One of the important lessons that anyone worth their salt as business adviser will tell you is to surround yourself by mentors. In Part 2 of how we launched our Colorado Virtual Tour Company, I had the honor of introducing you to Pam Palone of RE/MAX Properties, Inc. At first, she was our Realtor. Over the past several months Pam has turned into a friend, business associate, and most importantly, a mentor on all things Colorado Springs.
Another person I consider a key mentor is Jason LaVanture with Real Tour Vision. What I love about Jason is regardless of all the “NOs” that will come your way, he will keep you focused on “YES”. Heck, even Jason is full of “NO”s some times. He didn’t like ColoradoSpringsVirtualPropertyTours.com at all telling me that was way too long. Without Pam and Jason, DanTheManMedia.com would have never launched.
Books have been written on how to start a business, but my experiences over the past few months have taught me there are three areas you need time to deal with. Those areas include business licenses, sales tax permits, and banking. Many agencies may require you to have received permission from other agencies before you can even apply. So make sure you know the time lines you are dealing with. Without doing so, you are going to run into a lot of “NO”s saying you can’t do that yet. The key is to get everything in order so you can keep the “NO”s at a minimum.
Getting a business license seems straight forward. Believe it or not, at least in Colorado, the State license was the easiest to get. All you had to do was go on line, apply, pay the appropriate fee, and viola the state website was able to generate my license on the spot. Now the city license, that wasn’t so easy. Before you can even apply for a city business license, you have to go through zoning to ensure what you want to do can be done at the location you want to do it. This step took three weeks alone. Without paying the appropriate fee and getting the permit, even for your home office, it can end up costing you thousands. While your city and county may not require a business license for virtual property tours, make sure you are cleared through zoning.
Sales tax permits can seem to take forever to get. Matter of fact, I’m still waiting on mine as we speak! The good news for me was I was able to download all my sale tax permits online. You need to remember, while your virtual property tours may not be taxable in your local, the mini disks and sign riders most likely will be. With the budget deficits around the country you should not put your business in jeopardy by ignoring the collection of sales tax. On a side note, here in Colorado Springs I wasn’t even allowed to apply for my sales tax permit until I had my zoning permit. Currently, I’m at the six week and counting mark on the zoning and sale tax permit steps to launching Dan The Man Media LLC.
Banking, while I mention it last, should be one of the very first steps in launching your business. If you are incorporating or going with an LLC, you need to be prepared with your state business license and federal tax information for your company. Check with your business banker or the bank’s website on what it is required to open your business account. Another reason to get your business account opened is some states won’t even issue you a sales tax permit without your banking details.
With your mentors and supportive spouse at your back and a lot of patience, you too can successfully launch your own business as a Full Service provider with Real Tour Vision virtual tour software company. There are going to be a lot of “NO”s along the way. If you stay focused and follow RTV’s guide for setting up your business, you too will get a call from the 231 area code and hear Jason go “Dan The Man Media!” Before you know it, your business will be launched!
Dan Derby
Dan The Man Media LLC
www.danthemanmedia.com
Colorado Springs Virtual Property Tours
Order a virtual tour: (719) 287-4646