Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with entrepreneur

For Dog's Sake - Help Me Start A Business!

Lipstick Thespian — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 10:07:20 -0800

What do I need to know about starting a dogwalking/sitting service? I need advice on starting a dog walking/sitting/grooming service in my town.

I've never done any kind of entrepreneurial work, and am doing this primarily as a way to build community where I live and meet a ton of cool dogs.

I'd like advice about the basics of starting a cottage business, especially from anyone whose done this kind of dogwalking thing before.

What are the pitfalls I can avoid, or some good advice about setting up a client base?

Help me learn about the clothing consignment business.

mintchip — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:18:57 -0800

Help me learn about the clothing consignment business. If someone is interested in opening a clothing consignment shop, what would they need to know? For example, is this a lucrative business? How would you know what kind of items to accept and how to price them? How would you hire employees? How would you protect against theft? Are there a general guidelines for how much retail should cost (rent wise)? How would one determine whether such a business is viable in a specific area? How do you attract consigners? What sorts of resources (books, web sites, etc.) would help someone learn about this type of business? What else do I need to know? Et cetera!

VHS to DVD business

st starseed — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:19:17 -0800

How successful can a VHS-to-DVD conversion business be? I've been told by friends they will pay me to convert their VHS tapes to DVD and have kicked around, for years, the idea of turning this into a real money-making venture.

I have the equipment to get started and have done small consumer-based projects in the past. I know people have thousands of tapes lying around dormant, particularly from vacations and other self-shot stuff.

While I haven't done any formal market research, I do know this service is offered by Costco and Walgreens, among other large chains.

But do you think there's really a market for this? More importantly, what mediums would you use to promote it? Most importantly, how can the business grow?

Use cash to start a business or for a down payment on a home.

mintchip — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 18:40:50 -0800

Use cash to start a business or for a down payment on a home. I have been interested in having my own business. I have read business magazines for years and have even had a couple of small service-based businesses that I ran part time. No big bucks there but a rewarding experience.

Recently I've been considering trying to start a business for real. I have a small sum of cash (between 10-20k) I've been slowly saving for a home down payment.

It's a tough choice. Since I need a home to live in, buying one would mean an investment in my future and security. However, chances are that I won't get rich working for a private company. In fact, it's quite hard to get ahead nowadays with most of the good middle management positions gone. Meanwhile, most of the people I've known who did quite well for themselves did it by owning their own business.

I'm not saying it's easy. I'm just thinking that owning a business seems like my best shot at getting ahead, and it also happens to be a genuine interest of mine. At the same time, starting a business is a huge risk (I think it's something like 4 out of 5 fail within 5 years) and I could lose the money as well as a lot of time and energy.

I believe I have many of the qualities that would contribute to success in business. But it's hard for me to know if I have all of them.

What's your take? How have those of you who have been in a similar position weighed the pros and cons of such a decision.

What's it like to own a business?

btkuhn — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:09:52 -0800

What's it like to own a business? Hi,
I have long been interested in owning and running my own business. I have never taken any steps towards doing so, but my financial situation is pretty good and I'm interested in exploring the idea. I'd like to read accounts of "normal" people who started their own business, purchased a business, or opened a franchise. Success stories, failures, whatever. Can you suggest books, websites, or anything else that would fit the bill?

good research materials on the subject of electric cars, 3d modeling and/or entrepreneurship?

groovinkim — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:40:29 -0800

good research materials on the subject of electric cars, 3d modeling and/or entrepreneurship? my boyfriend is the son of a mechanic and dreams of starting his own electric car company (not for the everyday consumer, more like higher end sports cars). he does a lot of online research. he's very intelligent and relatively knowledgeable about cars, engineering, etc. when he gets that dreamy look in his eye and starts rambling about the technical specifics i usually don't understand a word he says. his feelings were hurt initially because i was skeptical about the project. he has viable ideas, but he's more of an archetype of a creative genius/professor than a pragmatic businessman. but i do think that his business has potential.

his birthday's coming up relatively soon, and i'd like to help him by getting him some books and magazines on related subjects.

some things i can think of that i could possibly get him reading materials about:

- electric cars in general. manufacturing processes, the market overall, engineering of them, etc.

