So, you’re considering starting your own home based business, but are a little uneasy and nervous about taking your first steps.  Don’t panic.  We’re here to help answer your questions!  To try and help ease you into making a more informed decision, I’m going to write about some questions I think you might have about getting started.

1.  Do I have the time to run a business if I have children?

This is a tough question, and believe it or not, it’s the most important question you have to ask yourself.  As a stay at home mom or dad, your first priorities are the children.   If you decide to run a business, will you still have the time to devote to them?  If you know what type of business you want to participate in, you’ll have a better understanding of the time and resources needed.  This should help you make a more informed decision as to whether or not you will have time available to do your daily tasks with your children.

No matter what business opportunity you choose to do (and we’ll review many here on SimplyWebtastic.com), you will have to make some adjustments and sacrifices to your lifestyle.  Hopefully, you will be able to find a balance between life and work.  Remember, you’re going to be the boss!  You will need to learn to set your own schedules and stick to them.

Depending on the age of your children, you may be able to dedicate your time to the business while they’re in school.  If they’re still young (like mine), you’ll need to try and get them involved in your business.  Make some of the tasks you do for your business a game for them and maybe they’ll develop some good skills from it and hopefully, they’ll learn to respect what you are doing and give you the space and time to do what you need.

2.  Is it ok to run a business from my home (licenses & permits)?

I’m not a lawyer.  So this question is best left to a little research on the Internet.  You can easily visit your State’s online Business Regulations website and do a little research for home based businesses.  If you’re going to have people coming in-and-out of your home, you should definitely check for any zoning issues.  If you’re going to run an online business, you’re probably all set.  However, a little due diligence on your part is always best.

3.  Will I need additional education to run my home based business?

Again, that all depends on what you want to do.  You know what you’re capable of doing, but try asking friends and relatives if they think you have what it takes to do that line of work.  If you’re choosing an online business, there are plenty of resources available to bring you up to speed on the latest trends and technologies.  I will be setting up resource pages with links to various guides on HTML, web page designing, search engine optimization, and other topics that should help you build your business.

Remember, no one knows everything!  Trial and error is part of that learning experience.  Don’t be afraid to take a chance, especially if you’ve taken the time to educate yourself on what you want to do.  You’ll be amazed at the number of free online training seminars and tutorials that are available on the web.  Use any of your favorite search engines to search out the training you want.  Chances are you’ll find it.

4.  How much money do I need to get started with my business?

It will vary depending on what type of business you choose to enter.  I work primarily in starting online businesses, so I have more understanding of those costs and will try to give more detailed information in future articles.  Just remember to be realistic!  You’re looking to make extra money as a stay at home mom or dad.  You’re probably not in the position to drain your life savings to take a chance on an opportunity, so choose wisely and within your means.

Starting an online business is not very expensive.  Honestly, the biggest expense you’ll probably have, and it’s one I highly recommend, is to incorporate your business for legal and financial reasons.  Unfortunately, there is usually a yearly business renewal fee.  Mine is $500 per year.  Whether you choose to have a lawyer setup your business, or use an online service, ask others their opinion about whether or not you should separate your business from your personal assets.  I think you’ll see that most will say yes.

5.  Should I involve my family in this decision?

Absolutely!!!  As a stay at home mom or dad, you will definitely need the cooperation of all family members to make your dream a reality.  They all have to be willing to back you up in your decisions and willing to give you the time you need to meet your goals.  Talk to them and discuss the future benefits to the family.  Together you’re a team and as a team, the sky’s the limit.

I hope you found these questions and answers helpful.  I hope to have many more of them here at SimplyWebtastic.com.

So, you’ve decided on a product or two to sell online and are in the process of finding yourself a good wholesaler for your product.  You sit back in your favorite chair, power up your laptop, open up your favorite web browser and type in Wholesaler or Distributor into the search box.  STOP!!!

Do not use search engines to find online wholesalers and distributors.  The vast majority of REAL wholesalers do not advertise on the Internet.  They simply don’t need or want to!  As a wholesaler, they usually do not sell directly to the public, just to other businesses.  This is why you need to make sure you’ve established your business identity before starting your wholesaler search (see my post on Establishing Your Business Financial Structures for some guidelines on starting your business).  The real wholesalers do not advertise on the Internet because they simply don’t want to be bothered by thousands of smaller companies with marginal orders.  They would prefer just dealing with the larger retailers.

Avoid the Middleman! 

When you search for wholesalers and distributors though online search engines, you’re likely to encounter middlemen pretending to be real distributors.  In fact, they’re just acting as intermediaries between the real wholesaler and you, and charging you more than what they pay the wholesaler.  This cuts back on your profit and makes the middleman big bucks since they’re not competing to sell the product to the public.  You are!

