Starting online business

[med1287]

Hi all

I am a medical student who is hoping to start an online woodworking business. I have been woodworking as a hobby for many years and have been selling my work for about 2 years. I've had some success and have some products that I know would sell well in an online business format. I am hoping to brand myself and start a business on the side, however I am completely unsure of how to do this. Any advice would be helpful.

Some questions of mine:

Up front costs: websites, logos, etc. What other costs should I consider

Taxes: What should I consider for taxes? Do I need to register as a business? When is it a good situation to form an LLC?

Credit cards: Is there a way to deduct business expenses? Are there good credit cards for small businesses?

 

Thanks

[SerrateAndDominate]

I don't have much to contribute to your questions, but you can probably toy around with making your own logos and making a website at a low cost.  I wonder if you'd sell more at trade shows or weekend festivals.

Others will likely chime in with helpful stuff.

I did a good bit of furniture building in med school and residency.  It's a great hobby that can be done as cheap or expensive as you'd like.  A co-resident and I took a class at the local museum, and it was well worth the cost.  I highly recommend doing that your M4 year if there are local offerings.

Feel free to PM me if you want to exchange product photos. Always great to see what people make

[Complete_newbie]

med1287 wrote:

Hi all

I am a medical student who is hoping to start an online woodworking business. I have been woodworking as a hobby for many years and have been selling my work for about 2 years. I’ve had some success and have some products that I know would sell well in an online business format. I am hoping to brand myself and start a business on the side, however I am completely unsure of how to do this. Any advice would be helpful.

Some questions of mine:

Up front costs: websites, logos, etc. What other costs should I consider

Taxes: What should I consider for taxes? Do I need to register as a business? When is it a good situation to form an LLC?

Credit cards: Is there a way to deduct business expenses? Are there good credit cards for small businesses?

 

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hey,

Good to see you take this step. Entrepreneurship has changed my life. It will yours (for the better).

1. I'd use Shopify. Easy platform and great for ecommerce and excellent marketing tools built in. You can make a good website with their templates pretty quick. They will charge monthly subscription. But you can't beat this platform.

2. Yes register business. LLC would be helpful for liability purposes IMHO.

3. You can deduct whatever you incur in your business as expense as business expense. Can't beat business expense for tax deductions...they don't even show up on the total income line of your taxes. Its the best deduction.

4. I'd defer credit card answers to churners...look at PoF website.

[Zaphod]

Seems a pretty time intensive endeavor for a med student. Once in clinical years it wont make sense, in residency probably even less.

[Peds]

how expensive is it to ship wood worked items??

[med1287]

Really depends on the size. I plan to be selling cutting boards/ serving boards, spoons and bowls which don't cost nearly as much to ship as say large furniture would be. You can fit many of these into small/ medium flat rate boxes for under 20$.

[Anne]

Etsy is a good platform esp for small items.

[The White Coat Investor]

med1287 wrote:

Hi all

I am a medical student who is hoping to start an online woodworking business. I have been woodworking as a hobby for many years and have been selling my work for about 2 years. I’ve had some success and have some products that I know would sell well in an online business format. I am hoping to brand myself and start a business on the side, however I am completely unsure of how to do this. Any advice would be helpful.

Some questions of mine:

Up front costs: websites, logos, etc. What other costs should I consider

Taxes: What should I consider for taxes? Do I need to register as a business? When is it a good situation to form an LLC?

Credit cards: Is there a way to deduct business expenses? Are there good credit cards for small businesses?

 

Thanks

Click to expand...

Websites are cheap. Logos are cheap too and often unnecessary.

You should pay any taxes you owe. You'll owe both halves of payroll taxes.

In my city, you would need to register as a business. I actually don't though. Just read your city rules. You need an LLC when you need liability protection. I wouldn't get one for now if I were you.

Yes, you can deduct all your business expenses. Yes, there are good credit cards for small businesses. I use a Capital One Spark card. It's 1.5% cash back and they have an overly robust fraud protection program (i.e. they text me every time I use the card to make sure it was me.)