Post: #451

(04-13-2017 05:40 AM)Thomas the Rhymer Wrote:  Something no one ever told me until recently: The first thing you must do when starting a business is to open up a bank account for it.

Doesn't have to be anything fancy. Just open up an account in your name somewhere. You can always upgrade an account to something fancy in the long run.

It helps to separate personal money from business money right from the start.

You want to set up an LLC, then start a business bank account in the name of the LLC.

The goal is to separate "you" financially and legally from the "business".

Long term this is necessary because if you infringe on another business, you want them to sue "the business" and go after the assets of the business rather than suing you personally and going after your personal assets.

Post: #452

(04-17-2017 02:00 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  You want to set up an LLC, then start a business bank account in the name of the LLC.

The goal is to separate "you" financially and legally from the "business".

Long term this is necessary because if you infringe on another business, you want them to sue "the business" and go after the assets of the business rather than suing you personally and going after your personal assets.

If you, the business owner, did something wrong or illegal, the LLC won't save you from them going after your personal stuff.

It will protect partners who are not active in the business.

Post: #453

(04-17-2017 02:03 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  If you, the business owner, did something wrong or illegal, the LLC won't save you from them going after your personal stuff.

It will protect partners who are not active in the business.

Well... I didn't know that. I'll keep that in mind for the future.

Post: #454

I did mine as a subchapter-s corporation, but at the time I had active partners and yuge plans. My reasoning was that I didn't want to lose my house if some fool used my product wrong and suffered an injury. When I was much younger I worked in a pharmacy and dispensed a prescription to some guy who's cut his hands because he REACHED UNDER A LAWN MOWER. So I wanted to be ready for anything.

Post: #455

(04-17-2017 02:03 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 02:00 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  You want to set up an LLC, then start a business bank account in the name of the LLC.

The goal is to separate "you" financially and legally from the "business".

Long term this is necessary because if you infringe on another business, you want them to sue "the business" and go after the assets of the business rather than suing you personally and going after your personal assets.

If you, the business owner, did something wrong or illegal, the LLC won't save you from them going after your personal stuff.

It will protect partners who are not active in the business.

This is why you need 'holding" structures for personal assets separate from your "operations" structures

When used properly trusts are an significantly more effective way of "shielding' significant personal assets than corp structures

Post: #456

(04-18-2017 10:17 AM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 02:03 PM)worldwidetraveler Wrote:  

(04-17-2017 02:00 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  You want to set up an LLC, then start a business bank account in the name of the LLC.

The goal is to separate "you" financially and legally from the "business".

Long term this is necessary because if you infringe on another business, you want them to sue "the business" and go after the assets of the business rather than suing you personally and going after your personal assets.

If you, the business owner, did something wrong or illegal, the LLC won't save you from them going after your personal stuff.

It will protect partners who are not active in the business.

This is why you need 'holding" structures for personal assets separate from your "operations" structures

When used properly trusts are an significantly more effective way of "shielding' significant personal assets than corp structures

Can you please elaborate on using trusts as holding structures? Is what you are saying that having your personal assets held in trust and your business assets held in an LLC, will protect your personal assets from liabilities of the LLC? I suppose the assets need to be irrevocably transferred into the trust and the person transferring them cant be the trustee?
Thanks!

Post: #457

After about 6 or 7 months in business, I reached Top Seller status on eBay today. Took me a while to get those transaction numbers up since the items I sell are high value items.

Anyone here who sells on eBay notice a difference once they achieved this status?

Post: #458

I will say though that it is disappointing that having an LLC won't shield me legally. That was what I expected it to do.

It still serves the important purpose of separating my assets from the business assets, but a lack of legal shield does fuel my overall feelings of paranoia.

I am working on creating a small independent business where the plan is to sell products through the internet. In order to achieve success, I am emulating existing successful businesses and taking risk by doing things without knowing what the outcome will be. The one thing that does worry me is that I am so unknowledgeable about the legality surrounding trademarks and overarching business operations that I may end up doing something that infringes on another business or may not properly follow regulations and law, and I will never even know that I did something wrong until I get served.

The only thing that calms my paranoia surrounding this is that I own so few assets that I am a poor target lawsuits. I suspect that if my business is capable of catching a wave, by the time it grows and becomes successful, I will be able to afford the legal counsel necessary to shield myself and properly educate myself.

