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    Friday, July 31, 2020

    Home Unlabelled Business insurance rate increased 20% followed by letter stating a 20% discount to be given for 2 months due to our challenging times small business

    Business insurance rate increased 20% followed by letter stating a 20% discount to be given for 2 months due to our challenging times small business

    July 31, 2020

    Business insurance rate increased 20% followed by letter stating a 20% discount to be given for 2 months due to our challenging times small business

    Business insurance rate increased 20% followed by letter stating a 20% discount to be given for 2 months due to our challenging times

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:36 PM PDT

    Title says it all, really. We were floored at the rate hike. This letter - what a joke.

    submitted by /u/curiousminding
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    I swear there's an oversaturation of clothing companies popping up in my personalized ads. Is it really that profitable? Any personal experience with this?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 11:42 AM PDT

    I like niche clothing, and surprisingly enough, the only decent targeted advertising I get is for clothing. However, I have seen SO many clothing brands and small custom places, that I had to ask, is it even profitable?

    Does anyone on this sub have experience with running an online clothing brand?

    Do these people even license out half of the copyrighted subjects they feature on their clothing?

    Is it hard to contact a company to license out an IP?

    I only ask, because I have the design skills to make shirts. I have a lot of niche subjects I don't think are covered by clothing brands or homemade shops. I just want to know if it's even a market worth exploring at this rate.

    submitted by /u/hippymule
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    How do I register a business if I'm technically homeless?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:27 PM PDT

    So COVID has hit me pretty hard, I applied for UI but never heard back. Finally got through on the phone the other day, they had no record of my claim so I had to re-file.

    I figured I could set up a coaching business in an industry I used to work in. The problem is registering my business with the city. I have to have a physical address or register as work from home. It's "work from home" but I am staying in motels. I did get a mailbox in a storefront, but the form has all these questions about who owns the building, what is the insurance etc. I can't answer those.

    What do I do, here? I don't want to commit fraud but I also don't want to be operating without a license. Thanks.

    submitted by /u/HoboBurner1
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    Home recording studio. LLC, license, etc?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 10:53 PM PDT

    I have a home recording studio in my home that I use as a hobby and want to start using it to charge for recording time (band sessions, film scoring, voiceover, etc.). I won't be making a lot from the start but want to be sure I save myself from legal trouble if it comes up. I will be getting an LLC, but is it worth getting if I'm not expecting big business yet? Is a business license needed for something small? Is there anything else I'm not thinking of that I should look in to?

    I'd be charging $20-$40 and hour for every project that would come, depending on the amount of work needed for it. I'd be building a website and use social media platforms to advertise (mainly Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist and word of mouth). I don't plan on leaving my main job (unless this gets bigger than expected). I don't expect clients to be pouring in (probably 1 or 2 every couple months? Who knows).

    Just thought I could be making extra cash through my hobby and make it a small business. Let me know what I should be thinking about, what's not even worth worrying about, and any tips that can help me out.

    Thanks guys. Feel free to throw out questions.

    submitted by /u/hawaiianfreak
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    Owning a trade business without working ?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 05:44 PM PDT

    I was wondering if it was common to own a roofing or plumbing business without actually working and just work on management and marketing ?

    My uncle owns a roofing company with 5 employees and makes 15-20k a month net income. He doesn't do any roofing all he does is find work and then send his employees their. He just sits in his home office finding more roofing work and makes calls to the managers at the job site. Is this common in business to just focus on marketing and have your employees do the work?

    submitted by /u/van217
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    Growth and product demand is out of control right now. Is it a good idea to raise prices in order to slow things down to more manageable levels?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 04:28 PM PDT

    I run a DTC toy manufacturing/ecommerce retail shop that has exploded lately. We went from doing $250K last year to over 1MM in 2020 so far with everyone at home and customers starting to share/tag like wildfire on social media. I'm ripping my hair out though trying to get materials in during COVID. Our main two products have like 15 different materials to source and the supply chain is all out of whack on 8 of them. We are scraping together partial orders from different vendors, trying other types of packaging, our sales reps need a week to get any info because everyone is working at home, it's a giant mess right now because of the virus.

