...as a budding entrepreneur.
1) Think carefully before registering a domain name for your company with more characters than a Hollywood award show. "www." and ",com" are 8 characters on letterhead, business cards, brochures, etc. before you even add on "repugnantreprobaterecyclers" or "pistolpetespizzaparlorandbordello".
Now, your humble scribe, must decide whether to forge boldly on with a most excellently spelled out but exceedingly long domain name or admit slightly embarrassing defeat and find a somewhat abbreviated but still respectable and stunningly brilliant moniker to represent the internet presence for my budding business.
2) Once you register your business with the state, you will be inundated with phone calls. Not from customers mind you, but telemarketers. Until I finally started blocking certain numbers, I was getting 10 calls a day from DirectTV alone trying to sell me satellite packages for my business.
Now, I know I'm new to this whole self employment/small business concept thing, and I don't want to tell big companies how to do their thing. HOWEVER, Annoying someone with repeated auto dialed phone calls who has only been in business for a few days and has only a very small likelihood of being in a position to have made any money yet at said business is not likely to endear said business owner to the product or service you are trying to telemarket.
3) Some people who say they are happy to help aren't. Some people who tell you you're crazy, though 100% right, are your best clients.
4) If you thought the tax code was confusing itemizing deductions on a 1040 for a W-2 wage slave, you have NO idea what confusing is. Google "calculating self employment tax" just for giggles and grins. Go on. I dare you.
5) There is no such thing as regular work hours and sick days are a thing of the past. Even when you are curled up in a ball under the covers having an anxiety attack, you are thinking about business (because it's what triggered the anxiety in the first place).
6) Customers and clients do not simply fall out of the sky or appear out of thin air. You must go stalk them, convince them that you are the best solution for their product and/or service needs and succeed in prying their hard earned money from their cold dead hands.
And this is why I never want to be a business owner. God bless those of you with the fortitude to do it, because it is not in my nature.
ReplyDeleteYou're going to rock this thing, Daddy Hawk.
GunDiva, thanks. I sure hope I rock this venture. I know what I'm doing, but selling myself is a new concept for me.
DeleteYou have gone only where fools and Angels will tread... I tried business once, and being a 1 man operation and with a dad that was an CPA and after two years went back into nursing, way fewer headaches and panic attacks. My prayers and gestures of good fortune and luck flow your way.
ReplyDeleteCederq, after two layoffs in two years, I think I'll take my chances with the headaches and anxiety for a while.
DeleteBe patient with yourself, yes, there is a learning curve (you knew that going into this, I'm sure). Keep obsessive-compulsively anal records, and hire a tax person (it's a business expensive). It's what they do.
ReplyDeleteSet up a schedule and STICK to it...schedule 'work time', and then "home time". Balance and your family are important too. Besides, your kiddo is a cutie. If something occurs to you during sometime other than work time, write it down, and check into it during work time. The writing it down will help relive the anxiety, as will remembering why you started down this path to begin with.
Hopefully you sat down and wrote up a great business plan...if not do so right NOW. Get books from the library on how to write business plans, and then go talk with your favorite banker person. And a lawyer, you do not want to be sued and lose everything...so get incorporated or what ever would cover you in TX from losing the house if this entire idea crashes and burns. Once the worst case scenarios are covered, you can concentrate on getting on with the business.
You can do this! You CAN do this! YOU CAN DO THIS!!
:)
Suz, thanks for the suggestions.
DeleteYes, I knew there was going to be a learning curve, and I am very anal about records. I have already talked with one accountant who has not impressed me yet. I've got to reach out to another accountant who was recommended to me. We shall see if they give me warm fuzzies.
I understand about setting and sticking to a schedule. My attempts to follow that schedule have been shot to hell by circumstances which has contributed to my frustration and anxiety. As for writing ideas down after hours, that is the reason I carry a spiral notebook and/or my cell phone pretty much everywhere I go.
I've got the lawyer side covered, and I've registered as an LLC which gives me the same protection as a corporation in Texas. That and business insurance will give me plenty of backstop for what I'm doing.