So where do you find the real wholesalers and distributors?  Are they kept a secret?

No, wholesalers and distributors are not secret, but they are hidden treasures because many people simply do not know the proper way to find them.  While finding them does take a little effort and patience, anyone can do it.

How to Manually Find a Wholesaler 

The process is simple.  Let’s say you want to sell a particular MP3 player.  If you own that MP3, look on the back of the device or in the product manuals for the manufacturer of the product.  If you don’t own the product you’re looking to sell, try going to a store that may sell it, like Best Buy.  Take a notepad with you and write down some information from the product.  Look for model and serial numbers and any references to manufacturer.

Once you know the manufacturer’s name, give them a call.  Let them know your business name and ask them if they sell to individual companies.  Chances are they will say no, but this is to be expected.  If they won’t sell directly to you, ask for an authorized list of distributors for their products.  The initial sales rep may not know the answer, but someone at their company should be able to get you a list.

Once you have obtained a list from the manufacturer of their authorized distributors, simply give the distributors a call and setup an account with them.  If they have multiple distributors, see if they have a website listed and visit each.  If no website is available, give each company a call.  You’re looking to see which distributor offers the best services for your needs.  Do you need them to drop ship for you?  If so, this would be an important question to ask them.

Bottom line, if you want a real wholesaler, you’ll have to do some homework.  The process is not difficult, but will involve a little research and effort.  Remember, avoid searching the online search engines for this information.  Wholesalers and distributors don’t advertise, so 99% of the time the ones you see listed online are fake wholesalers run by middlemen.

What is a Reseller Certificate? 

A Reseller Certificate allows you, through your business, to buy goods without paying tax.  It is your responsibility to collect the applicable taxes from your customers when they order the product from you.  Currently, most states require you to collect taxes from customers who reside in the state your business is registered in.

If you need to clarify your State’s position on collecting taxes, you should refer to your State’s tax webpage for current information.

Who Needs a Reseller Certificate?

Basically, if you purchase products with the intent to resell it to someone else, you should have a reseller certificate.  More importantly, the reseller certificate allows you to do business with wholesalers and distributors who normally require a valid Tax ID to open an account.  The wholesaler will ask you to provide a Resale Certificate as proof that the property is being purchased for resale.  This allows them to sell their products to you without having to collect taxes from you.  Essentially, they’re placing the burden of collecting taxes in your hands.  Whatever there reasons, if you don’t have a reseller certificate, they’re not going to give you business.

If you’re in the business of selling products online, check your State’s taxation website for information on how to obtain a Reseller Certificate.

If you are looking to sell products on the Internet, finding a good wholesale supplier is a must.  With such a crowded online marketplace, distinguishing yourself from all the other competitors can be difficult, and many times, price is the determining factor.  The better price you can get from your wholesaler, the better profit margins you can squeeze from your customers.

But how does one go about finding a good wholesaler, and how do they differ from one another?

First, let’s discuss what a wholesale supplier is, and how some “middlemen” disguise themselves as wholesalers in search of profit.  A wholesale supplier is a company that can offer you products at a significant discount to the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP).  You purchase the product from the wholesale supplier and resell it to your customers at a higher price.  The difference in these two prices is your profit.

Wholesale suppliers generally do not sell to customers directly, but only to legitimate resellers with valid reseller certificates (see my article on Setting Up Your Business Financial Structures for more information).  So if you find a company claiming to be a wholesale supplier and they will sell to you without a reseller’s certificate, then chances are, they are acting as a “middleman”.  A middleman is simply a person, or company, that pretends to be a wholesaler offering a low price.  While in fact, they are acting as the purchaser for the real wholesale supplier.  The price they charge you is higher that what they purchase the product for from the real wholesaler.  They keep the difference as their profit.

Another feature of a fake wholesale supplier is the charging of monthly account fees to do business with them.  The only fee true wholesale suppliers usually charge valid customers is what they call a drop-ship fee, and on very rare occasions, an initial setup fee.  This drop-ship fee, usually in the range of $1 - $5, covers the cost to the wholesaler for the services of processing, packaging and shipping your order directly to your customer.  This is also known as blind drop-shipping since they usually include your name on the packing slip, not theirs.  Even though it is an additional expense to you, think about the benefits to you.  You have no inventory, no warehouse, no personnel to handle packaging, and basically, no overhead.  It’s well worth the fee, and as always, the cheaper the fee the better, since it does eat into your profits.

Wholesale suppliers usually differ from one another in the selection of goods available for purchase, their wholesale costs, and the fees they charge you (if any) to drop-ship the product to your customer.  Suppliers with a narrow focus of product lines tend to give a better base discounts on items verses a supplier that offers many product lines.  That is usually because they buy more from a certain manufacturer and qualify for a better discount, which is then passed along to you, the reseller.  The suppliers with a wide selection of product lines hope to lure those resellers looking for a single supplier for many types of goods.