- 3d modeling. he's mentioned that he plans on acquiring dual lcd monitors, a 3d scanner and whatever else he needs to make clay models. i don't want to buy him any of that stuff (not that i could afford it anyway) because i'm sure he's very specific in what he wants/doesn't want and probably already has his software of choice picked out. but if there are good books or magazines for a beginner, that could be useful.

i'd much rather have him rent or share a workstation somewhere here in seattle than invest a bunch of money in equipment, but he's weirdly paranoid about using public workstations and the slight possibility of his designs getting disseminated without his knowledge. i really doubt that would happen but haven't been able to successfully talk him out of his paranoia. i'd really like to find local people doing it that would be willing to talk to him about it so he doesn't accidentally buy something crappy, but if there's a consumer reports type magazine that covers related products that could potentially help.

- starting a business, specifically the economic aspects (licensing, getting funding, attracting investors, patent laws and copyright laws, etc.) i do sales/marketing for a voip company currently. although it's not my passion in life and i plan on switching careers, i think i can help advise him on marketing, networking and related topics. but i know nothing about starting a business... i've always worked for other people's small/midsize companies.

also, if anyone happens to know about related college or non-credit programs in seattle, that'd be of interest too. he's currently a programmer making a good living but he never finished his bachelor's. he preferred teaching himself. although he's generally good at self-education, i really feel like it'd be helpful for him to get hands-on experience with 3d modelling, advice from someone knowledgeable on the subject etc. while i don't think you need a degree in business to start one, i've also seen several friends start small businesses that were great ideas that failed miserably. my outside opinion is that they failed in part due to lack of sufficent research/knowledge.

i also feel the need to include a rambling offtopic paragraph about how i <3 metafilter. i work full time and go to school full time so i don't have much time to spend here, but it inspires me that there are still little pockets online where intelligent people communicate in a usually-respectful way. i'm sad that there was no seattle meetup and i didn't have time to organize one myself.

Mmm, bagels...

firei — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:00:27 -0800

Thinking of opening up a bagel store in a town nearby where there are no bagel stores. Looking for tips, suggestions, advice, and name ideas! (First off, if you've read my previous questions, you know I'm a bit conflicted because in the past year I have graduated college, gotten two part time office jobs, and was thinking about becoming an english teacher. Sorry.)

Anyway. My father and I are pondering going into the bagel business. Yay! Before we decided whether or not this is a good idea, I am going to be getting some early morning work at a bagel shop, in order to figure out if I like it, what it really entails, and if it is feasibly for us to do. I'm also working on a business plan.

I've read a few accounts of the bagel business (like the self-proclaimed bagel guru's), and have a general idea of how it works.

If we do it, we will be using the kettling method, and we will be making them from scratch, not a starter.

And we'd be doing it on Route 6, in Carmel, NY, and the location is a good one - lots of parking, close to I-84, no other shops around, etc.

So, have you worked in, run, or owned a bagel shop?

What does your favorite bagel shop have or do that is different and awesome?

Do you have a fabulous bagel recipe?

Any other random bagel thoughts or recommendations?

And, bet of all, what clever/fun/interesting/descriptive names can you suggest? (or boring and standard, that works too!)

Can I possibly buy a business?

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:17:01 -0800

Help me find out if my dream is totally unrealistic! Hi mefites,
I graduated from college two years ago and immediately began working at a stressful, high-paying job, where I stayed for a year and a half. I lived frugally and saved quite a bit of money, and I was lucky enough to keep almost all of it out of the stock market. I was again lucky earlier this year, when I decided it was time to put my money into the market, and I just about nailed the bottom. So if I sold my stocks today, I’d be sitting on a substantial (to me) cash cushion of $80-90,000.
I have struggled for a long time to figure out what I want to do with my life career-wise. I've considered a number of diverse options - med school, law school, going for a PhD, and on...but so far I haven't felt strongly enough about any one thing to commit to it. That's why I went into finance immediately after college - I could get the job without any higher education.

Anyways, I've had this nagging thought for the past few months...I have always wanted to run my own business and work for myself, but it has always seemed totally unrealistic for a young guy like me with no experience and no brilliant ideas that will sell themselves. Starting a business is for people who have worked for a while, developed some unique skills, saved some money, etc. Even then, most small businesses fail.

