Posted on 02/08/2007 1:25:23 PM PST by Momaw Nadon
Take a look here http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=eoedhomepage&L=1&L0=Home&sid=Eoed
and here
http://www.mass.gov/?pageID=pressreleases&agId=Eoed&prModName=econpressrelease&prFile=econ_pr_smallbizloan.xml
Where to begin?
I've been working for myself from home since 1992. Do you have specific questions?
I don't have business-starting-explicit advice, but as someone who's "been around the block" I'd advise you to always treat your customers and business acquaintenances courteously.
A friendly, knowledgeable business-person gets a few referrals.....never hurts to be recommended.
Old saying used to be something like: "A satified customer will tell 3 people. A dissatisfied one will tell 10".
I don't have business-starting-explicit advice, but as someone who's "been around the block" I'd advise you to always treat your customers and business acquaintenances courteously.
A friendly, knowledgeable business-person gets a few referrals.....never hurts to be recommended.
Old saying used to be something like: "A satified customer will tell 3 people. A dissatisfied one will tell 10".
6 years ago, I left the telecommunications industry to open a small business. I now own and operate a small, independent grocery store in rural Virginia. Biggest change in my life (I'm 58yo).
It was a vertical learning curve but it all boils down to business practices.
- Banks will shun you
- Vendors will screw you
- Customers will screw you
- Provide your own health care
- Provide your own life insurance
- Provide your own retirement
- Your employees will screw you
- Your state and federal tax people will screw you
- Have escrow accounts for you taxes (state, sales, fed, 941, etc)
- Employees are hard to deal with. They never have the same work ethic as you do. (Why should they? It's not their money!)
- I get one day off per year. (Christmas). I work 100+ hours per week, 7 days per week, and only pay myself $700 per week. When I was with Lucent, I made $200k+ per year.
But I've never been happier. I'm my own boss with my own employees. I set the tone of everything.
I don't shave every day. I wear jeans and sneakers.
I AM IN CHARGE!
Downside....
If you fail, there is no one to bail you out. You don't get unemployment, you don't get severance, you don't get dick!
Good Luck!!! It's scary, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
You replied: Massachusetts.
Step 1 - Move to New Hampshire.
Otherwise you will spend at least two days each month doing taxes, 941's, 940's( OK, once a year on this one), SUTA, FUTA and Social Security for Massachusetts and the Federal Government. Consider them silent partners, unless you miss a payment or a filing.
Also, if you sell product into Rhode Island, Connecticut, and/or New York you will have to collect and pay the sales tax to those states even if you never collect an open invoice - with the appropriate tax form filed on time or else.
Step 2. Exempt yourself from Workmen's comp insurance. However, if you become mentally deranged and actually hire someone to work for you, they will consider you have millions in ready cash stashed away somewhere and make the work/comp payments to cover the person who licks your envelopes shut high until you can convince them it is not a life-threatening occupation.
Step 3. Everyone will want to do business with you. Phone companies, cell phone companies, credit card companies, insurance companies, banks, office supply companies, etc. Since you will be a company, hopefully Subchapter S, you will also be considered by these companies to have millions in ready cash stashed away just to do business with them, and they will overcharge you accordingly. At the very least, twice as much as if you were a residential customer.
Step 4 - Small businesses is why God invented Quickbooks Premier Edition. Get it and adapt it for your type of business.
Step 5 - Learn to be your own Accountant. Or marry one. tee-hee You know your business better than anyone else and the most they do is put numbers you give them in the spaces the government dictates to them.
Step 6 - In the earlier mention of hiring employees the word deranged was used. IF you absolutely, positively must hire someone always remember, they are not your friend. They will never be your friend. You can never pay them enough. Anything you give/pay/do for them will be considered as a right which they "know" they deserve. They will let you know this once a year when they need more of your money or time off to cover the cost/obligations of expanding their lifestyle without correspondingly expanding your business. The law says they must be protected/paid/insured. It does not say anything about you except that you owe money, BECAUSE you started a business and therefore must have millions of dollars in ready cash stashed away somewhere and they will never stop trying to get it from you.
