Hello everyone.

[Joshua.rutter]

I am VERY new to this owning my own business game. That being said I am going to have a lot of questions and will be asking for a lot of advice. I am located in the U.S. in Oregon and my newly created company is called Net Geek Tech LLC. I have always worked for someone else, and have always seen flaws in how their companies were ran from big corporations to my most recent job at a small IT shop. Recently the small IT shop has decided to sell to another company, this leaves me with a few options on what I want to do. 1. unemployment, 2. go to the new company, and once again work for someone else making little pay with no progression in site, or 3. create an LLC. and make a go of it on my own.

I was approached by two very loyal and trusted potential clients. Who informed me that they want to keep me around their place of businesses, however due to their budget restrictions they would be unable to offer me a proper position. They also informed me that if I were to create my own LLC. that they would be more then happy to provide my LLC. with a full time position at a very substantial rate of pay. This morning I have decided that I am going to "go for it!" and see what happens. So far I have submitted the necessary paperwork for the state, purchased my domain and set up my company email, created my invoices, income and expense reports, along with mileage reports. So far I feel this is a pretty good day 1 start.

I do feel as though I am missing out on a lot of valuable information, and I am probably overlooking quite a few things, so that is why I am here to seek the knowledge of those who have already done and succeeded at what I am attempting.

Nice to met you all and I look forward to hearing and giving advice as I can.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Joshua. Do you prefer Joshua or Josh?

We were all new to this at some point and we all had a lot of questions. Sounds like you have a great opportunity to start a business of your own now. You'll have two clients, which is two more than I had when I started. That doesn't mean it'll be easy, but at least you're off to a good start and it sounds like you're doing your homework and preparing for the future.

Ask any questions you have and join in on some the conversations going on. I find one of the best ways to learn is help answer questions for others.

Looking forward to getting to know you and thanks for joining the community.

[Joshua.rutter]

Thank you for the warm welcome and the encouraging words. Josh is quite alright with me.

To be honest the decision was not made lightly, and I am still quite nervous about it. but just like you said, I do have a great opportunity here, and it is one that if I do pass up I will always wonder "what if". Right now I feel that my biggest concern is of course taxes, but also health insurance for myself and my family as it is now required in the state of Oregon.

I must say it is very nice to find a community that a new business owner such as myself can turn to for help and answers without having to pay for it from a consultant.

[vangogh]

Josh it is then. Trust me. We all know that nervousness. It's something to get used to when you're in business for yourself. It never really goes away, but that's good. You want to use it to drive you to keep getting better. The thing is, there's no real security at a job either. On any day you could be let go or have the company you work for close its doors. At least when you work for yourself those things are within your control. When you work for someone else they aren't.

Taxes will be confusing at first, but they get easier every year. Ideally you'll hire an accountant, but even if you don't it's possible to get through all the forms. We should start seeing a lot of tax related questions starting in a few weeks.

As far as health insurance is concerned, you have to build in the costs into your pricing. It's easy to forget that kind of stuff. It's part of your cost of doing business so you need to think about it (and any other costs) when you figure out how much to charge. It's also something that's confusing at first. It took me awhile to figure out what to charge. Keep track of your time, specifically to find out how much time different tasks take to complete. You probably have a good sense already. Your time (multiplied by some rate) is your cost, but it's not you price. It's just one cost the same as health care will be a cost.

A lot of us here were in the same place you are now at some point. I still remember what it was like. Some of the things that seem most confusing, really aren't that difficult to understand as long as you have someone to point you to starting line. If I can point someone to that starting line and save them some wasted effort I'm glad to. I know a lot of people here would say the same thing too. We all need some help along the way. A forum like this one is one way to give a little back or pay it forward or whatever you want to call it.

[David Hunter]

Welcome, Josh!

You just need to keep taking action! Don't worry about having everything perfect (think about all the car manufacturers and all of their recalls every year... if they would wait until they perfected the cars before they sold them none of us would be driving right now).

And, the most important thing you need to do is... market Market MARKET, and never stop marketing!!! Keep a list of prospects, new clients, current clients, past clients, and always market to them (it's cheaper to market to an existing client than to get a new one).

Also, it looks like you're off on the right foot since two of the clients from your old employer wants you to work with them. Ask them if they can write you a testimonial that you can use on all of your marketing materials (along with their names, businesses, etc.).