So...nothing has really changed, except that I have a bunch of cash. Starting a business from scratch is still unrealistic, but now I could buy an existing business. Still probably a risky gambit, but much less so when everything is already set up and running.
I know this sounds a bit pie-in-the-sky, but I'd like to learn more about the feasibility of something like this. At this point this is admittedly still just a vague, inchoate idea in my head. $90,000 seems like a lot of money to me, but maybe it's not. Obviously I would not be able to buy a large business. So I guess what I'm looking for is advice to learn more - resources, books, places to look for info. I know how a business works financially - I can read a balance sheet, determine cash flows, etc...but I know little about actually running a business. How can I find out more, and decide whether this is a realistic idea?

Business documents needed for startup?

Elminster24 — Tue, 12 May 2009 05:28:37 -0800

Help me get my ducks in a row in terms of what business documents and billing method I'll need for launching my new lead generation business! I've decided its time for me to break out of the corporate rat race where I do lead generation and start my own lead gen business.

In short, it works as follows (don't worry, not giving away the secret sauce here)...

1. I acquire customers who want to buy leads on a CPL (cost per lead) basis, meaning they only pay when I deliver the leads.
2. I obtain leads using my Secret Sauce(tm).
3. I provide weekly lead reports to my customers with the info for the leads. Ideally I would charge directly to their credit cards at this time but I'm not sure how refunds would impact me in terms of money if I have to refund a junk lead or two (which is a given).

So, that's it in a nutshell. From the lead-gen side of things, I've got things covered. What I'm still trying to figure out are some of the operational/business management things and I'm AskMeFi can help me figure out what sorts of documents, etc. I need to get created before I begin and anything else I'm forgetting.

Some documents I've already determined I need are:

-Contract for customer for a minimum number of leads that I will guarantee outlining payment terms

-Contracts for my various vendors who I work with to obtain the leads

-Financial books for tracking revenue and expenses (if anybody has any suggestions on software for tracking this based on the type of business this is I would appreciate it)

Any other big documents here that I'm missing? I'm also wondering about whether I need a DBA since I have an EIN registered to a generic business name I obtained for my consulting work (think: "FirstName LastName Consulting") but I'd obviously like to call this business something else. I figure since it will have its own website, that website would just be a product owned by my consulting business and I don't need any additional paperwork. Am I wrong on that? I'm in Chicago if that helps any.

Lastly, I'm wondering about charging direct to credit cards versus accepting 30 day net terms with a check. Ideally I'd like the first method as it puts money in my pocket sooner and means there is less I'll need to float from the actual lead-gen expenses. I figure I need a merchant account and a payment processor but I'm not sure how to actually get something setup whereby I can type in the customers info and charge them. Any resources on that would be appreciated. Also, I'm not sure if I'd be opening myself up to a ton of fees if I have to process a few refunds every month--are they expensive?

I realize there are several questions buried in this post, so any resources or guidance you guys can provide on anything therein (or all of it) would be much appreciated and I'm happy to clarify on anything I've written. Thanks MeFi!

how can i get paid to type?

austere — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:08:57 -0800

i believe myself to be quite gifted when it comes to typing. can this be parlayed into an income somehow? i have only a GED and have never been to college. i'm twenty four and have a slightly spotty work history. i am very personable and highly intelligent however. i don't really have any marketable skills and the only jobs i've excelled at tend to be administrative. when it comes to dull office jobs, i'm a superstar, but i absolutely hate that kind of work. the only real marketable skills that i have are my advanced computer proficiency and my extremely fast and accurate typing.

when it comes to typing, people tend to be blown away -- it's kind of funny because anyone can type, and most people do it well, more or less. however, anytime someone happens to see or hear me typing, a comment almost always ensues. it seems like data entry work tends to be 'bottom of the barrel' in terms of pay and regard. but i feel like there are probably teams/departments in certain businesses who do strictly this, and while admittedly half-joking, i could probably replace several above-average typists with my skill.

my mom has always suggested that i go to school to be a court reporter, but i lack motivation and follow-through with such a random idea as that, though i'm not entirely disinterested.

