.com to check and buy domain names). But if your preferred name is already taken, other superb Internet names are always available. You just have to get creative. For example, if you are starting a pest service in Florida, how about www.ikillfloridabugs.com? Or www.floridabugkiller.com? When it comes to an online name, the more clever it is, the better. Creative, witty, easy-to-remember names like this are always available, and can be had dirt cheap. Just use your imagination.

The important thing is to pick a name and start your business.

Open a Business Bank Account

On your way home from starting the business, go open a checking account for it. This is another vital step, both for tax reasons and for psychological reasons. Having a bank account for your business makes it seem like you truly are in business.

Again, nothing has to happen with this account. If you don’t do any business, your account can just sit there, but having business checks with your company name on them is very uplifting in a motivational sense, and I feel it’s a very important step.

Once you get the business started, the bank account opened, and an Internet domain name secured, you are ready to go. Scared? Don’t be. While it’s true that it can be a very trying ride at times, trust me when I tell you there is nothing like owning your own home-based business. It’s the best feeling in the world.

Which you’ll soon know firsthand.