opening a shop

[homerneedspeed]

where can i get needed info on opening a new shop. especially info on taxes and how to do payroll in addition to insurance.

[Bill Howell]

1) check with your local Dept. of Labor for tables and info on payroll taxes.
2) call your current insurance guy about insurance. Even if he does not handle what you will need, he will have leads for you. Be sure to get info on workers comp. insurance while you are at it.
3) Don't forget about unemployment ins.
4) business license and local permits.
5) good accountant and attorney.
6) understanding banker
7) employee manual if you haven't got one yet
8) call local phone provider asap and get phone number so you can get into yellow pages and so you have number for business cards.
9) Business cards, invoices, work sheets, logo blah blah blah
10) Plenty of sleep cause soon that will be impossible to get.
11) In your spare time, remember all the office stuff you will need (computer, fax machine, phone system, copier, printer), and start gathering it.
12) This should have been number 1: Business plan so you know your goals and how you plan to achive(sp?) them.
Good Luck!

[TonyHuntimer]

A SHPO must be a Texas thing.

Out here in California we call that a S H O P.

:seizure:

Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

[protour_chevelle]

A SHPO must be a Texas thing.

Out here in California we call that a S H O P.

:seizure:

Tony Huntimer
RaceHome.com

I was thinkin that too LOL. Make sure your shop logo is spell checked hehehe.

-Matt

[Jim Nilsen]

Along with all of the mentioned items to do, become incorporated. Even if everything you have is up for collateral get incorporated.

The bank will tell you not to worry along with a few others but make sure you do it. When or if it all falls apart you will still have your personel credit rating left to work with, if not you will be playing hell to live after the loss of a business.

It's kind of like an insurance policy for yourself.

If you can find a good one, a personal business manager will be very helpful in getting you set up so you can handle all of the paper work involved these days. You won't need them for long but it sure will speed things up and give you more sleep at night and if done right it will save you money in not making mistakes to start with.

You also will only want a listing in the phone book, an add these days is more costly than it is worth. It willl only be local advertising and for the money each month you can get a small ad in the back of one of the car mags and get a lot more people to see it that are potential customers. I know this from experience. Unless of course you are totally depending on local business.

:cheers:


Jim Nilsen

[ProdigyCustoms]

I would highly recommend an experienced partner, business manager or consultant. There are still things I do wrong to this day from winging it 25 years.
Bill did a good job with his list. Cost of labor is a big one, Fed unemployment, State unemployment, workers compensation, can be 20% or more. Even the garage liability insurance is based on gross dollars and labor payroll. Long story short, the more you do, the more you employ, the more expensive insurance and other cost get.
And most important, make sure you have money in the bank for the lean times. You will never accumulate it otherwise.

[MuscleRodz]

For someone starting out on a limited budget, I would recommend and payroll staffing agency. I am not talking about a temp agency or employment service. They take care of everything related to employees like payroll, required information, taxes, and other stuff. They usually have a insurance pool where they can get great rates on insurance where alot of times small businesses could not afford to even offer it. For the work they do, it is worth the extra expense.

Mike

[homerneedspeed]

thanks for all the information and to add it will start out in my garage with only one employee being one of my friends and anothe friends father is letting us use a 10,000 ft section of his shop that he just added on for free at a later date. if we write a good business plan he will even help us fund it.