The topics and opinions expressed on the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not those of W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability, explicit or implied shall be extended to W four WN Radio It's employees or affiliates. Any questions or comment should be directed to those show hosts.
Thank you for choosing W four WN Radio.
Welcome to Fearless Fabulous You. I am your host, Melanie Young, and I enjoy helping women like you and me live empowered lives on their terms. We're going to talk about a very important topic today that I have a lot of ex experience with, as does my guest. Many women want to start their own business. It is the beginning of the year twenty twenty five, and you know it's a great time to think about starting your own business. Maybe you want to have an independent business to have
more freedom. Maybe you how are switching careers, maybe you've been downsized, whatever, Maybe you want to side business. But we are going to talk about how to set up your home based business so that you make the right steps and avoid any missteps. Joining me is Aaron Morosick. She is a specialist with legal Zoom, which I have used to set up my businesses, and we're going to take you through some essential steps. Aaron, welcome to Fearless Fabulous You.
Thank you, it's so great to be here.
Well, the biggest question is, you know, I assume my listeners think they want to start a business, but what kind of business can you start? You know, we know they're different options between escorp, LLC, DBA and sole proprietorship. Can you just, with brevity lead us through those to understand what may work best for someone who's maybe single practitioner versus employees.
Sure, I would be happy to and knowing that your audience is primarily female, I also want to share a really fun fact. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics has shared that last year was the highest percent of female self employed businesses at forty three percent. So we are talking to the right individuals today in terms of what you have to consider determine what kind of company you are looking to set up. Are you looking to run it completely by yourself with no employees, no partners, you
have very limited liability that you're worried about. If so, a sole proprietorship could be right for you. It's very easy to manage. There's really no tax implications. If you want to potentially have employees, if you might want to have a partner, if you are concerned about any kind of lawsuits or financial implications, and you want to keep a barrier between your personal assets and your business assets, and LLC is potentially the way to go. If you're
looking to make this pretty large. You might want to have shareholders, you want to have employees, you might want to go out and earn capital, raise capital, you might at some point want to sell stock. A corporation is quite likely the right fit for you. So those are some of the things that you have to consider when you pick the entity type as you start your business.
What about a DBA.
Yeah, so a DBA is just that's an acronym for doing business as So, if you pick a sole proprietorship or an LLC or a corporation and you come up with a name for it, you might want to do business under a different name. So let's say I've started a business called Joey's Donuts, and now I've decided to launch a bagel company. I want everything to roll up under Joey's Donuts. But I don't want to call my
bagel company Joey's Donuts because that could be misleading. So I might have a breakof that, says Debas Joey's Bagels. So it's just a way to rebrand if you have a different name you want to assign to your business.
Great point. So you have to file paperwork and a lot of people may think, is it going to cost me a lot of money to do this? What are the essential paperwork you need to file?
Yeah, So when you are ready to file your business articles of organization is a fancy way of saying, register your business with a Secretary of State. The other paperwork
that you need is really truly state dependent. You might need an initial report, you might need to have different licenses and permits in going about this, And so as you're going through this, you really want to look at a company that can help you navigate and figure out what paperwork do you need depending on your state and each state has different rules.
Well that's interesting, Aaron, because I have moved three states. So and a lot of people are working remotely in a digital nomads doing their job. Yeah, does it matter where your business is dominciled? Do you have to have a business? Does your business have to be where you are doma siled or can you have your business in another state because it's more advantageous to the business.
Yeah, great question. You do not have to put your business in the place in which you live. Many many people choose a state other than where they live to register their business. And so when you're looking at the rules of the road in your state, certain states have certain requirements, but quite often you might be running a national service or product, and hence it's okay to say, hey, I live here in California, but I am going to
do this in Delaware for better tax implications. So yeah, you can really put your business and register it where you choose.
Well, you know, Delaware here is a big one for this. Who should you consult? I would assume a tax advisor and a lawyer? What would he? How did each help you with this?
Yeah? So talking to an attorney will help you from the legal implications of what you're trying to accomplish. Talking to a tax expert, a CPA typically will help you
with the financial and tax implications of this. So if you're trying to figure out what's the best place and what's the right entity type, both of those professions can help you, and they can be sometimes expensive, So using something like legal Zoom, where you can also access those types of professionals, can be a more cost effective way to get those answers done.
Well. I know this is important because when I did move my company, when I did physically move, my company was still in New York and I was still getting letters from the New York Department of State saying I was not filing certain state taxes, And I said to my CPA, but I'm not there, but my business still was.
So I need to be mindful of that if you are planning to have the digital nomad life, I'm curious because of that, have you notice any changes in how businesses are done and has legal Zoom come up with any accommodations to address what I call the remote digital nomad business?
