Hey all, site has been very helpful for me, thanks in advance. Sorry for posting this twice but i doubt it will get as much response in the GenX'ers as it will here

Let me lay out some basic information first

me- age 18
friend\buisness partner- age 17
both college students
location Edison, New Jersey

This summer after spending alot of time around automotive events me and my friend decided that we should pursue this as a career opportunity. We know a decent amount about this field, more then your average person but we still have a lot to learn. Currently we are going to school for small business management but i plan on going to tech school to learn more things related to the automotive industry. the big picture is to have a shop where we work on making custom cars, all aspects of it. we know the cost of a shop with a functional garage is easily $700,000 to $1,000,000. Currently we detail cars just to make some money towards a "start-up" fund. We decided to start an online store but we've yet to go further then that. any advice/tips? We found a webdesigner and a host for out site. whats the next step to make our business "official". We were planning on waiting for him to turn 18 (this december) but we dont want to just sit around and wait for that and then start, we want to just wait till that date and have everything else lined up.

once again thanks in advance

I love to see teenagers with clear goals and an entrepreneurial mindset!

As for your next steps, have you registered your business name yet? You can do that through your county offices (very inexpensive).

Did you purchase your domain name? Do it yourself, don't let the web host do it or they may end up owning it. You want to be the owner of the domain name in case you should ever want to change hosts.

Have you chosen a merchant account company for credit card orders?

You can also be working on the text for the web site.

What will you be selling from your online store? Have your product line ready to go.

You can also be working on your optimization and marketing strategies. That alone takes countless hours!

Good luck with your new business venture!

Sylvia
http://businessplanmentor.com
Business plan and start up resources

Thanks for the info. Thought everyone would ignore this! good to see some help.

With the business name is registering the same as trademarking? there isn't a clear definition on that anywhere I looked

We bought our own domain from godaddy, it was like 10 bucks a year which is inexpensive.

I dont understand the merchant account company for the CC orders, how does that work? honestly i havent heard of that so any info would be great.

A buddy of ours is designing the site for us, he's charging us 350 plus a year of his server.

Thanks in advance

I have to agree, it's very rare to have someone so young so focused.

The Business name is not the same as trademarking. It should cost you no more than probably $50-$100 to register your business. Your trademark is the name that you spend your marketing branding. To clarify this for you... I own Brooks Pepperfire Foods, we make a lot of different brands for which I do not own the trademark, the company we make the foods for, owns that. I do own the trademark for Peppermaster brand Hot Sauces and for Sweet Seductions brand fair trade certified dessert sauces.

The company that manufactures Tabasco sauce is actually McIlhenny and the company that manufactures Dasani water, is actually Coca Cola.

Your business name is the name that cheques payable to your company come in, the name your company signs contracts with and the name that you will incorporate, if and when you incorporate.

Sometimes your trademark is the same as your company name, but not always.

Clear as mud?

If you bought your domain from GoDaddy, it is yours.

The merchant company for taking cc orders can be many different financial institutions. For my website, I use both my CC merchant and Paypal, although, paypal will accept bank cards and credit cards. My CC merchant is my local bank... that may be a little pricy for a startup though.

I highly recommend that the next thing that you and your buddy do, is sit down with a law student and draft out a partnership agreement. While you're at it and still friends, hash out your potential break up agreement too. (Much easier to do now, than when you really do have to break up... hopefully that will never happen, though.) You can always take this agreement to a full lawyer later, after you're making some money and have a full legal agreement drafted, but students, at this point, will be less expensive for you.

Once you have your agreement in place, you have to do the most important thing that you and your buddy will ever do.

WRITE A BUSINESS PLAN.

The business plan is your road map. It includes where you are going, what you want to do to get there and how you are going to do it. If it is detailed enough it will include a mission and vision statement that will be your guiding lights. You can find a lot of good info on creating your business plan right here at Idea Cafe in the Starting Your Biz section. One of the most respected and best run companies in the world, Bombardier, has a 100 year business plan and they renew and review it EVERY year. You don't need to go that far out but the more concrete your plan is, the better able you will be to succeed.

And of course, if you run into any questions... no matter how silly you think they may be... post them in these forums... You'll get some great feedback. Even if sometimes it makes someone giggle.

Good luck to you both.

T

Tina Brooks, VP Marketing
Brooks Pepperfire Foods, Inc.
Makers of Peppermaster Hot Sauces
http://www.peppermaster.com

Eat more peppers