What does a brand new business owner tell wanna-be business owners?
Since
I quit my job this summer to start writing professionally, one
of the coolest things I’ve landed is a gig as a columnist for a local San Diego
monthly newspaper.
The
Espresso is distributed for free in coffee houses and the like in San
Diego. I’m not getting paid, but it’s got a circulation of 36,000 each month,
and my column (and my name and web address) will be in it each month.
When
I called the publisher, I told him I wanted to write on how to start up one’s
own business, since I was going through the process myself. He has a passion to
help his readers, he said, many of whom sit in coffee shops and dream of
striking out on their own. I sent him to this blog as an indication of my
writing style and the topics I would cover, and his next email included my
monthly deadline and word limit.
[Permit
me to whisper a tiny “YEA!” here, please.]
This
blog flips around a lot to many new business issues, from healthcare, watching the budget, working from home, proposals and estimating, time management. But I want to develop 4-6
concrete topics that will logically flow from one month to the next for people
who really want to make this happen.
Here
are my first ideas:
- How to plan your own business while you still have your day job (and how to keep your day job when all you can think about is your new business)
- A trip to the Small Business Administration and other free aids — what will help and what will just annoy you
- Taxes, accountants and banks, or who gets your money once you make it
- The best laid business plans — yeah, you really have to write one and why
- Marketing table for one
- Cheap tricks and frugal living, or making ends meet after the taxes, accountants and banks
Ok, I need to work on
the headlines. But I’d love to know what others would want to know. Chime in if
you have other ideas.
Carolyn on 13 Oct 2007 at 6:40 pm #
All of those are great, Beth.
Did you find a lot of helpful resources at the SBA? My dh is self-employed too, but the one seminar we attended had more information for small companies with employees.
I would love to know what you were able to learn from them. I learned that you have to post a sign about safety or something where your employees will see it.
GFTiff on 13 Oct 2007 at 7:18 pm #
I didn’t get to reply to you about the 2 minute timer, that is really cool! I have never heard about that before!
I am also a small business owner. I just moved to a new state and I don’t even know where to start with registering my business here (where do I go? who do I talk to? how much will it cost?…..)
Great Blog!!!!
Beth Ziesenis on 16 Oct 2007 at 9:00 am #
GFTiff,
Congrats on your business. You might start with the local SBA. I found them slightly inane but a good place to start to get a list of things I had to do.
Carolyn,
The SBA experience was a little silly. I thought I was walking into this wealth of knowledge, and I got a 22-year-old kid who printed out a list and said, “Well, these are the things you should do.” I had already spent many a late night looking things up, so I was aware of much of what needed to be done. But it was very helpful to have everything on the list.
They also had a number of seminars I could sign up for. I haven’t done any of them yet, mainly because I feel hectic and busy.
I have found that many of the small business resource out there deal with businesses that have employees. I don’t envision that for Avenue Z for a long, long time, if ever.