Yeah, so really, depending on whether you're a remote digital nomad or you're trying to do it in the state in which you exist today, all of that has been
figured out on the back end through legal Zoom. So we have worked across all of the different fifty states here as well as a district of Columbia to understand what are the rules of the road, what are the legal implications, and so as you're putting in your information to this very easy questionnaire, it will ask you the right questions so that you make sure you aren't putting in the wrong state or the wrong location for your business.
But let's say your example, you've moved from New York and now you want to have it registered in a different location. You don't have to dissolve your business. You can keep it running. There's a very simple form called the foreign qualification where you can move the entity of your business from New York to wherever you've gone. If you choose to do.
That, that's actually very valuable because I'm actually in the process of doing that because the State of New York sent me a dissolution. But then you're like, but I'm not dissolving the company. It gets very complicated, it really does. So if you are again, many individuals have a lot of side hustles, and do you have to set up individual businesses for each side hustle, and you run everything even if they're not related, or can you just run it under one entity.
Yeah. So I don't want to give legal advice because I'm not an attorney, So I want to make sure that you know, as your listeners are thinking about this, it is really good that if you are planning to do multiple side hustles in different industries, potentially in different states,
that you understand the legal ramifications of your choices. So I'm not going to make a blanket statement that you can do it all under one umbrella or all under one LLC, but I will tell you that at legal Zoom we have small business attorne needs that help with exactly these types of questions. And if you're trying to figure this out, and you know, you're obviously doing a lot of these, which is phenomenal. Most people are just
figuring out the very first one. But if you're at the point of doing a lot of these, it is a really good idea to talk to an attorney and to make sure that you are getting your documents in order and you're setting it up correctly so that you
don't get yourself in a pickle later on. And like I said, if you are seeking an attorney, either you already have one in your network, which is fantastic, Or you don't, you can visit legal Zoom and they've already vetted a whole network of small business attorneys.
Yeah. I think it's really helpful because it's kind of like a go to source. What are some other considerations that individuals should think about when they're starting a business other than what we've touched on.
Yeah, So some things that people need to think about is, you know, creating their website, potentially setting up their bank account. So in order to set up a business bank account, you would need an EI in which you can get when you form your business, making sure that you have your books in order. What we see a lot, especially this time of year being tax season, is small businesses did not separate their business expenses from their personal expenses.
They're running it all on the same credit card, and that can make it really complicated at tax time. So at minimum, even if you don't get a business bank account, get a separate credit card, run those business expenses in one place and your personal expenses in another. It will save you hours at tax time. The other thing you should really think about is intellectual property. Do you need a trademark? Do you need a copyright? Do you need a patent? If you do, make sure that you are
working with an attorney to get those things done. They are really really complicated processes of which we are here to help if you should seek that. And then the last thing I would say is a state planning. If you have family of any kind, which most of us do,
it's good to have a willer a trust. If you have a business, you really should have a willer a trust because you want to make sure that that business has protections around it so that your heirrors know exactly what was intended and it doesn't get caught up in the court system. So those are some other things that I would encourage your listeners to think about once they get their business off the ground.
Well, that's so interesting because I never would have thought about the will of the trust. You know. I want to add also, and you'll agree, have a have an attorney review your contracts. Don't just you know, well, you can go and get forms and do fill in the blank contracts. Every business is different, whether you're selling a product or a service, and it's important to have a master contract ready.
Yes, and have the attorney review it before it gets signed. What we have found a lot of times is when our customers call into our attorneys and they say, hey, I have this situation. Can you help me out? And the attorney says, well, you've already signed it, so now it's really difficult to unwine that. Let's review the terms of your contract prior to signature so that you are set up for success. So I totally agree with you.
If you are creating a contract of any kind, it's very good to get an attorney's eyeballs on that to make sure before it gets inked, it is in a place you want.
It to be exactly. And I think it's really important that everyone you realize that an email cont well, everybody that's PDFs, you need to always have a file with hard copies available as well of everything, because I've been down that path. So you've got to have those contracts, handshake deals, emails. Yeah, let's do it.
That doesn't work, no, I mean, you know, in an ideal world it would, but you know, we are a litigious society and having an inked contract is in your best interest as a business owner.
And I think another point, while I still have you for your time, is that you need to think about business insurance.
Yes, yep. And so as you're thinking about the industry or even the state in which you're in, the type of insurance that you need could vary. Some require a significant amount of insurance. Especially let's say you're you're a restaurant or a bar and you're going to have people on site and you're going to be serving food or alcohol.
You're going to need a.
Lot more insurance than say someone who's doing marketing consulting work, and you know, offering marketing ideas to companies. So really understanding the rules of the road of what you're offering and making sure that you have the right coverage to cover you.