Post: #459

(04-20-2017 08:02 PM)kirdiesel Wrote:  After about 6 or 7 months in business, I reached Top Seller status on eBay today. Took me a while to get those transaction numbers up since the items I sell are high value items.

Anyone here who sells on eBay notice a difference once they achieved this status?

I am at 35 points (100% rep) at the moment. It's getting better and better - more people are starting to trust me.


And unfortunately, time wasters are becoming more frequent.

Post: #460

(04-22-2017 06:04 AM)Irenicus Wrote:  

(04-20-2017 08:02 PM)kirdiesel Wrote:  After about 6 or 7 months in business, I reached Top Seller status on eBay today. Took me a while to get those transaction numbers up since the items I sell are high value items.

Anyone here who sells on eBay notice a difference once they achieved this status?

I am at 35 points (100% rep) at the moment. It's getting better and better - more people are starting to trust me.


And unfortunately, time wasters are becoming more frequent.

I am at 148 right now but I have a similar problem to you where people are just lazy to give feedback. I have way more transactions than that.

Time wasters.. You mean people who buy and don't pay?

Here is my favorite eBay customer:

The customer that buys something, then doesn't pay for it for days. You open a case and then he pays RIGHT BEFORE the case closes. So then you ship it same day/next day. 48 to 72 hours later..... the same customer goes "Why is delivery taking so long?"


WTF!

Post: #461

Mine story goes like this.


Not too long I have sold a product, via best offer. When I have accepted it, I thanked my customer and urged him to pay as soon as possible.


He did not pay, or bothered to respond, for a few days. Therefore, I have canceled the transaction and relisted that item (yes, I did a mistake - that situation never happened to me before, so I did not know better).


A few days later, I got two offers for the same item, from two people. One of them was the aforementioned guy. He sent a better offer, which I accepted.


And again...same thing happened. He did not bother to pay, or to even respond... . But this time, I have opened an UIC against him , which he ignored, and I won the case. But...I lost a potential customer because of that idiot. I have PM'd him. Hopefully...he is still interested.



Oh, if I remember well, you sell high fashion stuff, correct?

Post: #462

(04-21-2017 01:03 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  I will say though that it is disappointing that having an LLC won't shield me legally. That was what I expected it to do.

It still serves the important purpose of separating my assets from the business assets, but a lack of legal shield does fuel my overall feelings of paranoia.

I am working on creating a small independent business where the plan is to sell products through the internet. In order to achieve success, I am emulating existing successful businesses and taking risk by doing things without knowing what the outcome will be. The one thing that does worry me is that I am so unknowledgeable about the legality surrounding trademarks and overarching business operations that I may end up doing something that infringes on another business or may not properly follow regulations and law, and I will never even know that I did something wrong until I get served.

The only thing that calms my paranoia surrounding this is that I own so few assets that I am a poor target lawsuits. I suspect that if my business is capable of catching a wave, by the time it grows and becomes successful, I will be able to afford the legal counsel necessary to shield myself and properly educate myself.

An LLC does provide certain "protections"

As a general rule, if the LLC can't pay its debts, the LLC's creditors can go after the LLC's bank account and other assets, but the owners' personal assets such as cars, homes and bank accounts are safe. An LLC owner only risks the amount of money he has invested in the business.

Adhering to the corporate status maintenance requirements of your state as well as avoiding "commingling" of funds are key to keeping your "shield" up

Post: #463

I do not want to open a thread about this, so let's put it here.


Is USPS aware that Easter has passed like...a week ago? For almost two weeks now, they are ''processing'' a shipment for one of my US customers (it's still held at ISC in NYC).


Is that normal? Were there any changed recently?

Post: #464

(04-24-2017 06:39 PM)Irenicus Wrote:  I do not want to open a thread about this, so let's put ih here.


Is USPS aware that Easter has passed like...a week ago? For almost two weeks now, they are ''processing'' a shipment for one of my US customers (it's still held at ISC in NYC).


Is that normal? Were there any changed recently?

None of my items have ever been stuck there for that long! 3 or 4 days max. I wonder what the holdup is.

Now you got me running to check all of my US deliveries!

Post: #465

The longest period when one of my US shipments was held at ISC was 10 days. Probably the USPS employees still think it's Easter.


In any case, I have contacted my buyer, and opened a missing mail case on Sunday. USPS of course, did not respond yet.

Post: #466

That missing package ''suddenly appeared'' in my customers' state.



Phew...I was expecting the worst.



