Hoops

As usual, I have experienced another area of life where the military is making me jump through hoops. In the past I've battled the hoops of the AF with everything from getting married to finishing school to stressing about how the heck I was ever going to have a career while moving around whenever they say "go". Thankfully, I have since found a career suitable to my life as a military spouse and could not be more thrilled about it. And since I do plan on making Lindsay Nicole Design Studio a long-time career, I've been careful to gather all the information I need to get this business started on the right foot, including web research, buying books, and racking the brains of successful small business owners; not to mention the time and money I've invested into my site and logo branding as well as enrolling in school to provide myself with the advanced technical training that I need. And while all that is great, there is a whole other legal side to starting a business that can be quite overwhelming - Business licensing, tax preparation, home occupation permit, DBA registration, getting a business bank account, etc. Yeah there's a TON of stuff that goes into doing things right.

I decided to just start at the top of the list and work down and that's when I ran into a majorly confusing issue courtesy of the Air Force... where do I even register this business? Okay follow me here... I am still technically a resident of California but have a current address in Mississippi. My business is online but technically run out of my home, which again is in Mississippi. I pay taxes in California, Jake pays taxes in Oregon (where he is still a resident), and we both pay a small amount of taxes in Mississippi. If I were to register the business in Mississippi, I would have to change all the information and repay all the licensing fees as soon as we move in a few months, and would have to continue to do that every single time we changed locations. No thank you. You'd think there would be tons of information about military spouses starting businesses all over the internet since that is such an ideal career for us, but there is really nothing.

Well being the "go-getter" that I am, I decided to make some calls and figure this thing out. After several phone calls to random government offices (and too many times repeating the spiel in the paragraph above) I finally met a really nice and helpful lady at the City Hall in my hometown in California. She listened to all my concerns and then we addressed them one at a time. She took the time to list out all my legal options and even put dollar amounts to each one. Finally we got it figured out... I will register my business in California and receive my business license and DBA through Stanislaus County (being that I pay taxes there, that is the easiest way to go tax-wise). I'm able to use my parents CA address for my business and home occupation permit, which is fine because I conduct business solely online, and will open a business bank account with that address, which I can also run and control online. With this setup, I will not have to change my information every time we move and can avoid a lot of unnecessary confusion and fees. Whew!

Like I said, hoops. Thankfully I'm just about done with that whole process and now feel like I finally have all my bases covered. Yes, Lindsay Nicole Design Studio is official and I can't wait to start designing full time come August :) And speaking of the studio, I have already filled over half my summer design slots so hurry and contact me if you still want to grab one!