Setting Up Your Business – All That Paperwork

I have my business set up as an LLC, filing taxes as an S-corp. I went this route because it’s pretty easy to set up, has some significant tax benefits and protection, and doesn’t take much work to maintain. I’m mentioning the tax benefits here but I’m not going to go into huge detail with it – I had an hour consultation with a tax accountant and believe me, it took the full hour to figure out my business tax strategy. It was $100 well spent!

It’s All In The Name

Before you get too far, make sure you have a good name for your business. The easiest approach is to use your name since chances are, no one else has taken it and even then, it’s still your name and you have the right to use it. But if you want to be more original, you’ll probably want something more creative. In that case, you’ll need to be a little more diligent. Personally, I went with ABD Web Design since a) that’s my initials, b) that’s what I do and c) I am my brand (since it’s just me right now).

Here’s the approach that I use:

1. Brainstorm business names.
2. Search for available domain names – if no domain name is available for your business name, you’ll have a harder time establishing a web presence.
3. Check for trademark issues. If someone else is already using your name, especially in the same industry, you can’t use it. Check at TESS.
4. Hopefully by this point you have it narrowed down to a couple of options. Talk to your friends and family, and think about it. Once you’ve made a decision, you’ll want to stick with it. Changing the business name can really be a pain in the ass, so you want to get it right the first time!

Set Up Your LLC

I’ve talked to 2 different friends this week that are also starting businesses and they were under the impression that they’d have to go through a lawyer to set up an LLC. Not so! Creating an LLC in Idaho is easy and only costs $100.

I’ve created 3 different LLCs and have always just done it myself.

1. You can find the form on the Secretary of State website. Go to the Business Entities page.
2. The first available document on the page is the Certificate of Organization Limited Liability Company – print or open this document.
3. Fill it out, making sure to put “LLC” after your name. Sign it.
4. Send it to the address indicated along with $100.
5. Within a week, your LLC will be set up. It’ll actually show up on the website before you get it in the mail so if you’re impatient like I am, visit the SOS Business Entity Search page & search for your business.

File for S-Corp Tax Designation

Get an EIN

Register Your Business With Idaho

Idaho & Federal Tax Withholding

Although it depends on how much money you’re going to make, if you’re working at your own company full-time, you’ll make enough where you’ll need to pay into your Payroll Withholding. With an LLC running as an S-corp, you are the owner and the employee. As the employee, you get payroll checks. As the employer, you have to write those checks and put aside the taxes that are withheld from your payroll check. You can’t just hold onto that money and spend it on PF Changs though. You have to pay the IRS that money, either quarterly, semi-annually, or annually.

Let me give you a word of advice with this. For each pay period that you pay yourself, take that payroll withholding and put it in completely different bank account. Since this money is being withheld as taxes from your paycheck, you need to consider this 100% off limits. Although you still have possession of it, it’s pretty much the property of the IRS. But at least if you put it in a savings account, you can make  a little interest off it! If you come up short on your payroll withholding tax though, the IRS will be calling you and/or sending someone over to talk with you!

After you have registered with Idaho, you can create an account with the Idaho State Tax Commission to pay your Idaho tax withholding.

After you have your EIN, you can create an EFTPS account to pay your federal tax withholding.

Unemployment Insurance & Workers Compensation Insurance

Since as an owner-employee I don’t have to pay into these, I’m not going to cover these topics. However, if you will have employees you will need to make sure you’re covered on these fronts.

And wow, do I have a lot of work ahead of me for the next month! But after the dust settles, there will be a good party. =)

The first step should always be planning: what are your goals and is it feasible? And beyond that, what’s the risks and rewards? What income and expenses will you have?

For me, I’ve been itching to start my own company again for probably the last 2 years but it wasn’t until lately that it all started to really come together. The opportunities look like they’re there (can’t always be sure), and there’s plenty of office space to lease downtown.

So I started by forecasting my first year’s revenue, calculating the expenses, and determining if that was even take-home pay to make it. Since the revenue can fluctuate based on sales, work, and just plain luck, I made it a real point to calculate my break-even point: that establishes a base line so I always know the minimum I need to make.

For expenses, I came up with the following list (monthly) for operating costs:

• Rent
• Internet
• Phone
• Hosting
• Advertising
• Hardware/Software Budget
• Meetings Budget (meals, drinks)
• Insurance

But there’s also the take-home pay that I need to bring home to my family. Since I have my business set up as an LLC, filing my taxes as a corporation, I get an employee salary. As an employee there’s the normal payroll taxes and other deductions (Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance, 401k) but there’s also additional costs on the employer side. This includes workers compensation, unemployment, medicare, and medicaid. Incidentally, if you’re a contractor, your business is considered a sole proprietorship and those additional costs still have to be paid.

Luckily, I have years of experience and expertise with web design and running a business so it’s familiar ground. But this time around as I get things started, I’m going to chronicle this process and hopefully others (you) can use this as a valuable resource.

The way around that is to install the WP Mail SMTP plugin.

Make sure to change the mail server from ‘localhost’ to the mail server associated with your hosting account. In the control panel, if it says ‘MAILA69′, you’ll want to enter in the full URL: maila69.webcontrolcenter.com

With SBA hosting, you can change file permissions for folders but not for individual files. There is an option though to ‘include all sub files and folders’ – that’s all fine and dandy but I didn’t want to make ALL the files & folders on my website writable. Here’s a workaround though to update your root files:

• Create a new folder locally. I named mine ‘temp’.
• Put the files that you want to update permissions on into that folder.
• Upload
• On the server, change the file permissions for the folder & make sure to include all sub files and folders. (ex 777)
• Then in ‘remote’ or server view, move the files back into root directory.
• Delete the temp folder.

2lb bag of chicken wings
2 12-oz beers

½ teas. paprika
½ teas. cayenne pepper
½ teas. salt
1/2 cup flour

½ cup butter
½ cup Louisiana Hot Sauce
1 teas. Dave’s Insanity Sauce
½ teas. black pepper
4 cloves pressed garlic

1. Marinate wings in fridge 12-24 hours in beer.
2. Drain wings and place in a large casserole dish. Combine paprika, cayenne pepper, salt, and flour into mixture. Cover wings evenly with mixture (or shake in bag). Cover and refrigerate for 60-90 minutes.
3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
4. Drizzle oil over wings so they are lightly covered. Cook at 375 for 35-45 minutes, or until brown.
5. Combine butter, hot sauces, black pepper, and garlic in small saucepan and simmer until butter is melted and mixture is well blended.
6. Put wings in serving bowl. Add hot sauce mixture and stir together. Enjoy the game!

Basically, if you’re looking for an easier way for you and your clients to manage information within WordPress, this is the perfect solution. It allows you to define your own content types and then:

1. Creates a separate database table for each data set.
2. Creates a class so that you can easily instantiate that class and use the data within your WordPress themes.
3. Gives you an easy to use CMS for managing your data. (or your clients).

I first implemented Pods on my own portfolio so that I can easily manage my portfolio items without having to worry about individual posts. It gives me a lot more flexibility and makes it much easier to manage. Check out my portfolio pod in action.

My second implementation was for a law firm website. Rather than create separate pages and menu for each member of their team, I created a pod and made it available from the main admin menu – so they can easily add new team members as they need to.

This is really a must-have for any serious WordPress developer. Make sure to check out the following tutorial though – Mr. Christopher does a tremendous job of explaining how to use Pods.

- Heather Carlson

- Taylor Hunt