Even if it's a home based business and you really are just working with your computer or like me, podcast equipment, make sure you're covered with the technology clause as a writer, yep. Absolutely, And that also includes your intellectual property. You touched on intellectual property. You know, I'm a big believer in owning your name and your copyright. And also make sure you own your domain and all the little dot nets and dot dot dot.
You red, yes, the dot net, you know, every single version of it. And the thing that people do really well is get that set up. The thing that people can fall down on is monitoring it. So once you do set up that trademark, create a trademark monitoring service so that you are making sure no one is infringing on your trademark or your domains. That's really critical.
Yeah, and I don't think people realize how important that is until you realize somebody has just you know, used your name or your your tagline in their marketing. Which happened. Happened to me, so fortunately I was trademarked, Aaron. I know you have limited time with me. I value everything you've said. Any parting words.
I would say, you know, to your female listeners out there, whether you're in early stage career or a later stage career, now is the time to pursue that passion. Really just believe in yourself. Give it a try. It's the most cost effective, easiest time to give this a try. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But really go
out there and believe in yourself. You are amongst many many females that are doing this today, and I know you have some male listeners as well, so just really give it a try and know that you know legal zoom can help you as you do this, and talk to your friends and family. Listen to podcasts like these where you can get tips. You know, visit different platforms where you can learn about starting a business. I think you'll really find it to be quite a lot of fun.
Well, Aaron Moroasick with legal Zoom, thank you for joining me with your expertise. Listeners, hang in there because I'm going to give you some of my time tested I've been there, done that tips. After Aaron leaves, thank you so much. You're welcome.
Thank you for having me.
Absolutely. That was Aaron Morozek with legal Zoom. I have used legal Zoom myself for setting up the Connected Table. Before that, I had a company called em Young Communications. So let me just share with you some of my tips for setting up a business. First of all, really put down on paper what you want your business to be. I think it's really important to understand what is this, Why do you want to start a business, and what do you want your business to be? Create a business
mission statement. Figure out from the beginning how you're going to make money running your business. A lot of great ideas are out there, but they don't necessarily generate money. Podcasts don't necessarily generate money, but they are great marketing tools to help promote businesses. My main business is the
Connected Table. It is a consulting business in wine and business development, and I promote through the Connected Table Live Fearless Fabulous You came up the podcast because I wrote a book by the same name called Fearless Fabulous You, Lessons on living life on your Terms. And I decided that rather than higher expensive marketing public relations people I am that I have a background, that I would create my own voice and become part of the message, which
is why I created this podcast. I felt very passionate about wanting to help women, and I had a book that I was selling and it's still out there. You can buy it on Amazon and many other sites, including my own Melanie Youong dot com. And I had another book, Getting Things Off My Chest, A Survivor's Guide to Staying Fearless and Fabulous in the face of breast cancer. So this show became my platform to connect with women and
help them. And I have been asked as a business consultant often to help women ideize, idealize their business to help them move forward. I do not have tax expertise. I do not have legal expertise. I am not an ins and specialists, and I'm not a technology specialist. But I have worked with all of them to set up my businesses, and I know what mistakes can be made. And when Aaron talked about and I talked about registering the name of your business, that is a good smart
step to trademark the name of your business. It will cost you, but it is worth it. All the documentation you need in the paper trail is worth it because you do not want to get into tax snaffoos, as I was very clear about. When I moved from New York to Tennessee to now New Orleans, I had to deal with the New York state tax people and get a CPA involved because I was penalized for not filing sales tax in a state I no longer lived in because I was so busy bopping around being a digital nomad.
So think as you move and realize every step you take, every move you make, there will be a tax implication that you need to think about. So have a very good tax advisor and a very good attorney that you can call on. My home based business is very simple. I am not paid by any of the companies that I mentioned, but I registered all of my domains through go Daddy. I like their service. They have saved me
a lot of money. I was using another couple of domain registrars before I just moved everything to go Daddy. It was simple. I've been very happy with them. I get no commission on that. I have a wonderful website developer. She's very reasonable. I do get referral bonuses. The name is webbing w E B E n E dot com. Her name is Monica. If you write me at Melanie at Melanie youong dot com Melanie M E L A n I E at Melanie Youong dot com, I am more than happy to connect you with Monica. She is awesome.
