Genesis Posted January 28, 2010 Hey guys, bare with me a second this is going to be somewhat complicated and possibly all over the place, lol. I know a lot of you fellas sell and trade cactus and other entheogens amongst yourselves, make a bit of cash on the side to suppliment what ever income you may have. Recently I have been talking with a few members and they have said they are interest in starting their own businesses but don't know where to begin. I myself was in the same situation about a year ago and found it hard to get good information without forking out a load on money on seeing accountants etc. I managed to get an ABN and a Businesses name via the internet then kind of came unstuck when it come to the taxation, accounting and record keeping stuff. A fair few of you guys operate your own small businesses and I know there are a few accountants on the forums so I figured with a pool of knowledge like that we could offer each other some assistance and guidance getting a few new businesses started. I don't know, maybe get a heap of info together and make a HOW TO pdf? Or have a little question and answer thread pinned? Would be cool to see some more intendant businesses kicking around, not to mention the good it could do for our community. Also it would help me out heaps Cheers kids, Gen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mac Posted January 28, 2010 You can get a info pack & free advice from your local (BEC) Business Enterprise Centres Australia Or have a look around their webpage it has how to guides & plenty of info that should help B.E.C Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Genesis Posted January 28, 2010 WELL... Disregard my rant. Cheers man, much help :D I feel like an idiot now lol Gen Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mac Posted January 28, 2010 The info packs are good but im sure others who have been there might have some better info from personal experience Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Undergrounder Posted January 28, 2010 (edited) Hey Genesis long time no chat man how's it goin.. I'm in the middle of starting one right now. I always used to sell orchids as a hobby, now i'm making a fist of it as a business. I have about a thousand plants growing hydroponically in the basement of my parents' place that i've raised from babies. I've also just started buying plants wholesale to see if i can sell retail as well. I found it surprisingly easy so far, it just takes a little startup money and lots of time. - Register ABN - Small fee, do it online. - Register Business Name - If you're only trading online, not necessary. - Setup Tax - If you plan on earning < 75,000, no need to register for GST. OK so you can't claim 10% on your supplies, but you save 10% on sales. So if you ask me, don't register for GST if you don't have to. I'm pretty sure you only have to lodge PAYG statements if you employ people as well. - Setup the accounts. Get a copy of quickbooks, you get 30 days for free before you need to register. Buy it if you like it, or just make paper accounts until you have enough money to afford it. Start with the pre-made accounts Quickbooks will make for you so when you do buy it, you don't have to change your system. or just download it and crack it but ... If you actually have the money, then spend it. - I don't know what to say about accounting, i did a couple of units in it mny years ago so i was able to pick up an old textbook and get back in the swing of things pretty easily. Once you get the basics then it's easy. Once you stop getting your credits and debits back to front and you got your As, Ls and OEs around the right way it kinds makes sense. Tricky stuff you can look up when it happens. - Website - Get an ePages eCommerce enabled site. Netregistry has one and is popular (and Australian), but there are much cheaper hosters overseas. Go to the ePages homepage and look up their retailers, i think there are a few in Europe who can host your site for about 30 Euro a month, 2000 products, ebay portal, customer database, marketing, full customisation, easy to use and setup - trust me this package rocks and in my opinion is worth the monthly outlay over something like osCommerce... which is great and free, but very ... osCommercey. - Credit Cards - I haven't done this yet. But you need a Merchant Account with a bank which will charge you the 2-4% or whatever, plus a monthly fee and probably a $500+ setup fee. Then you also need a Gateway Hoster that will be another monthly bill. Expensive, but i just did a costing tonight, on the average plant i would make about 17% more selling online using credit cards. Ebay and Paypal combined slice off about 30% of my profit per plant. What eBay is good for though is marketing. Trade through eBay, be nice to your customers and add all their details to your records. Then when it comes time to launch the website, you've already got a bunch of likely customers to talk to. Use it occasionally to pick up more customers too, and to offload old and slow stock, or to pick up a high price for the really rare stuff. But then try and get everyone onto your main site. If you use worldpay and get an account with RBS for instance, you can get the Merch. Account, the Gateway and full integration with ePages starting from $Au430 a year + 3.95%. No setup fees and an all-in-one service. It will cost about $7 to settle the balance from your Merch. RBS Bank Account to an Aussie bank account, and a minimum of a couple hundred dollars. That's about where i'm up to. Official start date is Jan. 1, still getting website and costing and stuff done. Edit: Business practice is a whole nother story... still very much learning the ropes on that one... Edited January 28, 2010 by Undergrounder Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
educate Posted January 28, 2010 Hi Genesis, Have you heard about NEIS? NEIS basics talked about here If you are on a centrelink for more than 2 weeks, you can apply. I did one through RMIT in Melbourne and it is all free. Free 6 week business course which is headed by some awesome mentors to guide you. There were all sorts of people doing the course - from rock bands to cafes to internet designers. I had attempted businesses before this but missed some really important stuff. Mainly how to sell, advertise, manage my income, etc. The best thing is that when you finish you get guidance for 12 months and payments of about 420 a fortnight to go towards your business. The idea is to get it making profit at the end of the 12 months. I definitely recommend it and best of all I met some really great people in the course. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Undergrounder Posted January 29, 2010 You want to own your own gay spa? Sorry man can't help... you'd be great at it though, hope it works out. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