So, where do you find a good wholesale supplier?  There are many places on the Internet that will try to sell you wholesaler/drop-shipper lists, but most are old, out-dated copies of the same lists that have been floating around the Internet for years.  While there is no single source for finding valid drop-shippers, the site that I found to be very helpful and informative is World Wide Brands.  They not only have a current directory of wholesalers, but articles and videos about the do’s and don’ts of drop-shipping.  If you are interested in selling online and are looking for a wholesaler, give World Wide Brands a look.  Chances are you’ll find a good wholesaler from them.  I did. 

Regardless of whether you need only one product type, or access to hundreds of products, do your homework.  Verify that the company is in good standing with the Better Business Bureau and check the web to see if others have done business with them and reported problems.  Chances are that if you’ve found a true wholesaler, you won’t find them listed all over the Internet.  Online merchants are usually tight-lipped about where they get their products from.  This is because they don’t want competitors undercutting their sales.

Are software costs eating into your profit? In order to keep your home office or small business running smoothly, certain productivity applications are a must. Unfortunately, for those on a budget, software purchases can get expensive. Over the years, I have found that many of the tasks that I perform can be done with free software running on either a Windows PC or a Linux PC, thereby reducing or eliminating a significant yearly expense.

I have tried to compile a list of some free software applications to replace those commercial ones commonly found on a Windows PC and used for small business day-to-day operations.

Office Suite (Word Processing, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Drawing)

This is probably the biggest application that most small businesses will spend money on, and it’s the one that they will probably use the most. Thankfully, there are products out there (yes, life does exist outside of Microsoft Office) that can easily handle your office demands and are absolutely free.

My recommendation for a Microsoft Office replacement is Open Office. This open-source application has been around for many years and has gone through intense community refinement. Open Office 2.3, the lastest release as of this writing, is a remarkable product and the fact that it can open most commercial documents cleanly (except currently the newest Office .docx file-type), helps make the transition away from paid applications much easier.

 
Open Office 2.3 - Word processing is called Writer 

Whether it is word-processing, spreadsheets or presentations, Open Office can handle the task. Most Office documents convert cleanly and require little change. If you still interact with clients that use Microsoft products, you can always maintain the Microsoft file format for their viewing pleasure. Unless you have highly customizable macros and Excel formulas, you should not run into many problems. For those problems that do occur, the Open Office Support Forum Community probably has a fix or work-around waiting for you.

Photo Editing

Are you a professional photographer or graphic artist? Or maybe just a hobbyist shutterbug? Either way, photo editing software is expensive. The standard is Adobe Photoshop and it is a beautiful product. However, it is very expensive. If you are looking for the same image editing and special effects power of Photoshop, take a look at GIMP. GIMP stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program, and is another free open-source application with a vast following and support forum.

GIMP - Image Manipulation Program 

My biggest disappointment with GIMP is the multiple windowed interface verses Adobes single pane interface which seems and feels cleaner. However, with a little patience and practice, this is easily overcome, and once you discover the true power of this free product, you’ll understand why so many people have turned to it.

e-Mail

Many users use, and are accustomed to, Microsoft Outlook Express which is free. Since it is free, there is no budgetary impact. However, for those looking for another free alternative, I would like to suggest Mozilla’s ThunderBird e-mail client. This e-mail application has all the bells and whistles of Outlook Express and is also available on Linux PCs.

Mozilla’s ThunderBird e-Mail Client 

Do you use Yahoo, MSN or Google as your web e-mail address for your business? While these work fine, it is very cheap now-a-days to purchase e-mail with your own business domain name for under $10 a year! If you are looking for that extra personal business touch, consider upgrading your e-mail to match your business name. It will give your business a more professional appeal.

Remember, anything that costs you money eats into your profits. While not every open-source product will meet your needs, take the time to look for ones that can replace your commercial applications. The savings in initial and yearly maintenance costs can be significant.

If you decide to write an online blog, you will need to create a domain name so that others will be able to find you on the Internet.  You have two choices: subscribe to an online blog service like Wordpress.com or Blogger.com, or create your own branded name like mine, SimplyWebtastic.com.

Take the time to consider your blog’s name and how you want people to access it.

If you subscribe to an online blog service, your blog’s domain name will be something like, mysite.blogger.com.  This format is slightly larger than a standard domain name, and it is harder for readers to remember.  However, for casual blogging this is a great method and above all, it’s free and a good, fast way to get started in blogging.

The alternate choice is to register for your own domain name.  You can read my previous article about choosing web hosts to get a better understanding about the costs and benefits of each method.

