photo credit: Evil Erin

Why Start a Business?

Why go through the hassle of setting up a trade name, registering with the county and state, getting a bank account, buying accounting software, tracking down a lawyer, dealing with taxes or a dozen other painful things that you can avoid if you just keep doing things as a hobby?

If you’re just one person at the point we’re at (starting to get requests for gigs instead of seeking them out), setting up a business might be too much too soon. But Super Art Fight is a collection of people and since we’re at the point where we’re getting requests for bookings, we need a formalized structure to handle money and liability. As individuals, we are all responsible should anything go horribly wrong with the show. If we have a business in place, if the company folds, we still get to keep our shirts. When we were funding Super Art Fight out of pocket, it didn’t really make sense to set up a business. Now we have money coming in with more on the way. Seems like the perfect time to set up shop.

The Legal Checklist

The task of setting up a business is scary and daunting, especially for me since I have little business sense. A list breaks down insurmountable tasks into individual items that can be tackled one at a time. So it’s time to make the Super Art Fight Business checklist. Fortunately, Montgomery County Maryland provides a checklist for getting a new business license so the first four items in our checklist are all set:

1. Register the business and establish the legal entity with the MD Department of Assessments and Taxation.
2. Obtain a Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS.
3. File a combined registration form with the Comptroller of the Treasury to establish tax accounts.
4. Register the trade name with the MD Department of Assessments and Taxation.
5. Explore IRS resources for small businesses.
6. Set up bank account.

The Business Checklist

The Legal Checklist gets us set up as a legal entity. Now comes the hard part, structuring our business.

1. Establish administration hierarchy.
2. Establish book keeping and records management process.
3. Create standard contracts for show participants and venues, possible consult a lawyer.
4. Develop pricing menu for live events
5. Produce promotional material (posters, business cards, stickers, street team, etc.).
6. Create merchandise (tshirts, prints, etc.).
7. Find storage for artwork.

Long Journey, Single Steps

I’m fairly certain the checklists will expand as we go along. For now, this gives us a good place to start. As we go through each item in some semblance of order I’ll report back with our successes and failures. If you have any words of encouragement or advice, please feel free to drop us a comment or two.

Alright, let’s get to stepping.