Starting a small business

[avx]

Hey guys

My mom and dad are thinking about starting their own business, a house cleaning business, and they elected me to find out all the information they need to do so. Ive spent about 2 or 3 hrs searching on google aboiut starting your own business, smartbiz.com, entreprenuer.com, dollarstretcher.com...I could name a dozen, and they all seem to give some good information, but only enough to add another duck hunt to the goose chase I'm already on...

I see things like "bonded" and "DBA" and "IFA" and things like that, and even when I type them into a search engine(if I dont get some foreign site in german or russian) its usually off topic and not relating to what I am looking for.

Ive been able to find plenty of sites that will sell me a "kit" on how to start your own small cleaning business, but is it really necessary? My dad has most of the equipment, the transportation, all I really need to find out is the legal stuff, I tried like browardcounty.org, and myflorida.com. and they are about as helpful as.....somnething really unhelpful....

So I turn to old faithful...the wisdom of the forum, what do you guys think? Got any recommendations, think I should just order the kit, keep searching at places like myflorida.com??

Ive seen it mentioned that getting an attorny would be a good idea, but it will cost close to 1000 dollars to get him to do 15mins of leg work and just hand us a couple of pieces of paper, so what do you guys think...?

Thanks for any and all help

[David14259]

Try your local library. I'm sure they have books about it.

[LawyerRon]

"I've seen it mentioned that getting an attorny would be a good idea, but it will cost close to 1000 dollars to get him to do 15mins of leg work and just hand us a couple of pieces of paper, so what do you guys think...?"

If they're willing to do their own "leg work" they shouldn't need an Attorney.

Your local bookstore has many good books on starting a small business. They typically cover things like "type of business entity", ie, sole proprietorship, partnership, Corp, LLC, etc, and each has it's own tax aspects, exposure to liability, etc.

You can form your own business entity in every state without an Attorney. Nolo Press has some very good self-help books on this topic. They're at www.nolopress.com. Most of the larger bookstore chains carry Nolo's books.

They also cover topics like choice of business name, DBA's, incurance, etc.

Of course, when people don't want to learn anything themselves, or don't have time, they hire me at $250 an hour.

[Fuze]

Assuming you're still a teenager or even younger, out if curiousity, why are your parents getting you to do research for their business which they'll be running and maintaining? Shouldn't they be in on it?

[EzyStvy]

http://www.sba.gov/img/header_title.gif

http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/index.html

[tranman]

Service Corps of Retired Executives. They are affiliated with the SBA (I think) and they will give you great advice for free on how to start your own business.

[avx]

Originally posted by Fuze
Assuming you're still a teenager or even younger, out if curiousity, why are your parents getting you to do research for their business which they'll be running and maintaining? Shouldn't they be in on it?
LoL - As my dad has told me many times "The only reason we had you guys was for the free labor":D

Thanks for all the help and recommendations guys. After a few more hours, I actually found something really helpful, the SBA and IRS have this FREE little CDROM filled with all sorts of tax information, start up guides, all that good stuff. Once again, it is proved, with a little bit of legwork and google, you can get just about anything you need for free;)