The reason I edited Monday’s post out was that I recently got a project inquiry from Microsoft IT Department for Icon Design and I want to avoid any potential conflict of interest. I know I should be putting my foot in mouth for contradicting myself but I love a large and challenging project and this one interest me.
The only problem is that they require an active business license and we don’t have that right now. I’ve also gotten a project inquiry from ATI a while ago but I have to turn them down for the same reason.
Right now I’m going to learn more about getting a business license. If you know a great place to get information about getting one, it would be appreciated if you could post it here. Thanks.
Wow, I would definitely look into that business license, sorry I can’t help you with that kind of stuff though.
Dunno how it works in the US, but here in UK you can get all business advice at your bank….most have a inhouse small business advisor that’ll take you through the right steps of becoming a licensed business etc.
So if you have such people at your bank…..I’ll say go speak to them!….seems a shame to miss out on big clients like these!
Congratulations. The fact that you’ve received inquiries from companies such as Microsoft and ATI shows how good your work is.
adam,
you can contact me directly about setting up a business. I know a few about setting up a business due to setting up LightKitchen.
contact me if you want to know…I’m more than happy to explain different kinds of business structures there is in US of A.
I believe http://sba.gov is a good place to start, but they can be boring read.
rene v.
http://sba.gov/starting_business/s...
a business license is the easiest thing (at least around here):
you go downtown, see if the name that you want is in use, if not you pay a small fee and reserve the name and get a license. viola.
then, you pre-pay taxes every quarter and make sure you reserve about 1/3 of every [insert currency here] to pay for taxes at the end of the year.
I didn’t do the previous paragraph and got into quite a hole. learn from that mistake :)
The part Hobeaux mentions about the taxes is important. When I started selling PodWorks, I had no idea about the tax implications, and didn’t really look into it for a long time. When I actually did look into it, I was a bit freaked out because I hadn’t been saving money out of my PodWorks revenue for taxes, and I owed a lot (stupid, I know, but it’s a mistake a lot of naive business newbies make)!!!
The key is to start paying quarterly estimated taxes, rather than the yearly taxes “normal” people pay. My next PodWorks taxes are due June 15, for example, and then September 15 and January 18.
The idea there is that I pay a quarter of my “estimated” income to the IRS, and then at the end of the year if I haven’t made that much, they owe me money (or, conversely, if I estimated too low, I owe them money). You should be able to estimate your income based on what you’ve made so far as a designer.
You might want to actually call the IRS for more info on this. I did, and they were surprisingly friendly and helpful :-).
Reading back over my last post, I realized that one thing might not have been clear: the quartely taxes I pay are not just for PodWorks, they’re for my entire income. As the “sole proprietor” of a business, I pay them instead of the annual taxes “normal” people pay.
it all depends on how far you want to take your business. i know that you can go down town to your town office in the USA and set up a DBA or a “doing business as” and that basically links your social in a higher way to being a “business” you still work with w-9 vendor forms, but you have registered yourself as a contractor with the town and they offer a business license for you.
or if you want to go the larger route. Contact a lawyer and an accoutnant, set it up right. you speak with a lawyer, they are approximately $600 from what i have seen. they know the law in your state, they verify your proposed business name, set up all paper work etc. and can get you i nto the right version of LLC, INC, etc. they will also become a good resource for privacy clauses, non disclosures, non competative agreements if you will be working with partners, or even a freelance contract to protect you in the even that you have to source some work out yourself.
then you contact an accountant, set up all items needed (they’ll help you with a bank to set up a small line of credit, this is a good thing. often large companies you may work with will run your credit rateing as well to ensure you are reliable. a service they may use in dunn and bradstreet at http://dnb.com/us/ .
Hope this helps.