Step 7 - And after 25 years of doing it you can say screw New England, take the 20% of your customers that give you 80% of your income and move to Florida.
Step 8 - It's 75 degress here today, tomorrow, Saturday and 79 Sunday and Spring training starts next week.
You are so correct with your list. Nobody, that's NOBODY cares more about your business than you the owner. As far as the hours worked...after the last heart attack and bypass surgery the hours have been reduced from that typical 80-100 hours a week to only 50-60 hours. Even with all the pitfalls I still would never work for anyone else.
I've had several business, ranging from disaster to moderate success.
Realize that a business is much more than the production of the service or product.
The most challenging part of any business is getting and keeping customers.
If you are thinking about going into a field you've never worked in before, don't start a business. Get a job in a small business of the same type and get paid (some, anyway) for learning the business for at least a year. If you aren't a manager within a year, you probably aren't suited for the field anyway.
Avoid most franchise systems. You will learn more by getting a job in the field than you will from any franchisee traning.
Home-based businesses may be restricted or illegal in your neighborhood due to zoning laws, especially if you live in a condo or a development subject to a home-owner's association. It doesn't matter if the business is "clean" (such as writing for a living), or if it doesn't require customer parking. Research the local laws at your town/city hall.
You may also be subject to state business profits taxes. (In NH, every business is subject to a minimum business profits tax. So even though NH doesn't have a state income tax, if you're a one-man business, you get taxed. I'm assuming that MA will be at least as tax-heavy.)
Don't do it in NY. My husband owned his own business for a time here and said, "Never again."
I have tried three times. Twice I got off to a false start.
Best advice I can give? OK:
1) DON'T GIVE UP
2) DON'T GIVE UP YOUR DAY JOB: do the home job part-time until you are comfortable that you can make it go.
3) You will always need more seed capital than you have, and even more than you think you will need
4) DON'T get lazy. Working for yourself, at home, is an ultimate temptation to get lazy, to fall into bad work habits: YOU ARE, after all, the Boss. And when the Boss ain't lookin'...
5) Make good friends with your banker. And your accountant. Get your bills out on time, and better still, collect them within the timeframe of your commercial terms. Cash is king. Cash is king. Cash is king: make this a mantra. Never give discounts. Ever. For any reason.
6) Network.
7) Manage your time. Actively.
8) Show up to work ON TIME, READY TO GO. Change out of the Jammies, even tho' your daily commute is just downstairs to your office. Close the door and allow no interruptions. Not even from your Spouse, who will begin to see you as a "resource" to be utilized during the work day. Discourage *that* in the strongest possible terms, without wrecking your marriage. She needs to understand that you ARE NOT available between 9 and 5. Not to her, not to anyone else. You are at work.
9) BE THERE from 9 to 5, reliably.
10) Sound-proof your office: nothing deters clients more than screaming kids and barking dogs. Get a separate phone line, one that your Spouse won't accidentally pick up and start dialing on when you are trying to close your deal. Get an answering service: your Spouse will be well-intentioned but will invariably show you up for what you are: a home-based business. Get a separate fax line: one that doesn't "ANSWER" your business line with a beep.
I've been working from home for years.
It's very rewarding and I have a great time with my family. We homeschool so I see the kids a lot.
Unfortunately, there are times when I have to close a sale over the phone and that is usually the same time one of my kids wants to show me the latest _____. This creates sudden stress.
So if you have kids, figure out how you're going to work with them around.
And if you were the bossman, would you hire yourself?
If no. Don't start the business.
If yes. You might make it.
Good list.
adding one thing :
I often had to work on Christmas day and eve.
"Don't count your money until it is in your hand."
Avoid employees if at all possible.
At most, use sub-contractors.
Good tips on your list.
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