I’ll get to the point first then type the 2 paragraphs of bullshit so you dont have to read it if you dont want to…
I am going to be starting my own business next spring. Its going to be a landscaping/plowing business. I am going to be working for a landscaping company this summer to get the idea of how things are run, from both the business end and the management end. I am not going to have any employees right away, it will just be me (and maybe one of my friends here and there for a couple hours who I will pay “under the table”). So would it be best for me to go register my business and get a DBA and get all of my required permits and bank accounts under the DBA? or should I start off with the an Inc or LLC right away (presumably saving me some headaches down the road)? Also, should I be looking more towards a business loan or one of those credit cards that are geared towards people starting a business? I plan on saving as much as possible and using most of my own money, but I can’t imagine thats gonna cover everything. I also plan on going to ECC in the fall for a couple classes on business to get things straight as well.
Now for the BS for those of you who care. I started working for an EMS Service in January full time. I looked into it and did a lot of research because going there would mean leaving school for me. I decided this was really something I wanted to do and went for it. Well, for the last 2 months, they have been mandating over-time and I have been working 80+ hours a week. There were countless times where I’d come to work on a monday morning and not go home til thursday night. Granted, there was some time to sleep, but you more or less had to sleep with one eye open to listen to the radio in case you got called. In the end, it has taken a great toll on my body, and I got really sick for a while and went to call in one day (mind you this would be the first time I would have ever called in sick), and they said “you cant do that, we need you” so we had words and I left. So after realizing that this was all a stupid decision in the first place, I decided that I want to start my own business so that I can work in an environment where basically the harder I work, the more I’ll be rewarded (for the most part). I chose a landscaping business because I like working in the outdoors and I have always done a ton of landscaping work on the side for friends and family and I enjoy doing it and it seems to have pretty good potential to make a profitable business out of.
I did the same at the NCCC branch in Lockport. They helped to a certain extent, but I already had most of a 40 page business plan developed and written by the time I spoke with them. They did help crunch some numbers and develop a balance sheet, some projected cash-flow sheets and a couple of other things I needed to try to secure a bank loan for this place.
But, with that said, finding bank funding right now for a small business is going to be one of the most frustrating experiences of your life, unless you’ve got yourself a damn-close-to-800 FICO. If you can get yourself a medium-limit credit card with a decent rate, go that way. Or if you own a home and have some equity built up, that’s going to be your best bet due to the deductions available for your '08 taxes.
If it bugged you that you could not call of, and that going in on monday and working straight through tuesday was not acceptable then you should not open a business. I had and still have countless night without sleep. Infact on saturday i went out to dinner with the family, then sat in my office from 8:30 until 6:30 am the next morning. Took a 3 hour nap then worked all day on sunday. I don’t even have staff or multiple customers that I need to appease, I am just a consultant with one customer overseas.
Heh. And that right there is why I don’t think I’d ever start my own business. Studies have shown that you live 5 years less if you start your own business. No thanks.
no no. i said i would work from monday til THURSDAY straight through. I have worked plenty of 24 hour shifts and that didnt bother me at all.
My long-term plan is to start small on the side while I finish school and then once I have a clue on how to do things from a business standpoint, I’m going to work on expanding the business and growing it into a profitable business. I took a business class last semester in which I had to make up a business and do a whole business plan and do startup costs and all kinds of cost spreadsheets. I actually put a lot of time into that and it wasnt too long ago so the figures should still be pretty accurate and I’m probably going to be re-visiting that a lot.