'Safe'
A virtual watercooler where Buffistas in business can talk, share, exchange, bemoan, exult and assorted other power verbs associated with all areas of running/starting up a business. For existing or potential Buffista business owners of all types. Spamming is NOT ON. A list of our Buffista owned businesses is on our links page.
Ok, I re-worked the services and rates section. Take a gander, if you would, and let me know if what I have now id better, too much, just right. [link]
I love your descriptions of the services, it's very clear and will be helpful to customers who don't know quite what they want.
I notice that the text was a little small as well, but overall, I love it.
I actually think I am going to transfer my first blog post on there to be the bulk of my home page
My web person suggested this too. I've done it, and feel that it's good to have the fresh material...but I don't keep it fresh enough!
Must get on an effective schedule somehow.
Right now, I don't know if I can adjust text size or color of quote marks.
I probably could code it...but I could PROBABLY decode a bomb with a handbook too. That's something that will have to come in a bit, I think. Coding scares me, and I know almost nothing about it so far.
Vortex, thanks! I'm glad it was navigable and understandable.
Bonny, I'm going to try to be blogging at least once a week; the home page I plan on keeping static, but having an active blog not only keeps you more searchable, it pings people who have a RSS feed or are subscribed to your site.
For me, it will also be where I can showcase my writing skills in addition to the portfolio.
Erin, if you're willing to have Paypal keep a small percentage, a pro account with them (which I think is required for a business using Paypal anyway) will allow people to pay you using their credit cards.
I will have to look more into that. I thought I might need to do so; well, I will have to get the 2nd bank account set up, then.
Not a bad idea anyway - it doesn't even have to be formally a "business account" (which may have extra setup requirements and a different set of fees). Mine is a free one at one of the online banks. But knowing that I have one account, with its own debit card, through which all my biz $$$ goes, and connected to my PayPal is in-freakin'-valuable for my sanity and simplicity.
This thread is happy making. I'm toying with putting together a "Personal Assistant By The Hour" sort of thing.
In our new (shit) economy multiple income streams seems to be a good way to go -- so if I'm teaching ESL, accent coaching, pursuing (and hopefully getting) voiceover work, and consistently running errands, etc. for various busy well-paid New Yorkers I could do alright in the next few years.
I already checked at my bank and the Small Business account requires $15K. Um. I think I'll just be getting a regular one in my own name only, and that way, I can just transfer monies to our joint account for bills and such.
Trudy, I very seriously thought about focusing on VA (Virtual Assistant) work. People can make a very decent living, if they position themselves right.
Make sure you have a clear-cut business hours section; I've heard some crazy shit about people calling VA's at all hours, asking for such and such.
Eeek! I shall!
Rates will go up PRECIPITOUSLY when contracted after-hours.
Erin, the simplest thing for you to be is a Sole Proprietorship. Even with this, I'd say file a DBA as per the rules for your state and municipality. My company is actually "My firstname lastname DBA as company name." Once you have this done then you should be able to show the paperwork and open a bank account under the name of the DBA and you can also take checks made out to the DBA. It's also easier to defend the business if someone else comes along with a similarly named company.
As for payments, I've used a professional PayPal for quite a few years and it's pretty functional. They have a tool where you can generate an invoice through their website and then send that to a client. It will have all the information on how your client can pay you using a credit card, or whatever other PayPal method they prefer.
I also now have a Square account, which allows me to swipe credit cards on my iPhone as well as punch in credit card numbers for charges on my iPhone. The software is free, and they send you the credit card reader for free. They take a small percentage of each charge as a service fee. It's pretty slick and links to a bank account.
Having the business bank account can be important because it makes it much easier to manage business expenses vs. personal expenses. You are now going to hopefully have a bunch of 1099 or other untaxed income. This means you are going to want to track the crap out of your expenses so that you can either count them as a write off, or count them as a business loss to lower your net income and control your tax burden. This is the area where having a professional accountant can really pay off. Also start doing things like keeping a mileage log on your car. You can claim at about $.50 a mile (I think that's where it is now) and that can add up quickly. To do this you need to make sure that you are keeping a log. I buy a new one every year and track all of the miles. If more than 50% of your vehicle miles in a year are solely for business then you can get an additional tax benefit by claiming part of your vehicle as a business expense. Also, if your vehicle is an SUV with a GVWR of over 6000lbs then there is yet another tax break (This is one of the reasons I'm now driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee.)
Sorry, lots of information here. Once again, this is where I really cannot recommend highly enough having a tax accountant. The software can be great, but it can get so complicated so quickly. It's also much better to get these types of things in place while the business is small, rather than trying to get them into place once your grow. Trust me on this one.