Starting a Business

[Gerryatrics]

Has anyone here ever formed a company and/or started a business? I've been kicking around some ideas for a while and figured I'd ask here if anyone had any experience. I'm sure the process for forming a company in Washington is quite different than in Texas, but even a general idea of what one could expect would be helpful. Thanks.

[PakiDan]

No matter how much she insists, There is no Streetwalkers Union and you do not have to provide Dental benefits.

[Holt's Cat]

Generally a LLC will be the way to go.

[Holt's Cat]

Here's a couple of useful links for getting started. As always, if it isn't clear and you are considering investing a fair amount of time and/or $, get professional help. But I can tell you that you can save a significant amount in professional fees by doing some things yourself. It's not that difficult to set up a LLC or even a C Corp if initially you will be the only owner. If you and a partner(s) are going into business you probably should consult an attorney. They will indeed charge you out the ass for things that you can do on your own. But the greater the issues you face, the more you will want to have it done right the first time.

When I set mine up, I did it myself. Then again, my wife is my legal counsel.

Differences between legal forms (http://www.nolo.com/resource.cfm/catID/5DE04E60-45BB-4108-8D757E247F35B8AB/111/182/)

Startup Checklist (http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID/BD13C3AA-19E8-4EB3-97A29AE1586860A7/catID/1745D9A3-D50D-4AAD-BFB3ED609A4EE3F5/111/ART/)

[scott]

PM me

[CosmicCowboy]

I have started and sold a couple of businesses and still own/operate my primary business.

You haven't really given enough information to give you any advice on structure.

[PEP]

What type of business are you thinking of starting?

[bendmz]

go to the San Antonio Developement Center there at the corner of S. Flores and Alamo... they will assist you in ALL you need to know....

[Gerryatrics]

Here's a couple of useful links for getting started. As always, if it isn't clear and you are considering investing a fair amount of time and/or $, get professional help. But I can tell you that you can save a significant amount in professional fees by doing some things yourself. It's not that difficult to set up a LLC or even a C Corp if initially you will be the only owner. If you and a partner(s) are going into business you probably should consult an attorney. They will indeed charge you out the ass for things that you can do on your own. But the greater the issues you face, the more you will want to have it done right the first time.

When I set mine up, I did it myself. Then again, my wife is my legal counsel.

Differences between legal forms (http://www.nolo.com/resource.cfm/catID/5DE04E60-45BB-4108-8D757E247F35B8AB/111/182/)

Startup Checklist (http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID/BD13C3AA-19E8-4EB3-97A29AE1586860A7/catID/1745D9A3-D50D-4AAD-BFB3ED609A4EE3F5/111/ART/)

Yeah, after reading up on it, an LLC looked like the way to go. Thought it would be best to hear from people who have been there and done that though. The Washington State LLC application is real simple. http://www.secstate.wa.gov/corps/forms/llc.pdf As far as I can tell all I need for the state is the LLC application and a Master Business application.

[Gerryatrics]

I have started and sold a couple of businesses and still own/operate my primary business.

You haven't really given enough information to give you any advice on structure.

It's not like I have a business plan, funding in place, office location picked out or any of that. I've been kicking around the idea of starting my own company for a while and figured I'd talk to some people to try to judge the viability of doing so. So that's why I'm not laying out a lot of specific information. If I did attempt to start a business I would be the owner and only employee to start out with, which is why an LLC looked like a good idea. If by some miracle the business actually went anywhere I would probably hire a couple of full time employees, but most of the staffing could be provided by temporary staffers/interns or even volunteers.


What type of business are you thinking of starting?

Marketing.


go to the San Antonio Developement Center there at the corner of S. Flores and Alamo... they will assist you in ALL you need to know....

Unfortunately San Antonio is a quite a trip from where I am. Unless they have an expert on Washington State businesses, the information might not be entirely accurate either.


PM me

The streetwalker thing was a joke...

[Nbadan]

...go work for a company that does the same type of work you are planning on doing and see if its something you would be interested in doing first...then form a business plan, a mission statement, and a balance sheet....

[leemajors]

The streetwalker thing was a joke...
he's opening his own business in 08.

[scott]

The streetwalker thing was a joke...

Okay, then don't PM me. Good luck.

[Thunder Dan]

I came up with an idea the other day when I got a gift card to Circuit City and 2 from Best Buy. It would be a online place where people can exchange gift cards they don't want or want to trade. So in my case I want to trade my Circuit City card for a Best Buy card. This online business would act as the intermediary between two people to exchange and would charge a small fee for doing so (like $2-$4). If there is nobody out there looking for a specific card, the business would buy back the card at a percentage like 85-90 cents on a dollar, then trade when someone wants it and charge them the normal fee. I'm sure I would work something out so like the weird gift cards have lesser value than those of like Home Depot or Best Buy and other big companies.

I just thought people could use this because right now I have a $100 to Circuit City and 2 $75 to Best Buy. Right now if I could get a $85 card to Best Buy for my Circuit City card, I would be more than willing to do so and I think others would do the same when they get a card they really have no use for, or want to combine gift money.

Anyone think they would use this? Anyone want to go into business?

[Holt's Cat]

It's not like I have a business plan, funding in place, office location picked out or any of that. I've been kicking around the idea of starting my own company for a while and figured I'd talk to some people to try to judge the viability of doing so. So that's why I'm not laying out a lot of specific information. If I did attempt to start a business I would be the owner and only employee to start out with, which is why an LLC looked like a good idea. If by some miracle the business actually went anywhere I would probably hire a couple of full time employees, but most of the staffing could be provided by temporary staffers/interns or even volunteers.