    ​

    I'm contemplating raising prices--in the middle of a pandemic. Part of me wants to say it would come off as criminal and piss off the customers who are struggling. The other part of me doesn't want to deal with the angry mob that will pop back up when we inevitably stock out again for 3 months. Our top products sell for $43 and $53 and I want to raise them to $45 and $55 to hopefully slow things down.

    submitted by /u/UH2000
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    Client Onboarding in the Health + Wellness Industry - A Survey

    Posted: 31 Jul 2020 12:25 AM PDT

    I'm interested in learning more about business software being used by startups and micro businesses in the Health & Wellness industry. (or similar)

    If this fits your business, it would be absolutely amazing if you could take a moment to answer these 10 questions. (This is an independent study so I may personally learn.)

    1. How much time do you spend on lead generation each week?

    2. How do you feel about your lead generation workflow?

    3. What about your client onboarding workflow?

    4. Which areas of client relationship management has the most challenges or is the most time consuming?

    5. How likely, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being not interested and 10 being very interested), would you hire a specialist who could increase your available time through the deployment of software that could automate lead generation and onboarding?

    6. Using the same scale, how likely would you hire a specialist who could integrate your automated workflows with your marketing campaigns?

    7. Using the same scale, how likely are you to hire a specialist who could analyze your current workflows and then advise change to increase productivity and revenue?

    8. Do you use booking/scheduling software/apps? If so, which one(s)?

    9. Do you utilize CRM software/apps? If so, which one(s)?

    10. Do you utilize team management software/apps? If so, which one(s)?

    Thank you for the help! I look forward to learning more about your business and the differences between all those who respond.

    submitted by /u/thegooseislooseyo
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    How FedEx is damaging small business during COVID19

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:36 PM PDT

    Wanted to share something that I experienced and that is happening more and more small businesses.

    https://www.reddit.com/r/FedEx/comments/i0amq0/small_business_beware_fedex_is_skipping_out_on/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x

    submitted by /u/MammothAccomplice
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    Thoughts on opening a security company

    Posted: 31 Jul 2020 04:33 AM PDT

    Hi all. I live in the Washington, DC area and am considering opening a security guard and contracting business. Is this field entirely too competitive? Has anyone had experience bidding their company to a potential client in this area?

    submitted by /u/kshim89
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    Has anyone had any luck with Facebook ads? Is it really worth the money?

    Posted: 31 Jul 2020 04:16 AM PDT

    I'm thinking about spending a few bucks on Facebook advertising since I'm hoping to get more like on my craft page where I'm listing my items. (Still under 100, sadly. We'll get there someday!)

    Has anyone had any luck with Facebook ads? Did it increase traffic to your business? Did you have any sales?

    Thanks!

    submitted by /u/TreceSaysRawr
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    10 Lessons Learned from Starting a Service Business and Q&A

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 06:25 AM PDT

    Hi Everyone! I started an in-home tutoring business back in 2016. We've been weathering COVID just fine due to our transition to online. I was looking back on the years and wanted to give you all my biggest lessons learned in no particular order.

    Background: $400k in revenue a year. Comfortably profitable. Customers currently reside in a 12 sq. mile area in the NE. I have 14 tutors. Only physical location of the business is my home office.

    LESSONS

    1. Determine what job duties need to be outsourced and what needs to be done in-house, ASAP

    2. Know your customers, especially when it comes down to their ethnic culture. I'm sure this is controversial, but trust me.

    3. Set specific expectations for employees and customers

    4. Don't hire out of desperation. It's not worth it

    5. Turn your policies for employees into a PowerPoint, at the very least, ASAP

    6. Give as much (clear) info to the customer about what you offer. This will relieve the load on customer service

    7. Don't fear from firing (customers, contractors and employees)

    8. Don't be afraid to raise prices

    9. If you have a service business, make sure your contract is rock solid

    10. Don't look at it like a job, look at it like a business

    Any questions or if you want to know the specific example behind each lesson, just let me know. Hope this helps!

    submitted by /u/Jbeanz28
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    Hiring New Employees with PPP Funds

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 03:40 PM PDT

    Hello Everyone,

    I've been searching through post history and haven't been able to find a specific answer to our situation, so I thought I would ask. Please forgive me in advance if it is already asked and answered.

    My wife is self-employed, and has been for the past 6-7 years. She's a photographer and has never had any employees, but she does occasionally issue 1099's for people that help during events.

    She just qualified for a PPP loan totaling about $15k. This is huge for her, and will help cover rent/expenses for her studio space which is not allowed to be open at this time. She does not run payroll on herself. She is seeing an increase in online sales of past portraits, and is having a difficult time fulfilling the orders. She also isn't very internet savvy.

