In a previous post, I discussed why it’s important to set goals when starting a new business. With that post in mind, it’s always nice to occasionally complete those goals ahead of schedule. One of my personal goals was to finish all the paperwork that’s required to setup a business (for a sole proprietorship or partnership anyways) by the end of March, 2010. Instead of waiting until the end of the month and potentially being busy with something else, I said to myself at approx 3:55pm that I should go, file the paperwork and get it done.
The only problem, after looking up what time the Napa Recorder-County Clerk’s office closes, I found out I had less than 30 minutes to get it done if I included my driving time.
While I was on the Recorder’s website, I noticed that since the last time I had filed a DBA/FBN (Doing Business As/Fictitious Business Name) they had now included the form online. I quickly filled out the PDF online (it was a nice touch that it wasn’t just a static scanned document by the way), jammed to downtown Napa dropped off the form and paid the $30 filing fee. I quickly realized the whole thing only took me about ten minutes tops and decided to push forward and drop off the circulation copy of the DBA to the local Napa newspaper. Once I paid my $76 to the newspaper (which took me a whopping five minutes), I walked down the block to the Napa Finance Department, filed out the business license application and spent another $97 to file my application.
At first I told myself, before the end of the week. Then I got down to, whatever I can finish today, great, I’ll have less to do on another day. Turns out that once I got started, I completed all three in thirty minutes! All in all, I spent a little more than $200 to start my new business. Now all that’s left is the waiting game for the newspaper to publish my notice every week to let the public know that I am starting a new business (just in case there is any public opposition, now would be the time that someone could bring it up). The most frustrating part of the process was the different payment options that were accepted. One place said credit cards, $6 fee (so I ended up paying cash), another took my business American Express, and the other took credit cards with no fees but didn’t accept American Express. Oh well, I got it done… now I can focus on more important things!
The takeaway: Set goals, and hit them with all your might. Don’t lollygag and procrastinate by telling yourself you still have time. Move, move, move!
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