Paperwork, smaperwork

So one of the more confusing aspects of setting up your home business is figuring out the paperwork and the necessary licenses for the city, state, and federal. We decided to use a credible legal document procurer recommended to us to help suss out what is needed to establish ourselves. We decided to go with an LLC for liability purposes, and many of the websites/books we read said it was good to get an Employer Identification Number.

According to the IRS website, the purpose of an EIN is:

• Start or Started a new business.
• If your business has hired or will hire employees, needs to open a bank account, has a change in entity ownership, or purchased an established business. These are just a few examples there are additional situations that would require a Tax ID to be in compliance with The IRS.
• Your EIN will identify your business accounts, tax returns, and many other business related documents.

We pinged a few of those listed reasons, so caught up in great swelling of entrepreneurial spirit, I made sure to apply early this morning and felt very accomplished to have a tangible footprint in the business world.

Except.

Except.

We might not need an EIN this early - especially since our LLC isn't even registered or trademarked yet, though it's in the process now. Guess this can go into the lesson learned category?

The Ins and Outs...

Since my partner and I are novices in the (small) business arena (as mentioned before, we're usually on the employee/worker bee end of the spectrum), we've been scouring the internet and bookshelves for information that will help us learn how to become smarter entrepreneurs.There are a list of books that have proved to be especially helpful - at least in this stage of our venture - in no particular order:

1. The Handmade Marketplace: How to Sell Your Crafts Locally, Globally, and Online by Kari Chapin
2. How To Start a Home-Based Online Retail Business by Jeremy Shepherd, Revised & updated by Nicole L. Augenti, Esq.
3. How To Start a Business in Arizona (2nd Edition, part of the SmartStart Series)
4. Down to Business: The First 10 Steps to Entrepreneurship for Women by Clara Villarosa with Alicia Villarosa
5. Business for Beginners: From Research and Business Plans to Money, Marketing, and the Law by Frances McGuckin
6. The Complete Idiot's Guide To: Starting Your Own Business (4th Edition) by Edward Paulson
7. Starting an Online Business for Dummies: Promote, Secure, and Lower the Cost of Your Online Site by Greg Holden
8. The Ultimate Small Business Guide: A Resource For Startups and Growing Businesses (Basic Books)
9. How to Make Big MOney in Your Own Small Business: Unexpected Rules Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know by Jeremy J. Fox
10. Cyber Rules: Strategies for Excelling at E-Business by Thomas M. Siebel and Pat House

 There were a bunch of other books we checked out of the library, but the information therein was similar to the books listed above, so not worth mentioning. We are still in the kiddie pool part of the online business world, and gradually each day gather the gumption to wade in further.

The Big Picture

This is a big picture day.

 Sometimes it's good to push past the small details and look at the whole picture instead of focusing on the paint strokes, just to keep in mind what exactly we're working towards.

The Thing Is...

Creativity is exhausting.

Ideas are abundant, but bringing them to fruition is a long and frustrating, sometimes overwhelming, process. Of course, it could be the result of a long day and a very long week (yes, I'm aware it's only Tuesday).

Today's assignment was to research paint and flooring costs. Since we do not have any measuring tools, we resorted to using what was at hand, or in this case, foot (size 12).

So the room's measurements were figured out (more or less) and then we started thinking about the colors we wanted which would reflect the company. After all, the whole point in redecorating the room was to make it into our company HQ. We were smug knowing our business colors already, one of the first things we thought of when we conceived our company.

Then we used the Sherwin-William paint program that allows you to daub paint on virtual walls so you can see how it looks. Suddenly our company colors weren't so great after all because two of the colors were too close together on the color wheel and the third was always too something (bold, light, dark, etc). Plus the color scheme is important because, like flowers, every color represents something.

Research has shown that color influences our emotions in a variety of ways, but perhaps most importantly, it's the first sensory touch point with a customer or client. "The first point of interaction is shaped by the color, and color is the most memorable sense," says Leslie Harrington, the executive director of The Color Association and a color consultant. "Before anything else, they see color." (1)

Case studies have shown that a consumer's decision to purchase products can range from anywhere between 60 and 80 percent based on the product's color.  Color has the unique ability to make or break the success of a product, Harrington notes. "It doesn't cost you any more to make the right color decision for your product. But if you choose the wrong color, from the onset, you're not going to communicate what you want to your customer.' In other words, if you get it wrong, it can really impact the overall performance of your company. (2)

Who knew?

