Fancy French Cologne, LLC

Dorkily, we roll along....

Last night we decided that we needed to ONCE AND FOR ALL, decide on our business structure. We have been hemming and hawing for weeks as we gathered plenty of conflicting advice from friends, family and colleagues.In the end, we finally settled on creating an LLC, as opposed to just a partnership.
When you are trying to make this decision, it is important to consider what you think your business will look like a year from now and further into the future, not to mention how much money you think you will need to get started and maintain your business. A partnership is great because they are super easy to create - all you need is a written agreement between you and your partner. The only trouble is, that not only will you be personally liable for any debts your business racks up, but you also be liable for any debt your business PARTNER racks up! If you know that crazy Christine, you know that is a chance I cannot well take. But seriously folks, this decision is one that is made without any emotional influences, it is about protecting yourself while you attempt your venture. It doesn't matter if we are the best of friends and trust each other deeply, it still makes sense to protect our precious personal credit while we take this plunge together.
If you are thinking about creating a business entity, this is a great resource for reading about the pros and cons of each:

Small Business Planner

Another thing that initially made us hesitant to form an LLC was the minimum $800 tax you have to pay annually to maintain it. It seems like a lot of money to throw down when you are just starting out and not sure how things are going to play out. However, a friend pointed out that this is not the place to try and save money. You want to make sure you do this right. And, in the grand scheme of things, with all other business expenses considered, it is really a small price to pay to protect yourself.
Well, now that we have that out of the way, it's time to start the fun stuff. Stay tuned. Tally Ho!!!!

This should be an easy project.

On January 15th,2010, Econsultancy posted an article called "Five client statements that frustrate freelancers". I wanted to share a couple of these here as they relate to our own experience, because when you are starting your own online business, you will most likely need to hire a variety of different professionals to help you achieve your vision. While you are still the client, these are good guidelines to follow so you can come off as professional and experienced in your interactions:

1. "This should be an easy project"
After 4+ years of working at a tech company, I can tell you this statement drives engineers and developers nuts. Remember, you are hiring them for a reason: because you most likely have no idea what it takes to build out a fully functioning site. Let them decide if it is easy, and get multiple quotes if you think their time estimate is off the mark. Actually scratch that. Always get multiple quotes :)

2. "I don't have much money for this but it could lead to future work down the road."
When Christine and I started looking for web designers we liked, I found one that I was really set on pretty early on. I waited for what seemed like a millenium to get his quote and when I finally did it was WAY outside of our budget. After doing some more research we were able to break down all of the tasks we wanted him to do and figure out which ones would benefit most from his touch. We decided that we really only needed him to develop a logo and identity system for us, not necessarily build the entire site. He was able to give us a rate well within our budget for that specific task. So instead of haggling back and forth and over promising on work in the future, we were able to figure out a way for both of our needs to be met.

3."I'm looking for someone who can handle X,Y and Z"
(X, Y and Z are, of course, completely unrelated)
While it is perfectly OK to be clear about what you are looking to have accomplished, make sure that the person you are seeking is actually the right person for that task. As the article states, "your chances of finding a good freelancer decrease exponentially when you seek out someone who can 'do it all' because the jack of all trades is almost always a master of none." It sometimes seems a whole lot easier to just hire one person to do everything, but you always have to ask yourself if there is someone else within your budget that can do it better.

Read the full article here.