How to start a small business ?

[TurtleMan]

Hi, Me and my friend want to start a small computer business of our own, mainly in campus,
but I was wondering if I need to register for my business name or anything.
Also he is thinkin about inc. , is that necessary ? and how much do you think it would cost to run a small small tiny business ?

Please any input or advise is greatly appreciated !!

 

[TurtleMan]

show some OTer love for a brotha ~ some tips

 

[bGIveNs33]

What state are you in?

-Billy

 

[NewSc2]

yes, you need to register for a business name and for a business license, and probably a resale license too.

go to your city hall, they should have information regarding business licenses for the city.. then you need to go to the county courthouse and apply for the name and the resale license as well. that should cost about... $200? (this number varies depending on what licenses you need to procure).

anyways after that process (2-3 weeks to get all your license numbers and stuff down) then you can approach wholesalers and stuff (if you want to sell stuff... which from what i reckon you might be doing? unless you were all service). Usually wholesalers require a resale license and credit references, so you'll have to dig up some of that, unless you wanted to pay for shipments before you receive them, which usually isn't how the process goes... usually the wholesaler/manufacturer ships out their items first and gives you an X-day lead time for you to sell your stuff and hopefully make enough money to pay him back.

that's about it, finding a good wholesaler that will provide a good starting credit account is usually the toughest part. but then again your profile says you're in... alberta, USA... don't know if the same laws apply there (?) but i know they apply for california

 

[TurtleMan]

hehe california here :]
umm that's pretty useful information thanks a lot.

Think i be able to get parts from IgramMicron ?

 

[NewSc2]

probably. ingram micro isn't that cheap though, pricewatch.com is usually cheaper. ingram micro owns buy.com, so bascially all the prices at buy.com are $3-4 more than what ingram micro sells it for to businesses under their wholesale

what most people don't know is that prices on pricewatch is usually wholesale price. the prices of computer parts that newegg sells is at an incredibly slim profit margin.

 

[TurtleMan]

oh crap ... umm i see.. i want to like build computer for ppl at the campus
or go around to build computer for ppl

so i don't know if i really need a license or some sort of stuff

so you are saying that it is better off i get stuff from newegg since they are a lot cheaper than igram micron ?

 

[Pastore]

Do you really need a biz license if you are going to be building maybe a couple pcs a week?

 

[amdskip]

I never registered with the city and county. I've got a small business but I need to put more time into it and start making some good extra money. I just registered with the state and got a tax number, very easy. Newegg is the cheapest out there my friend

 

[Placer14]

How about this? If you'd like to start a commerical/storefront business? What types of places might you go to get funding/backing capital to get your business off the ground?

You'd probably have to write up a business plan to pass around to the investors, but waht are some good palces to go to get this startup money (typcially called Seed, 1st stage/level funding). Or even some good places to get critiques on your existing business plan? Thoughts?

 

[sciencetoy]

You don't need to register. You won't get in trouble for not doing it. However, you want to start keeping really good records of what you take in & what you spend. The first business thing you'll run into will probably be sales tax. When you buy parts for resale you don't pay tax on them, when you sell the final product you collect tax and send it on to the tax collectors. In order to have a resale certificate that may be the time to set up an official business - but a lot of times you can get by with just using your own social security number as your tax i.d. number.

The one thing you must do is keep accurate records. It helps to get a separate account for all of the business stuff. It doesn't have to be an official business account (banks usually charge extra for that) but if you use it exclusively for business, it makes it easier to tell what you've spent and what you've earned.

 

[axelfox]

can i be your hired muscle?