Guess we'll have to go back to square one and make sure the colors we choose are for the customer and not personal preference.

R&B = RooBee

Today an artist will be working on a few rough drafts of our company logo.

We have a general idea of what exactly we're going to use, we know what colors we want, and we've narrowed down the size to be used.

I can't wait for Wednesday when it'll be revealed!

Update: Well, we received three rough drafts and narrowed it down to one that we both could agree on. The artist will hopefully have it completed by Sunday. 

Cognito Ergo Sum

As we're scouring the internet for great ideas for office furniture, I'm becoming more and more convinced we need to repaint the walls. Right now they're a dingy white and extremely boring; it stifles the creativity which is a cornerstone of our company's goals.

Thus paint samples and curtains have moved up the list to "necessary part of our office makeover" and it "just as important as scoping out the best deals for equipment." Naturally that should've been the first thought - after all why buy new stuff that will inevitably make everything else look even dingier and more boring? - but it wasn't. I'm just glad we had the thought now instead of after we already did the back-breaking work of setting up the office only to realize it would look better with different colored walls.

This blog has some good tips on what to do when choosing the right colors for your rooms. We have a certain color scheme in mind for our company and I think if we can find the right shades, it might behoove us to use them to paint the walls. Even if we're working from a home office, at least we can make it seem like it's Roobee's headquarters once the door closes.

Office Space Saver

Based on Jaime's timely suggestion, research into the Expedit line of space organizers has revealed a virtual treasure trove of great ideas to do with the easily constructed shelves.

Upgrade Ikea Blog has a great tutorial complete with pictures to show the process and end result of building a series of different Expedit shelving units. The pictures below are from the Tanya's website which was discovered after I searched the web for Expedit images.

This is probably the best option for RooBee's needs, and is relatively inexpensive, which is a much needed and desired quality. Happily there is a much needed supply run coming up in the near future, so this may soon find a home with us!

Office Space

Office space is more than just a quirky niche film; it's the bread and butter of any company, much less a fledgling up-start of a start up.

We are fortunate enough to have a low cost solution (dog mascot sold separately):

Once it's spruced up and given the good ole RooBee (TM) makeover, it will be one step closer to global online domination.

Brainstorming

Being procrastinators by nature and habit, it is a daunting prospect to start up a company in this faltering economy. Even speaking the words aloud - "I want to make money and be my own boss" - feels as if we're intentionally inviting the gods of Failure and Humiliation into our parlor with a smile. It is a lot easier to work for someone else and allow ourselves to be cogs in the wondrous machine of Corporate America.

Easier, certainly. Better, not so much.

Growing up we were taught we were intelligent females with educational prospects and limitless opportunities for careers. What we weren't told was how hard it was to start said careers once we graduated with those shiny degrees clutched in our clammy little hands because our resumes were identical to thousands of others who also graduated with the same dreams. The urban jungles of modern society are as deadly to navigate as  alligator-infested swamps, albeit with slightly different rules: instead of the fittest being those most suited to their environment, it's those who embody the old adage "it's not what you know, but who you know."

Fast forward ten years and you find us sallow-faced, carpal-tunnel cramped, and bleary-eyed as we defensively make our way through hour long commutes so we can do our jobs for adequate pay which covers the bills and not much else. We acknowledge we are fortunate to be employed in a state where 8% of the population is unable to find work of any kind and can't be supported by the local government because the till is empty, yet the soul-draining monotony of each day is cruel in its own way.

Hence the need for something new to dig us out of our ruts despite the seeming comfort and security it provides.

Regardless of his politics, Barack Obama was completely correct when he said, "Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change we seek."  It is this sentiment, this cry to battle, that drives us to turn RooBee Box from a wistful dream into a money-making reality despite a) never owning a business before, b) lacking the practical knowledge about owning a small business, and c) operating with shoe-string budgetary concerns.

If anything, this next year should prove to be more entertaining, educational, and scarier than the preceding ten.