1 - Business Setup

Business Setup:  As you are getting your official business set up, you will want to start with these next items.

1.  Get your business name nailed down.  DON’T MAKE THIS PART HARD.  So many people get stuck on a name...you can always change this later on.  Choose a name and get this going!

If you need help, here is a place to generate names for you.

2.  Check to see if the domain is available on godaddy.com and if it's available in your state and buy it.  

a.  Look in GODADDY  and the trademark office to see if it’s available.

If available, buy the .COM from godaddy.  If your name is not available then tweak it a bit.  I had a pillows business that sold pillows. Pillows.com wasn’t available so I put a 2 behind it for pillows2.com and It cost $7.99.

I was going to buy becauseican.com, but someone wanted to sell it for thousands so I bought becauseicanlife.com instead.  Tweak your name to save you big bucks!!

b.  BUY your domain when you find it.  If you come back to it later, more than likely, someone else will have purchased it.  I can’t confirm, but I'm pretty sure they have systems built it for what people are searching for...so people can buy them up and then resell them to you for top dollar.

c.  Get the privacy option.  It will save you from 2 a.m. random spam calls.  It costs around $10. WELL worth it!

d. Buying a domain should only cost around $20 with a year or two and privacy protection.  DON’T Spend big bucks here.

 e. GoDaddy will also try to sell you everything under the hood.  Don’t get it. Just a domain. That’s it.

3.  Set up a PayPal account under your business name.  It's free.

4.  Get your social account names set up.  YOU MAY NOT WANT or know how to use them now, but it will save you a lot of trouble if you do in the future.  Get your INSTAGRAM first and then Facebook. If one of your accounts doesn’t match up, then feel free to add ‘official’ to the end.  That is what I had to do on my Instagram because I waited six months to get it :(

Note:  If you hate your business name down the road, it's okay.  Just get what is known as a DBA (Doing Business As).  It costs around $22 here in Utah.  Go to your state's gov page and search DBA, and there will be a form to fill out.  I have a lot of DBA's, so they are not bad to have.

Australia

You'll need to register to get your ABN here.