4 Things I Wish I Knew Before Starting My Own Company

I knew this would be hard. I knew this would be stressful. Boy howdy was I not aware of some of the ridiculous reasons for those hardships and stress. Here are four things I wish I knew before starting this journey.

1. Company Registration

2. Business Banking and Credit Accounts

3. Logo/Design

4. Intentional Time

1. Company Registration

   This I should have expected to go the way of all bureaucratic things, which is to say to be far more lengthy in time than initially expected.

   Filing your Articles of Incorporation is not particularly onerous in itself, but the turn-around time between them arriving at the government facility, being processed, notarized, and mailed back is far longer than expected.

   Result

   Three weeks delayed on beginning the process of applying for Business Bank Accounts or Business Credit Cards.

   Recommendation

   It costs $70 to register a company name with the state of California. I now understand why some people buy these up the way others buy up web domains. Do this as early as possible, as the downstream consequences of having this delayed are longer and further reaching than you might expect.

2. Business Banking and Credit Accounts

   Did you know not everyone wants to just give you free money at some risk to themselves? Sounds crazy, I know! The process of applying for business bank and credit accounts just takes time.

   Result

   We couldn’t go live with this website, for example. We were waiting for our Business Credit Card application to be approved before we were able to complete the purchase that would enable us to finally hit that “Publish” button.

   Recommendation

   The instant you have your Articles of Incorporate locked down, start this process. That means you need to have done the research to determine what banking solutions are right for your business in advance.

3. Logo/Design

   So, this was probably the biggest shock to me personally (though that probably does little more that to indicate how foolishly naive I was about this than anything). Logos, and design work in general, takes time. First you have to find a designer who’s work you like, then you have to go into this far more in-depth consultation than I expected, then comes a round of revisions… it takes time.

   In fact, as of the time of posting this, Alternative Partners still does not have a logo.

   Result

   We look untrustworthy. We don’t have a logo on our email signature. When we send invoices or contracts, they’re not personalized with a logo. There’s a level of professionalism that has been ignored, and it is felt more than seen. Because of this our entire Target Account marketing plan has been pushed back a month.

   Recommendation

   As soon as you have a company idea/name, start this conversation.

4. Intentional Time

   Making this personal for a moment; I know this is going to sound crazy, but I love running a business. So much so that it is occasionally difficult to focus on anything else - like my relationships, or my art, or literally any other part of my many-faceted identity. Putting Alternative Partners out of my mind long enough to give dedicated and focused intentional time to anything else has been a huge challenge for me.

   Result

   Disconnection from life. Harsh? True. True? Also true.

   Recommendation

   I was fortunate to get to sit down with Todd Huffman, former CEO of 3Scan, to pick his brain on this matter. My distillation of his excellent advice is this - realize the reason you are unable to think of anything else is because you are afraid your good ideas will vanish if you don’t hold them in mind at all times. Solve for this by putting aside dedicated time for ideation (I like visiting coffee shops with a fountain pen and fancy notebook, but I’m bougie like that), and a separate time for processing those ideas (I turn them into SFDC Tasks and assign them to various projects to throw into my company roadmap). Now that I know I’ve gotten these thoughts down and recorded, I find myself emotionally free to engage with the rest of my life again.

Let me wrap this up by explaining the full effect of this list in reverse order:

1. Pursuing our Target Account list requires us to have our branding, logo, and design on point.

2. Having all that creative work done is predicated on having gone through a creative process with a professional.

3. Going that a creative process with a professional requires the ability to pay them.

4. Paying professionals requires a business banking or credit account.

5. Signing up for a business banking or credit account requires Articles of Incorporation.

6. Filing an LLC-1 in CA requires $70 in liquid assets.

Conclusion

Oh I don’t know - just start everything as early as possible and maybe just maybe you’ll meet your own original deadlines - but what else is new?

Alternative Partners - trying to toe that ephemeral line, code-shifting between millennial-hipster-speak and old-money-jargon.