Congratulations! It's a Business.

Parenting Your Business

Starting and growing a business parallels child rearing. 

As an infant, the business is totally dependent upon you for support, both emotionally and physically.  As a young child and pre-teen (the blessed years), dependency wanes a little.  You both develop a rhythm and begin to enjoy each other on a different level.   

The teenage years are tumultuous and rebellious as the business wants to throw off what it now deems as shackles and create its own identity.  This is usually a make-it-or-break-it time for most entrepreneurs. 

And finally, in adulthood you learn to let go and begin relating to your business as an individual with a separate identity.  Hopefully the relationship is one of mutual respect.

This process can take months or years.  It’s been my experience that stable profitability occurs in adulthood.

So start the process early.  Get a dba (doing business as) from your county courthouse or even better, file for an LLC (Limited Liability Company) or an “S” Corporation.  

The latter two give you extra protection from potential liabilities.  Costs are nominal.  In my state the dba is $16 and you can submit an LLC or “S” Corporation filing yourself for under $400.  That’s low enough to get you started, but as soon as you can afford it I would have an attorney review your filing.

Lastly, get a separate checking account and start keeping a set of books using Quicken, Quickbooks, Mint (which is too cool) or some other easy-to-use computer program.  I’ve never really been a proponent of business cards, but some feel that it adds legitimacy to their work.  

You don’t need to spend a lot of money to get started.  The important thing is that you begin to treat your business like a business.