Starting a business Part 1 – Scaling the brick wall… “structure”

When you’re thinking about starting a business there’s a very solid brick wall waiting there to stop you. Funnily enough that brick wall is known as “structure” as in the structure of the business. It’s difficult to know whether to become a Sole Trader, start a Company, form a Partnership, open a Trust etc. Then once you make that decision it’s on to how you’ll structure this new business. As a Sole Trader you need to decide whether to trade under your own name or register a trading name in your state and trade under that. With a company you need to decide what type of company it will be private or public. How many directors do I need just me or someone else. Do I want a trust joined to this company for tax purposes?

How to structure your business really is a brick wall you need to learn to climb. Sure you can get advice from professionals, but that requires super communication to get them on your level and patience from them to actually want to understand what you’re trying to do. Careful where you go because some professionals will charge you ridiculous amounts to do things you can do yourself. That’s fine, it’s good practice to talk about what you want to achieve, but no ones as interested in your start up as you are. So it’s up to you to get a good grasp of what these structures mean for you. Then you can make the right decision.

In my experience the best question I was asked was this, “Are you just dipping your toe in the water or are you going swimming?” Glad my friend asked me this because it made me think, is this long term? Do I actually believe this business could be something? Once I realized that I was going to immerse myself in this business I was able to make much better decisions. The brick wall became shorter and shorter and I just walked over it and went onto the next challenge.

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 A few tips for you when you’re playing with your plastic:
1. Cover up for the cameras.
2. Beware the brochure box. 
3. Skimming isn’t just ATMs
4. Sign not PIN
5. Chip not stripe
6. Bank at the bank
7. Silo your risk.
iamtallpoppy.com, iamtallpoppy.com, Jan 2010
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