New Business Advice Needed!

March 2, 2009 6:00 PM

Starting a new business and need some help/advice.

I was laid off in December (yay severance package!) and am now going to start working again.

I'm going to work for someone that does HVAC & appliance repair and here's where my questions come in.

The man wants to hire me and the rest of his technicians as subcontractors. I will take care of the office stuff - running the business end of things.

Questions:
1) Phone system - Because it'll be a small office with just a few (3 or so) offices, do we really need an elaborate phone system? We'll have 3 different numbers people will be dialing (with a few additional lines) but not a huge number of lines coming in or a large number of users. Can I just get some business, multi-line phones from some place like OfficeMax or Office Depot or even Costco?

2) Compensation - We're tossing around a few different ideas for this. I think we're leaning towards a percentage of the profit to compensate me. Anyone have experience with this, good or bad?

3) QuickBooks - I'm going to be using QB to do accounting and would like to get a dispatch/scheduling program that works with QB. Suggestions?

4) Sole Proprietorship - I think this is how I'll operate "my" business.

If it makes a difference, I'm in Arizona.

Any other advice would be greatly appreciated. My background is in marketing/graphic design, but I've done accounting/dispatch in the past.

Thanks in advance for your help!

posted by TurquoiseZebra to work & money (3 comments total)

Re: Sole Proprietorship - I meant to ask if this sounds like it'll be a good idea in regards to what all I'll be doing as far as running the business.
posted by TurquoiseZebra at 6:01 PM on March 2

If he is your only customer you might recheck as to if you qualify to work as a subcontractor.
posted by mmdei at 7:01 PM on March 2

If you are being paid as percentage of profit, you should have your own accountant look over the books, to make sure there actually is enough profit to support you. You should also have your own attorney to look over the contract.

I'd lean more towards hourly or salaried rate plus performance bonuses. Your income will be less variable, and if he screws up his business, you're still owed your wages.
posted by decathecting at 8:25 PM on March 2