How to start a web design company?

"Song Writer" <iwritesongs.TakeThisOut@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:BC68307D.31BF%iwritesongs@verizon.net...
 > Can anyone suggest any books, or websites on how to start a web design
 > company? In addition, a book or website on good web design would be
 > appreciated as well.

There wouldn't be much to read up on.

You can pretty much go 2 routes:

1) Freelance working under your name.
a) come up with "company name"
b) promote your service
c) build websites

Thats it.

The other method would be:

2) Forming a company
a) Go to your chamber of commerce
b) Do a name check
c) Pay a few bucks to reserve your company name
d) If you are going to incorporate, pick up a pack of Incorporation
Forms (CoC usually charges $10-50 for them)
i) Fill out forms
ii) Pay incorporation fee ($200-300)
iii) Wait 4-6 weeks for your Certificate of Incorporation to
arrive in the mail
e) Visit city hall and get a business license
f) Go to back and open up bank account under company name

You might be thinking "Incorporating can cost me $500+ (more if you hire a
lawyer to do your articles of incorporation), why would I do it?" and the
main answer is income tax.
Where I am, if you are a corporation and make less than $200K a year you get
a tax rate equal to about half of what you would pay if you were freelancing
or working as a non-incorporated company.

Now you might be thinking "Hey thats great! Why doesn't everybody
incorporate then?" there are a few answers to that...
First, its hard to work "under the table" as a corporation (work and not
declare the income to the government).
Also, you have to keep some basic records about your corporation and file
reports to the government about it.
And, you can't use a mailbox as your official company address... you need a
physical location. If you move around alot (even once every year or two)
this can be a pain to have to keep up.
And, if you make more than $200K a year you end up paying more taxes on the
amount over $200K than you would if you weren't a corporation (If you make
$250K in a year you'll still save money being a corporation... but if you
make like $5M a year as a corporation you'd save more if you weren't a
corporation)... Luckily there are loopholes you can use to bump that income
down (the "how do I incorporate" booklet that usually comes with the forms
usually explains how to do that too)

Thats about it in a nutshell... I'd suggest just going down to your chamber
of commerce (or whatever the like entity is in your area if you don't have
one) and ask them and pick up some information pamphlets about it

Clint<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->