So you want to start a small business…

Earlier this year, I was in a situation where I literally started a business in 2 days.  After finding out that I was about to have a severe reduction in hours at my contract seamstress job, I managed to make the following things happen:

A business name: Clothing Hospital – I needed to make it crystal clear to people that I was there for fixing/mending/altering their clothes.  I was not there to make things from scratch.

A logo: My logo depicts exactly what my business does.

logo for Clothing Hospital

A location:  I couldn’t run this out of my home.  Luckily I have friends that are kind enough to let me work out of their space. [Thank you April at Fabricker]

A phone number: you really don’t want to use your personal number for your business.  With tools like Google Voice, you don’t need to.

Business cards:  I made a small batch of cards on my home printer until I could place an order.

Web site:  Sadly, the url I wanted was taken. Since I was low on time, I decided to add a page for the store front to my existing web portfolio.

Social Media: as much as I dislike having to keep an eye on all of this stuff, maintaining a Facebook and Twitter presence is a necessary evil.

DBA:  I was already listed as a sole-proprieter in Travis County with a DBA of Spinsta, but I went ahead and filed this one too.

Sales Tax:  Because of my other business venture, I already had a permit.

Marketing:  Having worked in the industry before, I went through my existing client list, and sent out a targeted message to all the businesses that had sent me referrals.

I did all of this in two days.  I got a text about the downsizing on Wednesday, and Saturday I was in my new space.

 

 

 

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