She has designed both Theconnected table dot com and you dot com, and many of my friends have used her because she is reasonable, fast, smart, and I also pay Monica to just go in and clean things up and monitor my website for me. Go Daddy does that from one end, but Monica kind of goes in at the other end to make sure that there's no weird things happening, or when I do something really dumb like try to post something screw up the design. I know I can
contact Monica to fix it because I can't. Go Daddy has been really great as well when I've had some malware issues. I mean, you know, listen, spend the money to get all the you know, different products to protect your website, whether it's askimat or anything about malware. Again, Go Daddy is a great source to recommend for that you don't have to use all their products. Monica has
been really helpful in advising me as well. What I bottom line, make sure you have a trusted technology partner to help you with your website and your email and also setting up your social media. You're going to want to have a really great social media page for your business with what we call a CTA, a call to action. The call to action is contact us, let's do business, Email me, here's our phone, buy it now. It's the activity you want your fans, listeners, potential customers to do
to take the next step. Make sure you've got all that information set up so if they're ready to try, buy or sign, you've got the paperwork, you've got the shopify, You've got all the detail you need to seal the deal. As a consultant. I mind, it is very simple. I have a contract. I had it vetted by a lawyer. No, I have not had it vetted lots of times. I have a simple contract. I have a simple invoicing system.
Most people use quick books, very easy to use. I do my invoices on it Excel and I keep my accounting on QuickBooks. I am not a techno fiend. I should be THANKU. I have a husband, David helps me with certain things, but I do QuickBooks very simply. When it's time for taxes, I give my access. I want to keep it simple. I like selling, selling and promoting, not dealing with the back end of the business, which
brings me to super important. Get a great bookkeeper. If you can't deal with handling your books and accounting, hire someone. It doesn't have to be full time, even if they come in once a month to clean everything up. Do it. But if you were growing your business, you need a really good bookkeeper. You need a really good CPA. You need a really good lawyer that you can count on when legal issues arise and contract time comes. You must have business insurance. It's so important. As Aaron said, and
I agree. Get a business card or if you do or are using a personal card because maybe you don't have the credit yet to get a business credit card, just keep track of your expenses and try to have two different cards, one for business and one for personal so you're not intermingling. I've been tripped up on that myself, but trust me, it's easier to have separate cards. The other thing is if you start to hire people with staff, maybe a virtual assistant is the first way to go
to help monitor time. Virtual assistants are great if you just need someone to be your assistant. Another thing is setting up a scheduling. If you are setting up a lot of meetings like Calendle or calendly is good. Again, I'm to make no money off any of this, but it is a time management program, So get a time
management program. Consider a virtual assistant. When you're ready to make your first hire or bring on staff, you need more contracts for that, and you are going to probably need to eventually think about a human resources experienced person to help you because when you hire full time staff, you've got to plan their benefits program. I had a wonderful person called Dad who helped me with all of that. Rest in peace, Dad, Meljung was my CPA, my benefits person,
and my overall guy. And frankly, when he died, I no longer want to have a business. I just I lean on him a lot and he was the best. And I had a really successful business in New York thanks to Dad. He really guided me. But you got to have that. You do not want to get bogged down as the head of the company and the face of the company and the person out there probably selling your business until you have a sales team. You don't want to get too bogged down in the administrative and
the staffing and the human resources. You want to be aware of all of it. But you want people to help you. If you don't want to have full time people, outsource wonderful outsource companies to help you with temporary labor. Just make sure if you are hiring people as ten ninety nine freelancers, they are legitimately ten ninety nine, or
you can get tripped up. If you are hiring people and you are requiring them to show up at your office or your home office, you're giving them a computer and a desk, and they have a set schedule to report to duty, they really are not ten ninety nines and freelancers. They are staff and you need to treat them that way. Same with interns. I know a lot of companies that have been tripped up on that. Legally,
a freelancer is an independent contractor. They may have other clients, they have a home office or an other office that they rent, but they are not using your office unless they're running from you. So these are just some of the things to think about in a very big topic called starting your business and owning your name and your business. There's so much more to this, but I just wanted to touch on some basics. I hope this helps you. I'll probably be doing many more shows on this in
twenty twenty five. I think it's an important topic. I want to help women like you develop their business. If you do need a consultant who can come in and be a sounding board, that's me. So you are welcome to contact me at Melanie at Melaniejong dot com or Melanie at the Connected table dot com. I can help you with your ideas. I can help you be a sounding board. I can put together a marketing and promotion plan, and I can connect you with people who can do the work and save you a lot of time. So
Melanie at Melaniejong dot com. I'm here for you. But meanwhile, listen to my shows for free. Feel free to check out my substack Melanie Fabulous, and remember I'm here to help you. I love ending all my shows the same way because I have Believe me, I have started two businesses, I have side hustles. I know what it's like to work in the trenches. I know what it's like to cringe when you make dumb mistakes that you swear you'll never do again. And I know how to celebrate when
I have amazing successes. I want you to be successful. Remember you have one choice that you need to make in life. You want to stay healthy, you want to stay happy, you want to live abundantly, and you want to learn to choose life on your terms. You want to stay fearless and fabulous always. Just remember you have many people who were here to support you. I'm Melanie Young. This is Fearless Fabulous You. I hope the show has inspired you. I hope you take action and I would
love to hear about your success. Thank you for joining me on this edition of Fearless Fabulous Youth