In this post, I would like to discuss the implications to your readers of choosing one method over the other. Your website name helps you build credibility and a sense of professionalism around your blog.  Having a domain name that reflects your topic, theme, mood, or brand image, helps the reader to associate more with your blog.  Above all, I think that this personalized domain name gives the blogger a truer sense of ownership and pride.  This is your domain!

There are also the more tangible benefits as well.  Your own domain means that you can have e-mail addresses branded with your domain name and depending on the name you chose, you may also get better search engine ranking.

I have been asked many times how I came up with the name SimplyWebtastic.  Honestly, I came up with this name back in 1998 just as the Internet was getting it’s steam.  For some reason, I liked it and decided to register it.  Now, 10 years later, I’m finding a use for it with blogging.  It may be slightly long, but I think it’s a name that is different and may stick in readers heads.  If that happens, then it will have turned out to be a very good name!

So, if you are thinking about blogging, give some (no a lot) of thought into how you want your name to show and what you want it to be.  Let it reflect who you are, and I think you’ll get more enjoyment from the blogging experience.

An important, and often overlooked, first step in organizing your new business, is to setup all your financial structures that will control the flow of your money.  In this topic, we will cover many of the back-end infrastructures that should be in place to allow you to successfully conduct your business.  Some of this may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised how many people forget about them.

1.  Business Checking and Saving Accounts

If you own a business, you will probably need to pay bills and collect money from customers.  Establishing a business checking and savings account is a must.  This allows you to separate your personal and business monies which allows for easier accounting.

Most banks have various business checking account packages available depending on your monthly check writing usage.  For small companies, you should be able to find banks that offer packages with no monthly fees.

You should search the Internet for local banks to see what services they have to offer. They are sometimes very competitive and will try to match other banks in order to get your business.

SUGGESTION:  Smaller companies might want to open two checking accounts (especially if they have no monthly fees).  Why? If you sell on eBay, you will most likely use the payment service called PayPal.  While this is a beneficial service for both the buyer and seller, there are many hackers out there that try very hard to steal PayPal account numbers.

I have personally be a victim of a PayPal scam where my wife received an e-mail requesting her to verify information within our account by clicking on the link in the e-mail.  A few days later, my checking account was drained of about $1000.

While the representatives at PayPal and my local bank were very responsive in refunding the money that was fraudulently taken, I needed to then close that checking account and open a new one.  I also needed to order new checks, redo all my on-line banking and change all my on-line accounts that referenced the closed account number.  Quite a hassle!

The addition of a second checking account helps remove some of the hassle should your account be stolen.  Have one checking account as your primary one.  This account is used for check writing and bill payment.  The second checking account can be the one given out to agencies such as PayPal.  By linking up your bank accounts, you can always move the money from one account to another from your secure web browser.

If the PayPal checking account gets stolen, just close it and open another one.  There will be far less steps and headaches than if your primary checking account was stolen.

2.  Business Credit Card(s)

A business credit card will allow you to purchase goods and services for your company and keep them separate from your personal finances.  Again, this is good for tax reporting.  It’s also a good way for someone starting their first business to establish credit.  Establishing good credit will allow you to request credit-lines in the future.

Do your research with the business credit cards.  There are many of them out there that offer different incentives, such as money back, frequent flier miles and points towards special gifts.

Choose the one that best suites your tastes and needs.

3.  Resellers Certificate

If you are going to need to do business with a wholesaler or distributor, they will normally require you to submit a Resellers Certificate when you open your account with them.  This certificate allows you to purchase goods from them without paying sales tax.  It will be YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to collect these taxes from your buyers when they order from you.

Starting your own business, whether large or small, requires many careful financial considerations that will effect you and your future business.  Creating a business entity, such as a Sole Proprietorship, Corporation, Partnership, or LLC, will help separate your personal financial information from that of your business.  The choice you make can impact many aspects of your business, including taxes, liability, ownership and other factors.  Unless you are well versed in legal matters, you are best to consult a trained lawyer properly setup and execute your business documents.

In the end, a properly setup business could save you future financial troubles, since in most cases, your personal assets will be separated from your business assets.  Remember, according to statistics from the Small Business Administration (SBA), most new businesses fail.  This is an unlikely thought that most new business owners want to consider, but they should have a fail-safe plan just in case the worst happens.

The question asked was, “Should I incorporate my business?”  My answer would be ”absolutely!”  Why take the unnecessary risk.  Protect yourself, your family, and your future by developing a well thought out business plan and then formalize it by incorporating.  There will be an initial expense, but in the end, it will be worth it.

You should also talk to your lawyer about the tax benefits of incorporation.  As a business, you will be able to write-off many things that you could not do before.  This alone may justify the initial and yearly fees that incorporation require.