Entrepreneurship 101, Parts 3 and 4

Part 3 of the Entrepreneurship 101 series took us into the world of licensing a new business. I still haven't gotten over the panic-inducing class on economic feasibility, so I had some reluctance about continuing the series.

It turns out that getting your business license appears to be super easy.  All you have to do is go to http://filinginoregon.com/ , click on "Register a Business" and away you go!  It's $50 for a 2 year license to set up a sole proprietorship, and $100 per year to set up a limited liability corporation.  Easy peasy, if you have the money.

But of course, before you do this you need to know what your business name is going to be.  I've been racking my brains for the ~perfect~ name for quite awhile.   I evaluate the perfection of a name by how I imagine it looks on a label inside a gorgeous pair of handmade pumps (like these, perhaps):

I have a few ideas that are good, but not perfect yet.

Anyway... back on topic... So the first thing to do is check the state registry to find out if your business name is taken.   Good news!  The name that's in the lead for my business is available.

We also got all kinds of information about tricks for filing (select all counties), the basics of LLCs version sole proprietorships, and how to check if your business idea is going to require a special license or permit.

We were advised to check with your city about any special fees/taxes/coding requirements that are sometimes locally required.  Funny thing about that.  My city directs me to a special website called "Clackamas County Tools for Business".  Yeah, the link is broken.  Way to go Clackamas County.

Part 4 of the Entrepreneurship 101 series was the last class.  I was a little worried going into it because of the topic- Financing and Loans.  Augh!  Not another financial class!

Okay, this class was not that bad.  We spent most of the time going over the pros and cons of different funding options:  grants, friends & family, personal money (ie savings), retirement accounts, credit cards, investors, lines of credit, home equity loans, business loans, and SBA-guaranteed loans.

At the end of the class we talked about the idea of a strategic start-up, which sounds exactly like a business model I can handle.  She gave us a great example to illustrate the idea:  a woman going through our class had big ideas and dreams to open a restaurant.  Restaurants are EXPENSIVE to open and very risky.  Opening the restaurant of her dreams was beyond what her finances could take, so she opted instead to start smaller.  She broke her dream into smaller pieces and looked into opening a food cart.  When even that proved outside her financial ability, she pared back even more.  She certified her home kitchen and started making sandwiches.  Today she drives around to several businesses selling homemade sandwiches from her car.  She's making money like crazy and has saved enough to buy her food cart.

Final thoughts on the Entrepreneurship 101 series.  I left this class with three general thoughts about starting my own business.  1)  I'm not ready yet.  I still need to do some serious work researching and learning about my own finances as well as the monetary needs my business would have.  2)  I need to figure out what I want to do.  If I were to start a business, what would it be?  I know it would be making something because people who ooze awesomeness make things.  I've dreamt of making shoes- but what kind?  How would I sell them?  Who would be my customer?  3)  Whatever idea I come up with for a business I need to pair it back into a simpler model for my strategic start-up.  Would this be making moccasins?  Selling the headbands I've been making out of my fabric scraps?  How would those things relate to the "ideal shoe" I see with my label in it?

For now... I hear Columbia is hiring...

Entrepreneurship 101- Part 2

I did attend the second class in the Entrepreneurship 101 series.  I haven't written about it yet because, frankly, I'm still overwhelmed.  I was so overwhelmed leaving this class that I couldn't even figure out how to respond to the end-of-class survey. 

Here's my problem-  When I see dollar signs, my eyes glaze over; the subject of this class was "economic feasibility." Why, you may ask?  I blame my father (sorry, dad, I know you're reading this).  My dad is a very accomplished small business owner.  He's a CPA.  You did not talk about money in our house because money matters were something that was kept confidential.  I remember one of the most serious talkings-to I ever received was when I asked my mom in a public place how much our house cost.  My dad lives by the concept of a client/professional confidentiality and takes it to such a level that anything involving money was kept secret and hush-hush in our house.  You could say that I was sheltered from economics.

I've tried to get better at this- I took accounting as my business class, I tracked all our bills for a period of time, I've tracked our purchases over the course of a month.  But it still comes down to dollar signs and in the end my eyes glaze over and I lose interest.

Therefore, what I learned in the second class in the Entrepreneurship series is this:  I have no business being a small business owner.  Not unless I spend SERIOUS amounts of time and energy to learn how to become financially competent and economically lingual. 

The class was focused on The Three Numbers You Need to Know Before Starting a Business:

1. Your Personal Needs- how much money do you need to bring in every month to cover your own personal expenses?
2. Your Business Needs- how much money does your business need to survive every month?
3. Your Start-Up Costs

Embarrassingly, I know none of these things.  Heavy sigh.  I have a lot of work to do.

In the meantime- I networked with one of my Entrepreneurship 101 classmates (which could lead to some freelancing), I've been freelancing on some custom embroidery work (job found from the Craigslist Gigs section) and I have an interview coming up next week!  So once again I can say, "if I don't get this job, that's it!  I'm going into business myself!"  We'll see if I come out of the next Entrepreneurship class feeling like I can do it myself.