so i guess my question is whether or not it's possible or in any way realistic to hope for an opportunity to make decent money from typing. i am very dependable with most any sort of administrative work, even if somehow advanced, but i guess i just have a hunch that no one really pays people well to type, because in the end it's still 'just typing'. but as far as the work itself goes, i've got to be about as good as it gets.

i had a job once that required entering orders of athletic jerseys into a database prior to shipping them, and after a few weeks of being hired (this was in a warehouse that paid shit and had no interest in retaining employees - i made $5.50), i had developed this sort of rythm with the software we used and i would just fly through every order. it was funny to even me, as i would just kind of get into 'the zone' and would be entering the information faster than i could think about it. on a few occassions, management emerged from their air-conditioned offices with a stopwatch and would just stand there and watch me work, amazed at my proficiency. there were a few others who would do the same thing as me, and i must have had ten times the output. but in the end nobody ever acknowledged this as a valuable skill. i'm sure there are other companies who would have been more perceptive, but still.

so as data entry tends to be peon work for the most part, i'm sure the turnover tends to be high. so is there any way to subvert that notion and to get real recognition for this skill?

thanks mefi!

any ideas? thanks mefi.

Help me revive the arts in my comatose little town

Spike — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:03:25 -0800

How should I go about buying/starting/running a small business? So, there's this gorgeous old Streamline Moderne theater downtown that's fallen into dilapidation, and I want to buy it, renovate it, and make an indie/art theater out of it. The only problem is, I don't really know how. I've tracked down the current owner, who has been using the place as storage for the past decade or so. I've found gobs of info on the building's history, how it used to look, and so on. What I don't know (in order of ascending importance) is how to run a theater, how to get financing to buy one, how to go about renovating it, and most pressingly, how to broach the subject with the current owner. I've found sparse info here and there on the first two, but not much that applies well to my particular situation. Any other relevant advice on this cockamamie scheme is welcome, too.

Going it alone

prunes — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:23:19 -0800

Tell me stories about successful people that deviated from the typical career path. I am a year and a half removed from college. Since graduation I have been working in consulting. I'm not a fan, for many reasons much too long to list here. But the principal one is that I look at my coworkers and they are extremely risk adverse, "corporatey" people; and I am frightened of the thought of being like my more senior colleagues when I get older.

I would love to work at a startup to experience the opposite side of things, and truthfully I have been looking for something new for over a year. The search has been difficult for obvious reasons. I want to go out and strike my own path but I don't know where this might be and I'm afraid that by doing so I might somehow leave the rat race and be unable to reenter it, should I want to in the future.

I have found articles in the New Yorker such as this one about Alford and Naomi Duguid and this one about former Peace Corps volunteers inspiring. I am looking for other stories, anecdotes, resources about people that have struck it out on their own in business and in life, and the successes, or perhaps lack thereof, that they have found.

For this pilates studio owner, marketing is a stretch...

lgandme0717 — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 13:41:25 -0800

Ideas for marketing a new pilates studio in Manhattan? Trying to help a new Web client market herself. She has opened a new pilates studio and has offerings in Gyrokinesis classes and Stott pilates matwork. Her business is located in midtown Manhattan. I can help her with SEO, but I think there is much more she can do with marketing to local businesses, putting together promotions, etc. Unfortunately this kind of marketing is not my area of expertise. Do you have any words of wisdom I can share with this new entrepreneur? Thank you in advance for all your insights.

Million Dollar Homepage

kaizen — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:12:01 -0800

What are some alternative business models on the internet besides selling antiques and books? I have been tasked at school with brainstorming ideas for alternative business models including revenue generating websites and internet based services. That revenue could come from advertising, AdWords, Software as Subscription, or any other alternative model. Things that quickly come to mind are: 1) Subscription based software for take-out restaurants, 2) Residential helpdesk service using GoToMyPC type software, or 3) iTunes for call centers ( Jukebox while your on hold ). If you ran a startup, what would it be? Are there a finite amount of ways to generate revenue?

Looking for successful cases of "doing good through the web"

arrowhead — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 12:12:24 -0800

I'm presenting a social entrepreneurish talk with case studies on how people are using the web to help improve lives for marginalized communities and empowering social movements. Ie doing good thru the internets. So far only 2 distinct ones come to mind... kiva.org and change.org. Does anybody know any else? Extra points for web2.0-ish examples.

