News/ Articles Roundup 10/28/2019

Dealing with FOMO? Women Founder Magazine to the rescue.

California and the AB5 mess

Serena Williams invests in crypto-currency tax start-up

Personal Branding Trends that you need to know about

Venture Funding for female founders falls

All about SAFE notes

Finding a co-founder - questions to ask

Richest Self made women in Tech

Old, but Gold - Tax Considerations for start-ups

Book Recommendations - Don't buy them! Check if your library has e-books on Libby.

No time to read books? Then check these podcasts out

https://www.businessinsider.com/women-owned-business-month-october-tips-strategies

Valuation for your start-up

A collection of useful articles

https://cp.ventures/blog/how-do-you-value-a-startup/ - the VC perspective

https://seedcamp.com/resources/how-does-an-early-stage-investor-value-a-startup/

https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-calculate-the-value-of-your-early-stage-startup--cms-65

https://medium.com/parisoma-blog/valuation-for-startups-9-methods-explained-53771c86590e

https://hackernoon.com/how-to-value-your-startup-when-raising-series-seed-equity-4ddaf1e5c716

Starting a business

Starting a business is a monumental decision. Once you have made the decision to start a business, here are some things you should do:

- Identify the purpose of the business. What does success mean to you?

- How much money are you willing to put in? If you are quitting a job, how long will your finances stretch if you do not make any money in 3, 6, 9, 12 months? Make sure you understand the financial impact.

- Find a name that matches the business's purpose and vision. Make sure you can find a website domain (google domains or GoDaddy)

- Create social media handles based on where your audience hangout - Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Blog, Twitter, Pinterest. Engage with your customers consistently.

- Order business cards

- Find complementary businesses and set up some referral bonuses

- Create a website. Go for something simple and cheap initially and understand what content works before you spend a ton of money.

- Do the work.

LLC Creation 101

When should I have an LLC?
- IMHO anytime you are doing any business transaction. The money you spent in setting up the entity is totally worth the liability protection it provides.

I don't have tens of thousands of dollars to hire a lawyer.
- There are several online services that will do it for fairly cheap.
- I can't say about every state, but if you are creating an LLC in Texas, it is a very simple online form that you fill out. It takes 5 min and you don't need a lawyer for that.

What about formation documents?
- You can find fairly simple templates on legal zoom and other websites.

OK, what else should I be doing after I set up the LLC?
Here are some key tasks:

- Get an EIN - https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online

- Set up a bank account

- Get a credit card - https://www.creditcards.com/business/

- Get up financial books. Unless you are going to have a large transaction volume, I would recommend that you start with a simple Google sheet to track incoming and outgoing expenses.

- And make a note when franchise taxes are due. 

Registering a Delaware C-Corp

If you are working on a Tech Start-up that needs to raise institutional investment, then most investors require you to have a C-Corp. If you are the DIY type and/or cannot afford to get a lawyer, here are some useful resources to get started.

1) Get a Delaware Registered agent. The agent does nothing so find the cheapest option you can. Here is the list of approved agents
https://corp.delaware.gov/agents/

2) File the paperwork with Delaware Secretary of State. It's a one-page document. Anyone can fill it. Seriously.
https://corp.delaware.gov/corpformscorp09/
Most tech companies would probably need this one - https://corpfiles.delaware.gov/incstk09.pdf

3) Create all incorporation documents - you can use this website as reference.
https://www.foundersworkbench.com/document-driver/

4) Get an EIN
https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/apply-for-an-employer-identification-number-ein-online

5) If you are based out of a different state than Delaware, register your corporation in your state. Check your state's secretary of state website.

6) Get a business bank account

7) Set up accounting. Unless you are going to have a large transaction volume, I would recommend that you start with a simple Google sheet to track incoming and outgoing expenses.

8) Get a business credit card. You can find one that fits your needs here.
https://www.creditcards.com/business/

Most importantly, do the actual work!

Good Luck!

News Round-up 10/17

Too busy to catch up with the latest? Don't worry, here are some articles that we feel would be worth your time.

• Sheryl Sandberg Faults ‘Broken Rung’ on Corporate Ladder Over Work Inequities

• Systems Thinking' Fires Up Your Brain's Ability to Problem-Solve. Here's How to Do It

• 10 Powerful Women Leaders of HR Share Their Most Effective Strategies to Retain Great Employees 

• Bumble's chief brand officer explains how to build a successful brand