Opening your own business: DBA or no DBA

A Fictitious Business Name or DBA ( "Doing Business As") should be created if you do not want to use your own legal name as the title of your business or if you're a Corporation, LLC, etc and want to operate multiple businesses.

Sole Proprietors can use their full name in their business, ie. James Gunford Interior Design. If you have multiple partners or if you use first names ie., Joe's Garage, you have to file an assumed name or DBA. A DBA also lets you use a typical business name without creating a formal legal entity like a corporation or LLC.

For Corps and LLC, it allows you to open multiple businesses without having to create a legal entity for each business. For instance, you're a S-Corp and want to open multiple optometry offices. You can set up a corporation name like Eye Corp and open an office called Opto World in one city and Eye World in another.

When you figure out a name for your DBA, you should trademark that name, especially if its retail or food industry. Go to http://www.uspto.gov/teas/ to find out if the name has been taken and file an online application to get it trademarked. The fee is $250 and the process takes about 2-3 months. Concurrently, you need to file your DBA with the local county office or state government agency. In California, after you file for your DBA, you have to publish a notice in your local newspaper and submit an affidavit to show that you have fufilled the publication requirement.

Opening your own business: obtaining a lease

Figuring out what a lease entails can be quite confusing, especially for someone like me who did not know anything about business. But from the past 6 months, I have learned a few things about leases, so I will pass on my knowledge, although not much!

So you have found the perfect spot for your small business and are ready to discuss lease terms with the property manager. What are some few things that you should ask? 1) price per sq footage ( it will be good to know the average price that people are charging in your area). 2) Tenant improvement: how much will the property owner give you to do your tenant improvements in the building. For the most part, the longer the lease term, the more money the property owner should give to the tenant for tenant improvement. 3) Gross lease, double net lease, or triple net lease: Gross lease is when the tenant pays rent and the owner takes care of everything else, which is commonly used in residential properties. Double net lease is when the landlord commonly covers parking, heating and cooling system, and the structural integrity of the building. Triple net lease or True net lease is when the landlord has no responsibility related to building upkeeping. This can be good for the tenant cause they have complete control over the property. A triple net lease can be risky for landlords because tenants may allow the building to fall into dispair. 4) How long is the landlord going to give you free rent for tenant improvements. Usually landlords of commercial buildings will allow 1-6 months of free rent so the tenant can build their business.

That's all that I know for what to look out for during lease discussions. If I am missing something, please leave a comment so other people can be informed as well.

Opening your own business: corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship?

So what is the next step after you have written your business plan? Figure out how you're gonna get money!! Most cities offer loans from their redevelopment center in small amounts ( roughly 40K) with small interest rates, so that would be a good possibility to look into. If you're going to do business in San Jose, CA, the redevelopment Agency offers a max 40K loan with a 3-6% interest rate. There is an Opportunity Fund that can give up to 200K in small business loans. Just contact the city that you're thinking of doing business in for more questions about their loan programs. Good luck on that!

While you're figuring out how to get money for your small business, you should start looking into what kind of business entity you want to be: sole proprietorship, corporation, partnership or LLC. How do you decide? Here are some websites I found helpful:

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID/ED01121A-B4BF-498A-8BC0DBD121A0C869/catID/BAAE1B67-F54A-41B4-91943A51F56C3F79/111/182/245/FAQ/

http://www.themoneyalert.com/Corp-Entity-Table.html

http://nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID/63773C59-44CB-488D-8F3659FDE5C899DB

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectId/3FD19141-DB91-4FCA-BDB93416A4D05479/111/182/147/ART/

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectId/BC12D427-ED89-439F-AECBD53DC24EB012/catID/DA9428C8-2E99-47F2-A24C1190FE5F24E7/111/182/275/ART/

Once you have decided what kind of business entity you would like to go with, you will need to come up with a name and register that entity with the state that you're doing business in. I found Legalzoom.com very helpful. You just have to fill out information about your business and personal information and they compile it together and register it for you in your state of choice. You will have to pay a little more than if you did it yourself, but saves you time and headache

Ok I hope that helped! Stay tuned for the next step. Ciao!

Don't get scammed!

We received in the mail a letter from the "Annual Review Board Statement of Information LLC" saying that we need to pay $228.00 by Dec 15, 2008. It looked like a very legitimate letter stating all the California LLC codes and provisions. I looked up the codes and provisions online, and they turned out to be true. We were suppose to sent in a payment to the state of CA soon. It also had our CA LLC number and control number. It also had a bald eagle seal on the top left corner. But one thing was suspicious, the routing address was from Los Angeles. Why was that suspicious? When you start a corporation, partnership, or LLC, it goes through the secretary of state office in Sacramento (if you're doing business in CA).

So I called the secretary of state in Sacramento, and lone and behold, they told me it was a scam!! They also noted that a lot of people have been calling in to inquire about such forms being mailed to them. All legitimate forms will be sent from the Secretary of State. So don't be scammed! Always check the fine print.

Opening your own business: business plan

I've had a lot of requests to write a blog on how to open your own business. So, thus, I have started this blog. I am currently opening my own small business and it has been a rough ride. Green Cup Frozen Yogurt is my long over due baby, but there is light at the end of the tunnel! We finally have an opening date, which is January 16 (crossing fingers).

Anyways, enough about my ventures. I am going to mirror this blog to what my steps were to open Green Cup, so look forward to hearing more about the obstacles that I faced while opening up the store.

Okay, let's get going. First, you will need to develop a business plan. The business plan is one of the most important things you have to do in opening your own business. Why? It is your reference guide, the "holy" book that you look back to. Not only is it used to guide you to opening day, but if it's good, it will guide you through many years of hardship and success. A business plan should be very long and extensive in detail. It outlines the specific of your business so the more detailed it is, the better it is for you as a reference in the future.

So what is in a business plan? Here is a website that I found helpful. It lays out the necessary categories to include in your plan.
http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html
(side note: the market analysis may be a little difficult. The information for demographics is hard to find on the internet. Fortunately, we knew someone who was in the real estate business who provided us with the info. Good Luck!) You should take advantage of this website. It is a great reference guide to help you finish your business plan and it provides way more information than I could.

So to conclude, get working on your business plan!! In all honesty, it will seem like such a daunting task to finish this plan, but you will not regret it. We have referred back to our business plan many times. Good Luck! Stay tuned for the next step...