How can I use 10k ft. of space?

puddleglum — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:38:56 -0800

How can I generate some income with a 10k sq. ft space, only available three weekdays out of the week?

Broke but ambitious in Barcelona.

Zé Pequeno — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:42:07 -0800

I've just finished business school and have landed myself an internship at a very respectable multinational company in Barcelona, Spain. The internship is great, the salary dreadful. So, I'm now in a position where I can barely afford to live and need to find something else to suppliment my income. Can someone give me an idea of what formalities I need to address in order to sell food in the streets of Barcelona? I work just six hours a day so I have plenty of free time and I'm warming to the idea of starting my own business. I have identified a possible business opportunity centering on selling a very easy to prepare, mouth-wateringly delicious South American dish at night to drunken revellers. All I need from a purely logistical perspective, as far as I can tell, is a mobile barbecue, food and a few cooler boxes. I don't want to have any problems with the law, however.

I would be really grateful to anyone who could explain exactly what legal obligations I must fulfil before I can be legit. Also some indication of the probability of being able to do this would be also appreciated. I've already found out the hard way how spirit-crushingly obsinate the Spanish bureaucratic behemoth can be.

I'd welcome any informed suggestions but also ideas from anyone at all as to how I could feasibly make honest money in this city.

What's the profitability of getting into the restaurant industry?

CWitt — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:27:19 -0800

What is the profitability of a small restaurant? I'm a young entrepreneur graduating soon from college and can not bring myself to getting a 9 to 5. I want to be self-employed and I know that I will be successful. I think the first step is entering a business that I know will make me some residual income.

I've become very interested in owning a small restaurant. I cannot decide if the restaurant industry is for me or not, but I think I could succeed. I could obviously start my own local cafe or something, but I'm worried of the risks. I quick fix could be to open a Subway or Quizno's franchise (something with a low franchise fee), but I don't know if they are very profitable. Does anyone own a franchise restaurant or regular restaurant that could offer some rough figures to get me going in the right direction?

Inspire me with your best personal entrepreneurial story

jmnugent — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:27:15 -0800

I'm looking for practical, first-person, inspirational stories of how to launch/bootstrap entrepreneurial ideas with little or no resources. The more specific and detailed, the better. I'm in a life-phase right now of working hard to pay off some significant debt. During the slow and painful process, I'm building up a stack of creative ideas that I'm pretty sure would be successful if I only had the resources to nurture them. (I have no delusions of going "rags to riches", I'd just like to go "rags to being-able-to-pay-my-bills" before I turn 40.)

I hate to let the ideas stagnate, but there are weeks I can barely afford to eat, much less anything else. I just have this sinking feeling how much it will suck to hit 40 and look back to see all those ideas that died on the vine. (I also am starting to resent being referred to as the "guy with a bunch of ideas who never does anything with them" because I'm totally NOT that guy, but I have no resources to prove otherwise.

I realize the pragmatic answer for me (at the moment) is to keep doing whatever I can to get out of debt, but I'm hoping other MeFi's will have some inspirational stories of times you were at the bottom, and found creative ways to jumpstart one of your favorite ideas. Bonus points to anyone who started their own in-house business and eventually moved to it full time.

I need tips to be a tougher negotiator

Anonymous — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:52:22 -0800

I think I'm too nice to do certain things entrepreneurship requires. I need tips to be a tougher negotiator and be able to drive good deals. Here's my background: After 7 years of working regular corporate jobs, I took a 2-year break to do some independent consulting, pretty much working from home. Then I decided to start up a proper business on my own, with about 20 employees. This new business was based around another area of expertise that I had. I've been running the business for a bit more than three years.

Here's my problem: I think I'm too "nice" to be a tough negotiator on business deals like negotiating office rents, equipment prices, etc. It's a character trait that I am a big believer in "fairness", so I can't negotiate the best prices and rates because I want the other person to make a "fair" deal. When somebody tells me something like "Oh Mr. X, our margin on these products is only 5%, I really can't give you any more discounts", I find it hard to press any more. (I suspect the 2-year consulting break may have mellowed me out too much. I was quite an assertive firecracker in my mid-20s.)

