Originally posted by: badmouse
I've started (and sold) many businesses. There are many places to find "how to start a business" information, such as
www.sba.gov sba = small business administration. That's your tax dollars, might as well take advantage of it. Also check out
SCORE, free advice, good place. In addition to a great web site, they give cheap (free?) classes in exactly what you are asking.
There are also a zillion books about Starting A Business For Dummies. Scan the table of contents, and see if there are any chapters that sound interesting. A lot of these books is fluff ("what color curtains should you put in your home office?") but there is some useful information.
Basically, if you make money, you need to file with the IRS. Don't start out thinking you can beat them, or slip under the radar, or whatever. If you're going to fix a few computers for friends and neighbors, then yeah, okay. But if you're serious about a business, do it right from the start.
The start, BTW, is when the money comes in. THAT's when you actually have a business. You want to have your books set up by then.
Basically, find an accountant you can talk to, and listen to him/her about setting up your accounts. You'll use something like Quickbooks, make sure you have an accountant who is cool with whatever program you use - then at the end of the quarter you just zip files and life is easy (JOKE). It gets more complicated the more money you make - but hey, you have more money to pay someone to come in and take care of the details.
Beware of an accountant who insists on an accounting package that costs thousands of dollars. Start small, work your way up. When you need complex depreciation software, for example, THEN is the time to worry about that.
You CAN start by putting your reciepts in a box and handing everything over to your accountant, but then you will be paying your expensive accountant a LOT of money to do something that you should be doing easily.
You can get liability insurance if you're not ready to incorporate and you're worried about liability.
The IRS, and your state tax people, are the ones who will give you the most trouble if you don't follow their rules, so get with the program from the start. (Actually, the WORST idiots are the unemployment insurance people, but you don't deal with them until you have a payroll.) Other things, such as licenses, etc, you can pretty much wait until somebody calls you on it - you don't know yet what licenses, etc you'll need.
There is a basic rule of thumb when running your own business, or working for yourself: for every paid hour you work, you work one unpaid hour dealing with biz matters and work prep. If you allow for that, you'll be fine.
Anybody who can repair computers has the intelligence/understanding to set up a basic business. Look around you at the businesses that you know, many of which are run by complete idiots.
Good luck.
P.S. I highly recommend the book The E-Myth by Peter Gerber, "e" being entrepreneur. I think. Anyway, it will help you think like a businessperson, rather than a guy who fixes computers.
