Starting a New Business in 12 Easy Steps

by becki on May 23, 2013

We’ve got a long holiday weekend coming up here in the U.S. and if you’re looking for a project,  I thought I’d share with you how I got my business up and running fast and inexpensively.

First, I get a ton of support at home. I’m lucky to be able to be a dependent on Maria’s health, dental and vision insurance, and lucky that she supports my efforts. I don’t recommend launching a business without the support you need at home.

Second, I have a team of people that I can count on to do the things that I’m no good doing or just plain hate to do. I really don’t recommend doing all of this yourself when there are talented, capable people who love what they do and will do it for you at a reasonable price.

12 Steps to Start a New Consulting Business

  1. I got the business registered as a LLC and licensed in the state and county. I outsourced this to Christine at CKR Financial Services. She is also doing my books. This is one of those areas I get the hives doing, so I’m thrilled that Christine was available to help. Talk to Christine if you need help with any of these services. She’s fast, keeps you informed every step of the way, and her services are reasonably priced.
  2. Christine pointed me to a banker who got me setup with an account and got me a business credit card. Very quick and easy. I bet your bank would be happy to help you too.
  3. Got a Google Apps business account. $5 per month per user. Email, calendaring, documents, document storage etc.
  4. Expensify to track expenses, miles, and billable hours, and it integrates directly with Google. I really don’t know why people use any other expense tracking method. I actually don’t hate doing my expenses on Expensify – this is really high praise for anything financial related for me.
  5. UberConference – free conference calling. It notifies people to join the call and even has decent hold music.
  6. PayPal – you gotta get paid and they have multiple ways to get you paid including offering your customers 6 months same as cash. You get paid right away and your customers can pay over time. As a small business you need the cash flow. You can even invoice from PayPal if you like.
  7. Moo business cards. I got the Luxe cards and everyone I’ve given them to notices the difference and comments on how nice the cards are.
  8. Moo thank you cards with photos by my friend Thom Gould at Thomas Gould Photography. I love Thom’s photographs and I bet you will too. These cards are very nice and people love the photos. I hope they collect all 10 – I’d be doing very well indeed if they do.
  9. Web hosting from Hostgator. I also got a free 800 number with my hosting.
  10. Web theme found on Theme Forest and a theme from On Top of The World. I went to a web designer first, but I couldn’t afford them. I think my site turned out alright and I’m happy to have the difference in my pocket right now.
  11. Logos and design services from Heather at HAZ Design. Heather is talented and turned around designs quickly so I could get my business cards fast and get my website published. Her prices are also reasonable and I highly recommend her.
  12. Proposals from Bidsketch. These are done online using templates and can be signed online. Faster to the client and easy for them to accept makes for more sales.

Total cost: about $2,500 + insurance, which varies by what you need and what services you provide.

Total monthly cost: less than $150

Total time: less than 3 weeks

Lessons Learned

I spent more in time and money on the website than I originally thought, but still paid considerably less than if I had hired the design firm I looked at. I also had a specific look and quality I wanted for my site, but  you can save some money if that doesn’t matter to you. I don’t have any regrets, but it’s something you may want to look at closely if you’re thinking of starting your own business. I was fortunate that I could debug some problems with the theme and that that theme author was responsive when I needed some help, but not everyone has that ability.

Starting a business takes a bit longer that 4-5 days, but you can get a good start on it this weekend. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions and please reach out to Christine, Heather or Thom if you need the services they offer.

Good luck!

Now I can get back to working on my cloud lab

 

 

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Are You a Jailer or a Leader

by becki on May 11, 2013

What do you do to manage your employees’ productivity? Do you physically attach timers to their clothing in an attempt to ensure they don’t take a longer break than they are allotted? Do you have your salaried people clock in and out throughout the day as they come on and go off duty? Do you insist they come into the office because you can’t tell if they’re being productive while working offsite?

I personally have seen all of these “management” methods recently, and I have to ask myself, “what do you think you are managing”. These are people, not machines, and finding new ways to account for the physical location of your people isn’t going to result in increased productivity. There’s no magical production between the hours of 8 AM and 5 PM. There’s nothing magical about your office chairs and there’s nothing magical about your office.

Manage and drive the results you desire. Managing physical location during set hours only results in having people in the office during those hours, it doesn’t result in productivity. You’ll get people who watch the clock and won’t put in any extra effort. They won’t put in extra effort because you setup the rules to say work only happens from 8-5, and only from the office.

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DevOps Lab Week 2

April 10, 2013

I’ve been traveling over the last couple of weeks, so my lab work has been a bit spotty, but it’s been successful!! I was able to launch my AWS EC2 instances and automatically load both the Boundary monitor and the Cloud Passage Halo application using Puppet! It took a little bit of hacking of the [...]

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DevOps – Get On Board

April 4, 2013

A couple of weeks ago I outlined how I intended to learn more about the DevOps movement, applications and systems used by practitioners. I’m thrilled to report that there is no shortage of information freely available. Besides working on my DevOps lab, I’ve watched videos and podcasts and started Continuous Delivery. It really is an exciting time we [...]

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DevOps Lab Progress Week 1

March 23, 2013

I’m finally making some progress with the lab setup. I was spinning on the GNS3 deployment in the cloud and decided to punt and just upgrade it on my MBP. Everything was rosy then. I can connect my GNS3 virtual routers to the internet, so I’m good to go with Puppet and Razor for configuration [...]

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