Fuck you USPS. Croatian and Bosnian posts do way better job than you.

Post: #467

They are so damn slow. Drives me nuts.

4 days to deliver a package 20 miles away from the fucking ISC after they cleared it.

Post: #468

(04-22-2017 12:41 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  An LLC does provide certain "protections"

As a general rule, if the LLC can't pay its debts, the LLC's creditors can go after the LLC's bank account and other assets, but the owners' personal assets such as cars, homes and bank accounts are safe. An LLC owner only risks the amount of money he has invested in the business.

Adhering to the corporate status maintenance requirements of your state as well as avoiding "commingling" of funds are key to keeping your "shield" up

Thank you for the clarification. I am looking into this more now. Definitely need to learn some more of the basics surrounding the legal and tax situation of small businesses.

Post: #469

(04-21-2017 01:03 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  I will say though that it is disappointing that having an LLC won't shield me legally. That was what I expected it to do.

It still serves the important purpose of separating my assets from the business assets, but a lack of legal shield does fuel my overall feelings of paranoia.

I am working on creating a small independent business where the plan is to sell products through the internet. In order to achieve success, I am emulating existing successful businesses and taking risk by doing things without knowing what the outcome will be. The one thing that does worry me is that I am so unknowledgeable about the legality surrounding trademarks and overarching business operations that I may end up doing something that infringes on another business or may not properly follow regulations and law, and I will never even know that I did something wrong until I get served.

The only thing that calms my paranoia surrounding this is that I own so few assets that I am a poor target lawsuits. I suspect that if my business is capable of catching a wave, by the time it grows and becomes successful, I will be able to afford the legal counsel necessary to shield myself and properly educate myself.

Thank you for exactly demonstrating for others the thinking that prevents people from ever doing anything.

You are "worried" before you have done anything. ( Unless you are talking about an illegal business like knock off goods why are you worried? )

You can research and worry and think whether llc will be good enough for the rest of your life and never have an answer, or you can get started.

Post: #470

(04-25-2017 09:01 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  

(04-22-2017 12:41 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  An LLC does provide certain "protections"

As a general rule, if the LLC can't pay its debts, the LLC's creditors can go after the LLC's bank account and other assets, but the owners' personal assets such as cars, homes and bank accounts are safe. An LLC owner only risks the amount of money he has invested in the business.

Adhering to the corporate status maintenance requirements of your state as well as avoiding "commingling" of funds are key to keeping your "shield" up

Thank you for the clarification. I am looking into this more now. Definitely need to learn some more of the basics surrounding the legal and tax situation of small businesses.

It isn't a good business plan to knowingly use trademarks. More than likely you will get a cease and desist order if you unknowingly use one. Not a big deal, you just stop using it. If this is branding then you really should do some research prior to launching your product or service.

Off the reservation is correct that you are probably over worrying at this point.

Outright fraud won't be protected. Bernie Madoff probably wished he could get away with what he did using a corp structure. Don't be Bernie.

Post: #471

(04-26-2017 11:25 AM)Off The Reservation Wrote:  

(04-21-2017 01:03 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  I will say though that it is disappointing that having an LLC won't shield me legally. That was what I expected it to do.

It still serves the important purpose of separating my assets from the business assets, but a lack of legal shield does fuel my overall feelings of paranoia.

I am working on creating a small independent business where the plan is to sell products through the internet. In order to achieve success, I am emulating existing successful businesses and taking risk by doing things without knowing what the outcome will be. The one thing that does worry me is that I am so unknowledgeable about the legality surrounding trademarks and overarching business operations that I may end up doing something that infringes on another business or may not properly follow regulations and law, and I will never even know that I did something wrong until I get served.

The only thing that calms my paranoia surrounding this is that I own so few assets that I am a poor target lawsuits. I suspect that if my business is capable of catching a wave, by the time it grows and becomes successful, I will be able to afford the legal counsel necessary to shield myself and properly educate myself.

Thank you for exactly demonstrating for others the thinking that prevents people from ever doing anything.

You are "worried" before you have done anything. ( Unless you are talking about an illegal business like knock off goods why are you worried? )

You can research and worry and think whether llc will be good enough for the rest of your life and never have an answer, or you can get started.

Agreed. You'd have to really get traction before you ever showed up on the radar of someone with the wherewithal and desire to litigate an infringement lawsuit.