My speciality is production, planning, and project management but as a small business owner who doesn't have specialists to handle various areas, much of the high-level negotiating has to be done by me.

What tips do you have to make me better at these things? I want to be that ruthless Donald Trump type of guy who gets the best deals.

Trying to brainstorm for a one-person business idea.

pinkbungalow — Wed, 07 May 2008 15:41:30 -0800

Help me think of a new business or career that can be started by one person with a small start-up budget? The more portable the better, and I hope to be able to support myself (not extravagently) with income from the business within 2 years. I have done this before starting a massage therapy business in FL that is now quite successful. I don't need to change the world, I just need something interesting and challenging to support myself until I retire in about 15-20 years. I am more of an idea and big-picture creative type than a detail or numbers person, but I am not averse to hard work. I do enjoy flexibility, travel, and living in a temperate climate. Start-up budget of $50k +/- Thank you!

Which Web Tech?

mooders — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:48:45 -0800

Which web development technology should I pursue for a commercial venture - php, python, perl or ruby? I am an ex-programmer with around 8 years of development experience in ASP, VB, .Net, Java, T-SQL, HTML, CSS, Javascript and XML. At my peak, I was considered to be a talented programmer. I moved away from development about 5 years ago and have coded probably less than a dozen lines since then.

I now find myself boot-strapping a web-based commercial venture and think I could code the back-end (using the MVC pattern) given a solid grounding in the right language. I am keen to use one of php, python, perl or ruby as these seem to be the de facto standards for this type of work.

So given the above, which one should I spend a month or so getting to grips with? Or is there something else at which I need/ought to be looking?

What should I build for my final project (in a technical Master's program)?

k7lim — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:32:00 -0800

What should I do for my technology-related Master's final project? -How can I better brainstorm my own ideas? -Do you have a dream app you want me to implement? -Are there areas or problems that you feel are underserved by technology? I have a few ideas that I'm kinda excited about, but none that's pure gold. My program is pretty technical, but has close ties with econ, sociology, law, et others. Pretty loose requirements. Hive minds are of interest to me, so I thought this would be a cool place to hear people's suggestions. I like to approach brainstorming by identifying either 1) problems or 2) things that people naturally like to do. Subsequently, I come up with solutions to alleviate the issues or facilitate the natural pre-existing behaviours in a novel way. I've been told to narrow the scope by focusing on one type of people.

I would love for this project to capture my passion, and subsequently my time, and then possibly some money. I'm not raring to get back to work for big tech companies. I'm ready to collaborate with some cool people on cool things, and to look for many "thousand-dollar ideas" that pique me (and feed me), instead of one big idea that may never hit.

Help me appraise the intellectual property values of acquaintances, if I do all the work bringing their ideas to market.

Redruin — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:34:21 -0800

Need help appraising the intellectual property values of acquaintances, if I do all the work bringing their ideas to market. I seem to have interested a number of people/friends in entrepreneurial endeavors. People whose ideas I think have good value and high potential, but people who are utterly clueless about how to turn it into money, and who are completely unmotivated to make things happen. In other words, their ideas will stagnate, and eventually be exploited by someone else if not for my effort and time investment.

Since I find inherent value in their ideas, I am considering lending myself to a few of their projects; but if I decide to "partner" with them I will be doing nearly all the work, using my own ingenuity and creativity to turn the ideas into products, marketing them, etc.

In cases like these, where the final product would consist mostly of MY intellectual property and effort, which is however, completely built around the initial kernel of THEIR intellectual property, how should I determine the profit split?

It seems that people's opinions of what they deserve for their ideas varies, but most expect a high percentage of the profits, with minimal involvement, (one facet of The American Dream). I would like to be able to present clear guidelines that would explain to them what is fair.

Help me prepare to prepare my web project.

croutonsupafreak — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:56:16 -0800

I'm in the very early phases of putting together a special-interest web site, which will begin as a blog but could eventually add other features. For at least the first year or two, I expect to lose money on this. Eventually, I hope to cover my costs or maybe even make a small (very small) profit with advertising. What business, tax and technology considerations should I keep in mind as I get going? For example, should I incorporate a business before I register the domain name and launch? Are there books I should read on sideline businesses? On building online community?