Turning a blog and a hobby into a business

Going from a normal 9-5, corporate marketing job to being unemployed with a blog and some talents with design and writing is a scary idea. But it happens, and it happened to me last year. With a lot of work over the last 11 months, I have been able to rise above and reached a point in my business that I feel like I am actually making a career! Then last week, I received an email that made me feel even more exited, someone else wants my advice! Mike Wilton, a twitter and facebook friend of mine, sent me the following email:

I wanted to say hello and ask if I might be able to pick your brain a little. I know last year you dove into the freelance world after winding up unemployed. I’m currently trying to make a similar transition, but am hoping to keep my existing career in the process. The biggest problem I am having is figuring out where to start in terms of the business side of things. If you wouldn’t mind I’d really like to send a few questions your way that I’m hoping you might have answers to or may have had to deal with when starting Wright Creativity. If you have the time I’d greatly appreciate it.

Of course, I agreed that I would be happy to answer and asked if he minded if I shared the answers with my blog readers, hoping that others might be able to benefit from the answers. He said he was more than happy to allow me to share, and sent me the following email of questions:

My first question is, do I have to register my business name? I know you do work under Wright Creativity, did you register this name or do you just use this for your site and then all business matters fall under your name?

As a freelancer, did you immediately get your business license and handle all of your tax forms, or did you wait until you knew your business was finally getting off the ground?

I’m ultimately flying blind here, I have a handful of contacts that give me information, but they all live out of state or even out of the country, so I’m not positive on what steps I need to take to get my freelance business up and running properly before I launch. Any startup advice you might have for someone looking for more information about the business side of things would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thank you again for your time and if you would like anything more from me please let me know.

There were a lot of really great questions in here, and to make it a little easier, I have pulled out the most important plus, I added a few of my own.

1. When did I change from freelance to a business? (Mike didn’t start with this question, but it needs to be answered). I was laid off in April, and didn’t become an official LLC (company) until July. This was due to a few reasons, but the biggest reason was the time that it took to go through the process. While filling the paperwork was actually quick, it takes time to research really what you want to do and determine the best course of action. There are many people who stay freelance (work under their own name) but I was worried about the risks that can have on personal assets, so I knew I wanted to protect myself. As soon as I knew that, I started the process of researching how to become a business. Luckily, I have a great friend who is an attorney who was willing to help me with a lot of the process.
2. Do I have to register my business name? Yes, you will want to register a business name. First, it is more professional to operate under a corporate name instead of your own name (my opinion). Also, a business will protect your personal assets were there an issue with a client. I registered myself as an LLC with the state of California, more exactly, Wright Creativity, LLC. I was lucky that my blog is a unique name so I was able to have them match, and register it as a business. If you don’t have the same opportunity, then register a name that makes sense for you. What do you do/service do you offer? Take some time to brainstorm a name and then do some research on the name. If there is another company in the same industry as you with that name, you can’t have it. If you are unsure how to find out or where to check, I recommend contacting a corporate lawyer. In fact, I recommend contacting a corporate lawyer right away, as they will be the one who walks you through which type of business is the right business to start (LLC, S Corp, Corporation, etc…). I made the choice to become an LLC with the help from my attorney, based on the level of protection I needed of my personal assets and the way that taxes are paid each year. I don’t have any employees, and don’t plan on it for awhile, so an LLC was the best decision for me. Your business decision will be made depending on what is best for you.
3. Business license, tax documents, all that paperwork? When I filed to become an LLC, half of the documents were taken care of. The other half of the documents were taken care of by my accountant. A lot of people can take care of all the documents by themselves, but I didn’t want to make an mistakes, so I got professional help. It is your choice on how you do it, but I do recommend contacting help if you can afford it.
4. What other steps did I take? A business is built on just an idea, but that doesn’t mean it requires only an idea to work. In addition to becoming a business, filing the documents and figuring out all the tax stuff, you also have a lot of work to put into the front end including a strong website which includes services, about you and details of the company; your social media strategy, which will help people learn about what you are doing; and a client strategy, obviously you need clients to make a business work! The good news is that this can all be developed over time, and will definitely grow and change.

Do you have any business advice you can share with Mike? Or any other questions I can answer for you?

And a big thank you to Mike for letting me share the questions!

Related posts:

1. Social Media Channels: Facebook business pages for my business?
2. If kindergarteners ran a business…
3. No one actually has time to blog.