Reminds me

Back when the financial crisis hit I pivoted a business model to fill a niche the government should have been but wasn't (we provided a service to distressed homeowners that their scumbag banks paid for....homeowners never paid us a single dime) . We launched a website us(xxxxxx).gov and it looked like a govt website. In the user agreement we disclosed that we were not affiliated with the US govt.

Almost two years in we got a Cease and Desist letter from US Dept of the Treasury...so we ceased and desisted (The US Treasury has THE wherewithal so I wasn't going to fuck around with them) and transferred the domain to them. I never heard from them again.

But by that time we'd helped a lot of people, made money off the fucking banks, and that co actually survived the recession based on a bit of "infringement"

Post: #472

(04-27-2017 02:01 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:  Agreed. You'd have to really get traction before you ever showed up on the radar of someone with the wherewithal and desire to litigate an infringement lawsuit.

Reminds me

Back when the financial crisis hit I pivoted a business model to fill a niche the government should have been but wasn't (we provided a service to distressed homeowners that their scumbag banks paid for....homeowners never paid us a single dime) . We launched a website us(xxxxxx).gov and it looked like a govt website. In the user agreement we disclosed that we were not affiliated with the US govt.

Almost two years in we got a Cease and Desist letter from US Dept of the Treasury...so we ceased and desisted (The US Treasury has THE wherewithal so I wasn't going to fuck around with them) and transferred the domain to them. I never heard from them again.

But by that time we'd helped a lot of people, made money off the fucking banks, and that co actually survived the recession based on a bit of "infringement"

There were some idiots some time ago going around and teaching people how to become affiliates and using trademarks in their domain names in order to rank them higher in the search engines.

New people, who really didn't know better, freaked out because they were getting cease and desist orders. Go figure. I don't believe anything happened to them since most just gave up their domains.

Still, it wasn't a very good business model to start out with.

Post: #473

(04-26-2017 11:25 AM)Off The Reservation Wrote:  Thank you for exactly demonstrating for others the thinking that prevents people from ever doing anything.

You are "worried" before you have done anything. ( Unless you are talking about an illegal business like knock off goods why are you worried? )

You can research and worry and think whether llc will be good enough for the rest of your life and never have an answer, or you can get started.

I have already started. I quit my job recently and have been building the website full time. Should start actively marketing and selling a product later this year.

I am just worried because that's the way I think. My plan for this business is to stick with it for years down the road and do what it takes to get it to grow, so I just want to keep in mind the problems I can run into down the road.

Post: #474

(04-29-2017 03:49 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 11:25 AM)Off The Reservation Wrote:  Thank you for exactly demonstrating for others the thinking that prevents people from ever doing anything.

You are "worried" before you have done anything. ( Unless you are talking about an illegal business like knock off goods why are you worried? )

You can research and worry and think whether llc will be good enough for the rest of your life and never have an answer, or you can get started.

I have already started. I quit my job recently and have been building the website full time. Should start actively marketing and selling a product later this year.

I am just worried because that's the way I think. My plan for this business is to stick with it for years down the road and do what it takes to get it to grow, so I just want to keep in mind the problems I can run into down the road.

No one is advocating running headlong recklessly into bad
There's nothing wrong with prudent planning. But fear of the unknown (result) is one of the primary reasons people end up never taking the actions they want in life (just one of the commonalities business has with life in general)

"Leap and the net will appear". -John Burroughs

The quote in my signature isn't about being reckless. It is about knowing that their WILL inevitably be challenges along the way (that's an immutable fact) but having faith in one's ability to overcome those challenges in the fiery pursuit of your goals.

"Desire has to trump Fear in order to win at anything. Period" - PapayaTapper

Post: #475

Why does it take till later this year to build a website to sell "a product." Why arent you selling it elsewhere already?

I don't think we are getting the whole story.

(04-29-2017 03:49 PM)All or Nothing Wrote:  

(04-26-2017 11:25 AM)Off The Reservation Wrote:  Thank you for exactly demonstrating for others the thinking that prevents people from ever doing anything.

You are "worried" before you have done anything. ( Unless you are talking about an illegal business like knock off goods why are you worried? )

You can research and worry and think whether llc will be good enough for the rest of your life and never have an answer, or you can get started.

I have already started. I quit my job recently and have been building the website full time. Should start actively marketing and selling a product later this year.

I am just worried because that's the way I think. My plan for this business is to stick with it for years down the road and do what it takes to get it to grow, so I just want to keep in mind the problems I can run into down the road.