    So my question basically is this, can she hire someone new using PPP funds to help with these sales, and would that payroll be forgivable in full or in part?

    Any advice/guidance is much appreciated. I've been trying to figure it out, but between my work, and all the competing online information I'm honestly feeling a little overwhelmed and confused by what I've read so far.

    Thanks in advance for any answered. I hope everyone is staying healthy, and that your businesses are doing well.

    submitted by /u/PandaGoggles
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    Office 365 or Gsuite or Both

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:59 PM PDT

    As a small business owner, which do you prefer? I use Gmail for business which I find nothing beats but I like Microsoft Word and Excel over Google sheets and docs. So I wind up paying monthly for both Gsuite and Office 365.

    What are your opinions of each? Anyone else pay for both?

    submitted by /u/tbh2020
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    I am a single freelancer and got offered up to 6k for SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan. Is this thing forgivable?

    Posted: 31 Jul 2020 01:13 AM PDT

    https://i.imgur.com/8uit527.png

    Assuming I apply for and got any amount of this, would it be forgivable? I am a sole proprietor freelancer and would just be using the funds to pay myself.

    I tried Googling but I don't trust my understanding of this stuff so thought I'd ask here.

    submitted by /u/HentaiSniper420
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    Existing SBA(7a) loans no longer paid

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 06:05 PM PDT

    So unfortunately despite me asking my bank for a deferral, they did an automatic withdrawal on my SBA loan for a location that is CLOSED due to damage from riots in Chicago. Apparently the SBA is no longer making payments for SBA loan holders as the six months is now up. I have seen nothing about continuing this program in the next stimulus package, I can't imagine how many thousands of businesses with SBA loans (not EIDL loans) are going to rapid fire close. Anyone have any idea if continuing this program is a consideration????

    submitted by /u/gmo101016
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    How to structure our current service company to sell another company's product?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 09:33 AM PDT

    We have an industrial service that we provide. We were contacted earlier this year by a new company that needed this service in a specialized way outside of normal parameters. Through R&D and testing we made it work and they are going to use us to start making their product. They are also inviting us to sell the product to our market (and anywhere else we can) for a nice commission, we have a signed agreement.

    So if we sell it, we will be making money on that, then our services will be used to make it as well. This company has just signed a deal with a major corporation who wants to help them launch and scale. The corporation has no control or voting power of what the company does, its a small share of equity.

    My question is, how can we position ourselves to get this product sold?? I'm currently thinking of forming a DBA within our current company, naming that DBA something relevant to the product, and be able to sell it through that business name. Would this work? How is this done? We are usually service only and it's someone else's product and new to us.

    Thanks so much!

    submitted by /u/PerfectWorld3
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    Do I qualify for unemployment?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 09:24 PM PDT

    I have a single person LLC that I work out of. I was making money up until Feb 2020 through it. I received the paycheck protection program for my business and sent that to myself through my business account. It was only 3000 because I did not make a lot in 2019.

    In 2019 I made 13,000 only through my LLC.

    In 2020 I was making about 10k a month in Jan and Feb on the same contract with my LLC.

    I got a contract that started in Nov 2019 for the 13,000 I reported in 2019 and the contract carried until Feb 2020 it was out of work.

    I received 10,000 for the federal SBA loan for my LLC.

    I am wondering though if I qualify for unemployment because I was "kind of a freelancer" but just with a LLC.

    I have only had income through my LLC.

    submitted by /u/thiscatisnow2020
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    Need some advice...

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:49 PM PDT

    Hi all - I know with whatever I choose here I'm probably going to want a CPA at the end of the day to help me out. But I need some advice or information on how these scenarios would play out so I can at least make a semi-informed decision on what the impact (including is something a potentially higher audit risk) is going to be in each scenario.

    Basically I started a photography business in September of 2019, and made sure all of my startup costs landed on my schedule C in 2019. This included expenses and Camera/Computer equipment that I claimed the section 179 deduction on. When I started the business I was really gung-ho about it and had a business plan where I would be profitable in 2020. And then Covid-19 hit - and I've only managed to secure 1 booking, which also has canceled now that cases are spiking again.

    I'm thinking I just hanging up my camera and calling it quits, especially since this will be year 2 with a loss, and from my understanding, the IRS wants to see 3 years of profit over a consecutive five year period.

