by Clifford Bramble

Copyright 2020, All Rights Reserved.  No part of this can be copied or used without expressed permission of Cliff Bramble and Hungry Hospitality. To connect, please contact us at [email protected].

Thanks for listening in on the get hungry audio business class I'm Cliff Bramble of hungry hospitality and today we'll be talking about the steps in starting a business, I hope that my 40 years of experience will assist you in getting a new business started, and as we go through the entire process I hope that you learn a lot. Let's get started.

Today we're going to talk about six or seven different steps to get your business started. And so here we go with the list, we're going to be starting with a few The first one is going to be whether you're our sole proprietorship, or a partnership and the difference between those two, whether to incorporate or not, we're going to talk a little bit about the licensing of your business from there we're going to be talking about the bank account, what needs to be done from there. And after that we're going to talk a little bit about hey getting you started building a website and start your marketing so hopefully you'll have all your steps ready, and as soon as you have all your paperwork done, you'll be off to the races and your business will be started.

So the first question that you really have to ask yourself is, is this going to be a partnership or Will this be a sole proprietorship, the partnership is when you have multiple, whether it's two or more partners that will be investing money into your business. If not, it's a sole proprietorship, and that means that you own it by yourself. So, if you have a sole proprietorship. The nice part about that is that you are responsible for everything, whereas the partnership. It will decide on whether you are going to be following in a corporation name or a LLC Corporation, which will you will be probably talking to your accountant about that, but most importantly is, if it is a self-proprietorship, and you own it all by yourself, you obviously don't have any partners, and you may even have less headaches with it by yourself. But, let's talk about the next step of incorporating, or not.
 
So once you've decided that you have partners or not you're going to be moving on to the next step which is going to be to incorporate or not, incorporating your business is, basically, you're going to the Secretary of State in your, in your state, and you're going to be applying for a specific Corporation. Under the state of Secretary of State, so that is dependent on whether you want this to be a LLC, which is a limited liability corporation or, again, a C Corp. I would recommend speaking to your accountant about that, because that's one of those areas where it's all dependent on how many people are involved, how much money is involved in who has to say to make the decisions in regards to the major decisions in the company. So if you do decide to incorporate in your state, you're basically going to be going to your secretary of state and you're going to file the forms to form a separate Corporation from there you wait two or three days, but you should have your corporate number immediately. They may ask you to reserve the company name, or double check the company names so that way there's somebody else doesn't have your name, but you can file that online really quickly, usually it's 50 or $100 depending on the state but once you get that completed, you'll have it in your hand and you'll be able to go to the next step which will be applying for federal ID number.
 
Two, whether you decided whether it was going to be a partnership, or it's going to be a sole proprietorship, if you did decide that you needed to apply for a federal ID, so you can apply for the federal ID online through a to the federal government. And basically what they will be doing instead of using your social security number, if it's a partnership, they will be using a federal ID number in issuing that to you, basically it's your business's social security number, which has to be kept secure, and also right under guard, nobody else should have that except for yourself and maybe your vendors the federal ID is something that you can apply to online, and it will get emailed to you within a matter of two or three minutes as soon as you apply. From there, you're going to go to the next step, which is filing an application with the Department of Labor, so that way there you have your department of labor number, and from there you're going to also be applying for your retail tax ID in your state, if you are selling items you will definitely need to be collecting tax on them so you will need a retail sales tax ID as well. So those three areas the federal ID, the Department of Labor number, and also the retail sales tax ID number will be three of the items that you will need to keep close to your heart and create a little corporate folder so that whether you have that information available to you at all times.

One of the items that I did not mention earlier, but it's definitely one of the most important areas, is to make sure that you have your accountant lined up so that whether they can answer any questions for you as you go through the process, because they are going to be helping you on a daily basis, if not a monthly basis, but they can help you from the very beginning based upon whether it's should be a, LLC or a sole proprietorship so one thing not to forget. And one of the most important is getting an accountant, that you have a good relationship with and that somebody has become well known and referred to you through a friend, or possibly your attorney.

Next up will be your licenses for your local city or the county that you live in most counties, or cities will require that you complete a complete business application, and so that whether you have a business license which is basically a license to do business in that specific city or in that county, and both of those can be picked up at your local city or county offices, and they really don't take that long, but they do have an application fee so that's something that you have to keep in mind.

So now that you have your federal ID and you also have your driver's license available, you can actually drive over to your bank and set up an appointment to set up a bank account, which is a business bank account. So, you will need a couple IDs, which will be a driver's license and if your corporate ownership, which is under a federal ID, you will need that federal ID paper as well. So those two items have definite that you need to open up a bank account, and will also be required to complete a sign-up sheet for the cheque signing, and you will also be able to, obviously, play some money into it at that point when it comes down to the cheque signing. Sometimes, you only have one person that you want to sign for the checks, however it's sometimes better to have at least two people to sign for checks if you're new, and you have a large amount of money and you are just wondering what the best thing to do. You can always start with one, you can always go back later and add a signing to your bank account so that's not a big deal. You have to speak with your banking authorities over there and hopefully they'll help you walk right through it.
 
So now that you have your incorporation papers, you have your partner's online, you've decided on an accountant, you have your business license for the city in the county, and you have your bank account all set up the next question is what do you do, this is an area where a lot of people, again, unless they are familiar with the next steps in small business, and a lot of questions and people saying what do I do next. You really need to start your business you need to start marketing your business with it, whatever it may be, and you may need some help with marketing as well that's really up to your experience, however, years ago, first thing people got was a business card. These days, the first thing people get is their website. The website is basic your business card to your new business so you will be able to start your marketing pretty much immediately and get your sales rolling in. And hopefully your business will go fantastic, and you won't have any questions from there on, you'll just be dealing with all the sales that are coming in and not worrying about any of the additional paperwork.

So that's all I have for this audio business class. I hope it helped you and hope it helps you get your business started, and you're on your way to the next step of marketing your business and getting you sales from there. I'd like to say thank you for joining.
 

Restaurant Article

by Clifford Bramble

Everywhere you look, a restaurant is closing.  So why would it be a great time to open a restaurant?  It may not be the best time to open a restaurant, but it is a great time to secure a location.  Here are seven reasons why it’s a great time to secure the location that you have always wanted.

1. Second generation:  A second generation space gives you plenty to look forward to.  While many people know that you simply cannot just go in and change the menu and open a restaurant, a second generation space simply saves you money in all areas of a buildout.
2. Driving Habits: If the restaurant that was there previously was moderately busy, then there would already be a good number of people who have habits of driving to that restaurant. 
3. Leasing options:  Now may be the perfect time for you to get lower leasing rates.  With an overabundance of spaces about to arrive onto the market, the competition for space will be fierce. 
4. General Contractors: With many of the current construction jobs on hold, this may be the perfect time to hire a general contractor and have your construction done faster than normal. 
5. New Interior options:  With the new way of doing business within a restaurant changing, this may be the perfect time to change the interior to include new sinks, new cleaning stations, and new covid options that will make the guests feel safer.
6. Equipment:  Restaurants that have closed and are in the perfect location may be leaving some of their equipment behind.  It may be the perfect time to purchase the equipment within the space and save you money.
7. Planning:  Planning now sets you up for six months from now.  Six months of planning to open a new restaurant gives you the time and options to market the location and begin getting the word of mouth out. Plus, hopefully in six months there will be a vaccine for Covid and opening at the same time, gives you a strict advantage.

 
Hungry Hospitality can assist you in your restaurant needs.  Contact us below for additional questions.

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