King Pin Business Cards

Any new company, self employed person or freelance will know that starting out on your own is a scary and expensive process. There is a lot to think about, and a lot to organize, which can be daunting at first, but becomes a challenge once the fear has worn off.

One of the most important considerations when starting your own company is the brand. It doesn’t matter if you’re a plumber or physicist, Labrador breeder or laptop builder, you have to have a “face” for yourself as a company. It will be the first thing a new client sees when they find you. It has to say the right thing in the right way to have the effect you want it to have.

Website and business card design are two very important facets of any company identity. They will generally be the first anyone sees of you. It is a good idea for new starters to design their own business cards and brands as it can come across much more genuine and “real” than an agency produced one. This can work miracles if your business is into things like ecology, organics or anything “earthy” as this industry has a general distrust for most commercial operations.

It’s easy to cut corners, do it on the cheap or rush something out. Don’t be tempted to do this though because it will backfire in the long run. Memories are long in business, and first impressions count for a lot. Scrimping either time or effort into your corporate identity is going to give the impression you will do the same in business. This isn’t the kind of impression you want to project if you want to get on in the field.

Your business, whatever it is, must say quality, reliability and honesty in everything it does. It must instil enough confidence in people that they are willing to take a chance with you until you have a proven track record. Once you have been in business a while and have a good reputation this becomes less of an issue, but remains important.

Once a brand is in place it can be very difficult and expensive to change it. Some of the higher profile rebranding costs millions, and has no real effect. Consider when the Mars corporation changed the Marathon bar to Snickers. It took nearly a year and $7 million of advertising to make the new name stick.

Changing a smaller brand, name or company isn’t going to be that expensive, but your existing customers will need to be considered as well as your new ones. Great care has to be taken to ensure everybody knows the identity change is for a positive reason and not a negative one. Companies change name all the time to escape the negative press of illicit dealing, bankruptcy or association with bad business. You as the company owner will need to ensure the reason for the change is well publicized. So design your own business card or brand, but be very aware of your target audience and what the final product says about you and your company.

Setting up a new business in Florida is a fairly simple process. Running it is the hard part! You have three options when first creating it, becoming a sole proprietor, partnership, Limited Liability Company or corporation. If your business comprises a single self employed person offering services locally without much in the way of assets or liabilities then sole proprietor is a good way to keep things simple. The downside is that any business debts you may accrue can be collected from your personal assets like your car or home.

A partnership is useful when two or more people want to offer services in an equal manner. It means everything is split evenly between the partners, unless specified otherwise. It is nice to have someone to share the burden of being in business with, but it also means you share the responsibility when things go wrong.

A limited liability company is like a corporation in that it is much more formal and has to have legal documentation filed with the local and state authorities. It is slightly harder to run the administration but protects the business owners from liabilities should things go wrong.

Incorporating your new business offers some real benefits, but is a slightly more complicated process. The main advantage is that it separates your business from the personal, so whatever happens to the business, your car and home are safe. Your directors, stockholders or company officers are also protected from liability for debts should the business fail. The maximum liability for any of you is whatever the business and its assets are worth.

Tax laws are also friendlier when working in a corporation too. The rate of tax is much lower than you would pay as an individual and you can own shares in other companies and receive dividends of up to 80%. If the business expands you can offers stocks, and go public. This is a great way of making money available for expansion or other projects. The downside is that you will not own all of the company any more, and depending on the size or structure will have a lot more accounting to do.

Any of these company structures can be formed online, and maintained online. In fact they can be run completely virtually. All of the branding, stationery, contact information and administration can be bought on the web. The internet has revolutionized creating and running businesses. You can even make business cards online. This has simplified owning and running a business significantly if you are web savvy. Filing and tax returns, accountancy, virtual assistants can also be managed over the internet.

Setting up your own business used to involve meetings with the bank, accountant and at least an afternoon at Town Hall or somewhere. It was a laborious process involving lots of paperwork and administration. Now it can be done with a few keystrokes and a credit card. Never before has it been as easy to go it alone than now.