    So as far as I see I really have three options (maybe there's one I'm missing too) .

    1. I can just shut my business down and go back to this being a pure hobby for me. My understanding in this scenario is I'll have to pay back 100% of my section 179 deduction since the equipment will have been in service for 1 year at tax time. That will hurt - but I can probably offset some of it with the business expenses from this year and some charitable donations.
    2. I can reclassify my business as a hobby business (or whatever the technical term is for that) - this is something that I'm unsure of how it works. From what I understand I can only deduct expenses up to my total revenue. Since 2019 was a loss, would that mean that I need to go back and amend my 2019 return and payback that deduction? And if I do that, is there a penalty for that?
    3. Cut back my expenses further to the bare minimum, and try to show a profit in 2021. But sadly some of the expenses are unavoidable (things like computer software, phone number, etc), so either I pay them or the business pays them. My fear here is no one knows when the Covid craziness will be over, and what happens if I don't turn a profit (I think a lot of the same questions from #2 apply here).

    Thanks in advance.

    submitted by /u/NerdBanger
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    Tax Question

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:34 PM PDT

    I am a sole proprietor in Kansas, I buy coffee wholesale to use for my coffee catering business from MO that does not charge sales tax and ships it to me, what i don't use for my small business catering events I use for myself, and add in the monetary value of the personal used portion in the St-36 "used for personal use portion" which is added to gross sales and taxed at 9.25%... (gross+Personal used portion*9.25)

    my question is.... i also am paying Kansas the (9.25%) for the coffee when i buy it from MO for the compensating use tax. so i am being 9.25 percent twice? is this right.

    submitted by /u/tufnugginsmyman
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    Question regarding copyright

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:14 PM PDT

    I have done some research regarding copyright/intellectual property but I am having a hard time finding an answer. I was hoping to get some insight from someone knowledgeable in this field.

    I have some ideas for t-shirts that I would like to sell, but I would like to use quotes from certain podcasts. Could there be legal issues if I were to sell t-shirts with quotes from a podcast? Now none of these quotes are catchphrases, or specific to these people. They are jut small sentences that I think are funny. How would anyone be able to say that I stole this sentence, and didn't think of it myself.

    Thanks for your help!

    submitted by /u/MikeHarvard
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    (NY) LLC Publishing Requirement

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 08:06 PM PDT

    There is a provision to advertise your business formation in NY newspapers within 120 days. What happens if you don't publish your LLC within those 120 days? Can one file later than that to fix the issue? Thanks!

    submitted by /u/Str8UpHonkey
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    Question about filling out a w9 for the first time

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:48 PM PDT

    Hi, I became a single-member LLC in March of 2020. Now I'm being asked to submit a W9 to a client, but the W9 is asking for

    1. "Name (as shown on your income tax return). Name is required on this line; do not leave this line blank." -- do I put my full name or the name of the company? Because last year I didn't have an LLC for taxes...
    2. "Business name/disregarded entity name, if different from above" -- do I put the name of my company here or leave it blank and just put it at #1?

    Then, do I put my social security number or my company's EIN in "Part 1"? It says:

    Enter your TIN in the appropriate box. The TIN provided must match the name given on line 1 to avoid backup withholding. For individuals, this is generally your social security number (SSN). However, for a resident alien, sole proprietor, or disregarded entity, see the instructions for Part I, later. For other entities, it is your employer identification number (EIN).

    Here is the form from the IRS website.

    submitted by /u/isabroad
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    Small Business Administration FRAUD!!

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 01:45 PM PDT

    I just got an alert that someone applied for a loan with "US SM BUS ADMIN ODA" and the address is in Atlanta. I did NOT apply for any small business loans!

    Has anyone else recieved this?! I am freaking out.

    submitted by /u/inthem0ney
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    Registered a business in the states that will operate exclusive overseas. Anything I need to do?

    Posted: 30 Jul 2020 07:15 PM PDT

    Business is registered in Delaware as an LLC. I own 100%. I will be sourcing and selling products online exclusively in Colombia. I will be paying freelance worker, a friend, to help with shipping. But otherwise, everything is done online.

    ​

    The registered name is different than the 'brand name', but since I'm not actually doing any business in Delaware, is it necessary to file a DBA? Also, since no products are being imported or exported from Colombia and I don't have any sort of office there, do I need to register my business there?

    submitted by /u/thiccccccccccccaf
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