I went and did it. Completed my tax forms and a few legal documents today, which I think legally makes my company a real one. I submit my first invoices to my two clients (one person, two companies) tomorrow… Plan on doing a little fibbing with the tax stuff so my fiscal year is January to December, but don’t tell the IRS that.<br/><br/>I also spent the night working on a site, <a href=”http://www.itbymike.com/” target=”_blank”>http://www.itbymike.com</a>. Now I’m exhausted and must sleep… I picked a really good night to not get sleep… Luckily, tomorrow night is an early one [sarcasm].<br/><br/>The idea behind the site is that it’ll be useful to any old visitor, have a light air to it, and get plenty of information across.<br/><br/>In order to build my client base, I opened the site up to providing services (I know a lot about consumer electronics) to individuals. Thoughts? I have mixed feelings.<br/><br/>Constructive and/or nice comments are very much appreciated, as always.<br/>
IT by Mike, LLC
Comments
-
I had a similar business in high school and your biggest problem is going to be finding customers. It will likely be word of mouth which can be a self-selecting population. I’d suggest finding a way to advertise to the likes of my mom, who always need computer help and don’t want to pay the Geek Squad to do it.
-
I already have two clients (same person, two companies) for a total of 7 or 8 people being supported. She’s a small business owner who knows TONS of other small business owners so I think the clients will come… That’s the nice thing about catering to small businesses; they talk. I’m not trying to get rich off it, so if they don’t come, no big deal.
I’m sort of hesitant to get too involved in the home market. That could get ugly with the quickness. I’m much rather fill my time with small businesses, which I can rely on month in and month out. Besides, like you said, I’d have to advertise, and I’m not sure I want to pour that kind of capital into this yet.
Any comments on the site? Does it serve its purpose?
Did you write all that with your BB? That would be impressive.
-
I think it’s 90% there. The only thing that I didn’t get by looking at it was the target market. In other words, what makes you different from all the other companies out there and why should customer xyz use you.
No, not all BB… but I have gotten really fast with it. I’m at the point where I can use two hands on a keyboard for short periods of time. Work next week should be fun.
-
P.S. – I like the design… clean and efficient without all the crap that small business sites usually have.
(Part of the things I realized this year is that I always come off as critical, even when I’m trying to be helpful… so I need to say what I like more often.)
-
Haha, I like the self-reflection.
At the end of the day, it is just a business of commodity so it’s difficult to separate myself too much. Hopefully once I get some testimonials up there, they’ll suffice. Until then, what can I do?
-
Damnit… the one time I don’t copy my text I messed up the verification image.
I think you should make the welcome message more prominent. Your differentiation comes from being one person who isn’t obsessed with making money. Were it me, I would make a big deal about being a small, agile company that can offer a high level of customer service at rates noticeably cheaper. If your market is small business, appeal to their small business mentality. “Being a small business ourselves, we understand the challenges of making the most with limited resources and money.” Or some shit…
I think the journal/blog/help entires should move off the front page. If service is your business, the index should talk about that. Make a “helpful hints” section that people can RSS or read up when they chose.
(BTW, your tab order on this page makes you go through the all the links on the entire page before getting to the submit button. IOW, if I tab out of the comments I have to hit tab like 30 times to get to the button. I can’t use a mouse with my right hand… that’s how I figured it out.)
-
Mike, I think if you created & registered your LLC today, you are going to have to file 2009 income taxes whether you received any income this year or not.
-
Mike, it looks good…..one issue I see is when I open up your page, I don’t get everything on my screen, i.e., the tabs or whatever they are alongside your titles “Windows Shortcuts” & “Welcome” do not fit on my screen. Maybe it’s me but I thought I’d mention it…..good job!
-
Yeah, I got excited and just wanted to get everything out of the way. I’m not so sure they’ll come after me if I don’t file my taxes on $0 for 2009.
The display issue is due to you running a ridiculously low resolution. I’ve reformatted the site to support turd-like computers/monitors… Lemme know how it looks now.
-
🙂
Leave a Reply