Yes, as of 9:01 PM EST, yesterday, September 11th, 2008, I am officially a business owner in the great state of Maryland!  That is the time that I received an email from LegalZoom stating that my DBA and Business License paperwork had been approved and received back at their offices.  It was a process three months in the making, and I’ll talk about why it took so long in my next article.
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“There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.” -Benjamin Disraeli

For one of my upcoming posts I’ve been scouring the web trying to find statistics on how many small businesses fail after a certain amount of time. The first few articles I read said that over half of small businesses fail during the first year and that something like 90% fail before their 5 year anniversary. These are dismal stats and definitely very disconcerting to a newbie business owner like myself. I continued digging, hoping to find some good solid numbers to back up what I had read, but as it turns out, there really aren’t any.

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As I had mentioned in my previous blog post, I treated this Saturday as if it were a work day, scheduling my time  on research and planning for my computer support business. Even more importantly, the day was meant to be an experiment to see how well I could handle working from home on a self-paced schedule, which is something I’ve never done before.

In part one of this two part series, I’ll take a look at the work-from-home productivity aspect of my day at the home office.

So how did it go? (more…)

I’m going to spend all day tomorrow, Saturday, researching items for my small business.  I intend to wake up MUCH earlier than I normally do on weekends and follow a schedule of activities devoted to nothing but furthering my upcoming computer-support business.  Since I work a typical 9 to 5 job Monday through Friday, I don’t have much time during the week to get good momentum going on my business planning.

However this is more than just a planning day for me; this is the first of many experiments I will conduct on myself to see if and how I’ll be able to handle working on my own. 

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I’m about 42.75% ready to start a business according to the Smart Start Assessment tool provided by the Maryland Small Business Development Center’s website.  It’s a great resource for anyone interested in starting a small business and I’m thrilled that something like this is available.  I took this assessment a few weeks ago, let’s see how I did…  (more…)

“With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” -Chinese Proverb

I’ve recently decided that I am going to take my time with this whole starting-a-business thing.  My overall timeline is going to be simple.  The initial goal for my business is to be a part-time extra-income generator for me starting sometime before the end of this year. This blog, and the filing of my DBA paperwork, have already set the gears in motion for that. Then, in about 5 years, I’ll decide if I will make the leap to running this thing full-time. This is slightly contrary to the more aggressive timeline I originally had, and I’ve changed my “About” page to reflect this accordingly.

Five years is a long time. Why am I setting this goal so far ahead? (more…)

I’ve stumbled upon a lot of articles recently about computer techs using their powers for evil.  Here are some of my favorites: (more…)

A while back I was thinking it would be smart to consult with a lawyer to see what kind of things need to be done to set-up my business and trademark my business name.  I was pretty sure, at the least, that I’d need to file for trademark protection for my company name and file a DBA (Doing Business As) which will allow me to start a bank account under the name of my business.

So I called a local lawyer who specializes in helping small businesses.  You’d think that, being someone who is supporting the cause of the small business owner, she’d charge fees that small business start-ups can afford.  Boy was I wrong.  Here are some of her fees: (more…)

Starting my new Computer Support Business is truly a grass-roots effort.  I have no previous business experience.  I’ve only taken one class in community college relating to business.  I don’t have any immediate relatives who own a business.  Also, I’m going to attempt to make this business completely self-funded, meaning I’m going to avoid using my own money and instead use money I make from the business and put it back into the business.  I’m really starting from scratch here.

So in order to set some goals, ensure forward movement, and to help you all keep me in line, I’m listing the first steps I’ve taken, or will take, in these early days of business development.  (more…)