Marketing

The LLC is probably your best bet. If at some point you'd want to bring in a partner or two that wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish with a LLC.

You will also want to make sure you understand the tax laws and reporting requirements for LLCs in Washington State.

If you think that you would be offering some kind of equity compensation for your initial employees you might think about setting up a S or C corp.

I think it might be worth your while to peruse this book (http://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurs-Guide-Business-Law/dp/0324204930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198857418&sr=8-1). I have a copy of the 2nd edition and it lays out all of the legal issues (HR, IP, etc) you may have to deal with launching a startup. It's pretty good.

Best of luck.

-HC

[Nbadan]

I came up with an idea the other day when I got a gift card to Circuit City and 2 from Best Buy. It would be a online place where people can exchange gift cards they don't want or want to trade. So in my case I want to trade my Circuit City card for a Best Buy card. This online business would act as the intermediary between two people to exchange and would charge a small fee for doing so (like $2-$4). If there is nobody out there looking for a specific card, the business would buy back the card at a percentage like 85-90 cents on a dollar, then trade when someone wants it and charge them the normal fee. I'm sure I would work something out so like the weird gift cards have lesser value than those of like Home Depot or Best Buy and other big companies.

I just thought people could use this because right now I have a $100 to Circuit City and 2 $75 to Best Buy. Right now if I could get a $85 card to Best Buy for my Circuit City card, I would be more than willing to do so and I think others would do the same when they get a card they really have no use for, or want to combine gift money.

Anyone think they would use this? Anyone want to go into business?

There's already places for this, they're called Craigslist and Ebay

[Thunder Dan]

There's already places for this, they're called Craigslist and Ebay
"there's already a place for good food made quickly, it's called McDonalds" people said that to this man



http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/09/ceo_socnet/image/burger-king.jpg

[The sone]

hey now..i think this is a sign...
ive opened my own business (a real store front not some work from home crap)
i want to move
and i just graduated with a marketing degree....hmmmmmm, coincidence?


i think not!

[Whisky Dog]

I came up with an idea the other day when I got a gift card to Circuit City and 2 from Best Buy. It would be a online place where people can exchange gift cards they don't want or want to trade. So in my case I want to trade my Circuit City card for a Best Buy card. This online business would act as the intermediary between two people to exchange and would charge a small fee for doing so (like $2-$4). If there is nobody out there looking for a specific card, the business would buy back the card at a percentage like 85-90 cents on a dollar, then trade when someone wants it and charge them the normal fee. I'm sure I would work something out so like the weird gift cards have lesser value than those of like Home Depot or Best Buy and other big companies.

I just thought people could use this because right now I have a $100 to Circuit City and 2 $75 to Best Buy. Right now if I could get a $85 card to Best Buy for my Circuit City card, I would be more than willing to do so and I think others would do the same when they get a card they really have no use for, or want to combine gift money.

Anyone think they would use this? Anyone want to go into business?

Owning an online business is feasible, but 99% of small businesses that go online fail. That also includes legitimate offline businesses that go online as another dimension of their business. The main reason is that the online world is completely different from offline business. Anyone can go to Yahoo or Homestead and get hosting and put a site up, but 99% can't get any traffic to their site. In order to get traffic to your site you need to do several things, two examples are make sure there is a feasible niche market you can own and build your site as a legitimate business with high content value for both human visitors and SE spiders. The technical aspects are daunting to say the least and many failures are assured, but it's not impossible.

[timvp]

I came up with an idea the other day when I got a gift card to Circuit City and 2 from Best Buy. It would be a online place where people can exchange gift cards they don't want or want to trade. So in my case I want to trade my Circuit City card for a Best Buy card. This online business would act as the intermediary between two people to exchange and would charge a small fee for doing so (like $2-$4). If there is nobody out there looking for a specific card, the business would buy back the card at a percentage like 85-90 cents on a dollar, then trade when someone wants it and charge them the normal fee. I'm sure I would work something out so like the weird gift cards have lesser value than those of like Home Depot or Best Buy and other big companies.

I just thought people could use this because right now I have a $100 to Circuit City and 2 $75 to Best Buy. Right now if I could get a $85 card to Best Buy for my Circuit City card, I would be more than willing to do so and I think others would do the same when they get a card they really have no use for, or want to combine gift money.

Anyone think they would use this? Anyone want to go into business?

http://www.swapagift.com/
http://www.cardavenue.com/
http://www.plasticjungle.com/

[Gerryatrics]

hey now..i think this is a sign...
ive opened my own business (a real store front not some work from home crap)
i want to move
and i just graduated with a marketing degree....hmmmmmm, coincidence?


i think not!


Od1UO9jRC6c

[Gerryatrics]

The LLC is probably your best bet. If at some point you'd want to bring in a partner or two that wouldn't be too difficult to accomplish with a LLC.

You will also want to make sure you understand the tax laws and reporting requirements for LLCs in Washington State.

If you think that you would be offering some kind of equity compensation for your initial employees you might think about setting up a S or C corp.

I think it might be worth your while to peruse this book (http://www.amazon.com/Entrepreneurs-Guide-Business-Law/dp/0324204930/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1198857418&sr=8-1). I have a copy of the 2nd edition and it lays out all of the legal issues (HR, IP, etc) you may have to deal with launching a startup. It's pretty good.

Best of luck.

-HC

Thanks for the info. One of the reasons the LLC option appealed to me is the simplicity of handling taxes. Of course tax issues are never simple, so even if I was the sole employee I'd go to a professional to find out what options there are and what needs to be payed to whom when and where.

I'll make sure to check out that book, looks like it covers a lot of the business issues I don't have a clue about.

[The sone]

so i should move? hmmmm...intriguing.