Finally taking the plunge

[CorsePerVita]

It has been a very long time since I've been on here.

I have finally devised a plan and come up with ideas that I want to set in place. My first go around was not quite what I would call successful and it never took shape. I've gone back to the grind stone and things finally clicked. However... I have some things I would greatly appreciate feedback on. I've finally decided enough is enough and to put action in place of prolonged hesitation.

I have continued my general job at this point and over the past many years finally realized my niche. I took the advice of MJ and things finally clicked. With much support from friends and family I finally broke the news that I will be going self employed.

What I am not so great with, is the legal stuff. As far as actually doing the work and providing a service/product, I feel I'll be able to handle this just fine. However the taxes, legal stuff, yuck. It's never been my strong point.

Is there some books that will explain the legal entity portion of starting a business?
I've read everything from "LLC taxes are high." to "LLC is the way to go" to "S corp is the way to go because this." but heard varying opinions.

I have summarized my concerns and also summarized a few general overview ideas.

Concerns (negative nancy stuff):

- Taxes. I hate doing taxes. Who doesn't? I have a CPA do them who i've done business with for years. I plan on checking with his advice first off and look over my idea. More than likely would end up doing them for me on the business side as well. I am particularly meticulous with my finances and one of my greatest fears of course is starting a business and failing and then having my personal life held responsible. However, risk is risk, if I do not take it I know I'll kick myself in the a$$ for it later.

- Business license - not sure where it's going to fall into since it's a niche, I suppose I need to do some legal digging here.

- LLC or S Corp? Or perhaps there is an entirely different entity I'm NOT aware of to look into? LLC looks neat, but I see a lot of LLCs, I don't want to just hop on the bandwagon with what "everyone says is great" when I don't know if it applies to me.

Now I did a little digging on this and I'm understanding that if I go LLC I'm only responsible for what I put into it personally? Say I start with $500 as an example. Business ends up having issues and goes down the drain by $1200, I personally am responsible for $500? What happens if the business fails?

- What about insurance? Legal liability? If I'm performing a service and product for the auto industry on a customized basis, to what extent am I liable for if worst case something goes wrong? We're all human, sh** happens, people make mistakes. While I do not plan on it happening, let's say something on a customer's side causes a failure and I am blamed for it. What then?



Onto the non-negative nancy stuff...



Ideas:

- Overhead is minimal - however I understand that keeping track of expenses of materials and time is crucial. This is kept track of and reported tax wise, correct? For instance if the business spends $50 on materials, said job is $300 due to time and expenses, that's $250 profit, I report the profit the business makes after expenses? This is correct? I feel providing things in-house and not contracting outside of the business will help keep overhead minimal as I can decrease the cost of things this way.

- Networking is quite important. I've made great rapport with people in the niche for this particular business. I feel it will work well. However, does everyone feel that social networking is important in today's market?

- Goal of marketing is to provide quality over time/quantity. Very much so to provide a superior quality product over something that is a mass quantity product, for niche market customers. I feel professional presentation will of course help this (website, marketing, etc etc) but of course I feel it'll speak for itself. However, initial marketing and business means market penetration in the first place. For those who have jumped into a niche market, what did you feel what a nice edge for you starting out to get the edge in the first place? It is not a saturated market to say, however, there are a few other competitors and a large reason I have chosen to even insert myself in here is because I feel I CAN provide a superior service/product. Any good books on marketing?

Quit willing to hit the books and start reading before I hit the papers and start signing them. I like to have my ducks in a row.

That said... I am quite excited to get this show on the road.

 

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