I am going to start up a business soon. I would like to know the basic things to do and what order to do them in, I mean stuff like registering the business, buying stationary, opening a bank account etc, any advice? Also, it is a software development company. Determine what type of company -- S, LLC, etc. You can buy a book on this. Generally the benefits for type of incorporation are by state, so don't bother reading anything written for another state. Check out Amazon for books like "Incorporating in the state of xxx". My advice taken from lawyers and accounts, is incorporate either in the state you live, or the state where you will earn the income. In other words, don't incorporate in Florida if you live in NJ. You can't really get around paying the NJ taxes if the money is made there.
Next, incorporate. You can do it on your own for about $9., if you know how, or use a lawyer or website specializing in this, which is @$300. I've done it several times, and always via a lawyer friend, or website.
Same incorporated website/lawyer often will set you up with corporate seal. You need the corporate seal for bank accounts, brokerage accounts, etc.
****Get a good accountant**** cost @2k year. I can't stress this enough. You do not want to be answering the IRS letters by yourself. If you're making a good chunk you'll be paying quarterly taxes and you need an expert to tell you how much and to whom (state/fed).
Use a program like Quicken to keep track of payroll, accounts payable/receivable
Open a business account at a local bank
Get business checks from said bank
Get clients!!!!!
Overall, you can set this up in about a month, maybe two.
skip the stationary until you are more established. You may want to do business cards, but for software development they may not be needed (website would be preferable) Business - Check
List - Check
Cheque - Check yes it is it helps you keep everything organized I don't think there is a set order aside from what you decide. Just get things done in a way thats cost efficient. Check out http://www.sba.gov/ and your local bookstore for books on how to start and run a small business. You may be interested in beginning a business which will attract a very large Internet customer base. Hopefully the following strategy may prove helpful to you.
If you are currently a paid Internet subscriber, you are entitled to a "homepage" which often contains simple navigation and editing tools. And if you use the Netscape browser, the built-in Composer feature is a superior HTML authoring tool. You can easily generate a full-blown website as a Homepage.
Nevertheless, the "homepage" URL is likely to be "http://homepage.earthlink.com/subscribe... name" and that URL can easily be overwritten via a redirection service, i.e., "mydomain.com" which allows you to link any registered domain name to "mask" another website. For example, should you type in the "domain name," you will be immediately transported to the homepage and the hompage URL of http://homepage.earthlink.com/subscriber... a homepage URL which will be masked by the domain name. And the charge for the redirection service [even at godaddy.com] is normally FREE.
Here's a demonstration: Type in the URL window: "www.pizzanextdoor.com" which will bring up their pizza website. Take note of the domain name. Then type in the URL window: "http://home.pacbell.net/vten/1a/pizzame... and you will see that this is the original homepage which is unmasked without the domain name.
The most effective way to advertise on the Internet is to first set up a website and publish its domain name on major search directories such as Google.com, Yahoo.com [at http://www.google.com/addurl/?...... and MSN.com since 85% of Internet shoppers rely on these search directories to provide them with goods and services. In a sense, these search directories are a very large Internet Yellow Pages.
Nevertheless, should your website or opening webpage fail to contain "generic" keywords, then anyone using such "generic" queries will not be able to discover your website. Your domain name [URL] of your website, in a sense, will be invisible, undiscoverable.
You may want to consider some simple algorithms which, when observed and committed in designing of a website with placement of various critical metatags that can surely achieve a high search engine presence and increase Internet traffic to your website. These metatag strategies work well with published webpages at Google and Yahoo.
Design: Should you create an extensive Flash-based website, make sure to fill-in the property entries such as the Title, Description and Keywords. Failing to do so, leaves no hard HTML or ALT resource that can be readily indexed by search robots. Also consider the Internet audience and their incoming setup. For example, if they are on analog/dialup, Flash webpages take too long to load up and therefore analog users will likely lose interest and discontinue entering the Flash site. On the other hand, anyone on hi-speed DSL lines, will welcome Flash pages which load quickly. So before designing a pure Flash websitge, ask the simple question, "Who's my end user - is he on dialup or DSL?" And if you had to choose between these two users for maximum marketability, then select analog users since 80% of most resident users are still analog Internet subscribers and pure HTML designed webpages is best for them.
A non-Flash-based website which relies on hard text, is far easier to be indexed by search robots. Limit the use of stylized text saved as .gifs since as a graphic, they are not indexable by search robots.
Avoid use of frames since any number of search robots are unable to properly classify textual material.
Placement of Metatags:
A ranking or search order does take place with Google and Yahoo and it begins with the "Title" metag which should consist of no more than 65 characters separated by commas. The "Title" should describe in generic terms, the goods and services, followed by a location from which the resource is located, i.e., city, state. The placement of a domain name which is not generic within the "Title" is not appropriate, unless your domain name is a major recognizable brand name.
The second metatag is the "Description" which is usually 25-30 words to form a complete sentence which best describes one's goods and services.
And the very last category - "Keywords" are also somewhat limited to 15-16 words which can be plural and compound in nature. Again, avoid multiple entries which could be mistaken as "spamdexed entries" which is defined as the loading, and submission of repetitive words into a particular metatag category. "Spamdexing" when discovered on a webpage and reported to Google's spamreport.com can result in the elimination of your website from their search directory.
Here's an example of a very highly-placed website on Yahoo.com: Begin with the search query "pizza downtown los angeles." It will bring up some 1.4 million+ websites as results. Check out where "Pizza Next Door" is ranked. It's in the Top Five! Again, Pizza Next Door's high web presence was achieved by proper web design and placement of relevant metatags according to Yahoo's publication guidelines.
Good luck! |
