Ther Office Space Saga Continues:

We are very close to getting everything done. We are negociating our lease, which is never very fun. Make sure an attorney reads it. These docs are so boring that I can not finish them. My mind wanders to anything but the 50 page document in front of me. I don't think I have ever completed one. Very lucky to have a broker who is fighting for us.

We also started to look at cubes and desks. Tip: At financialaid.com we got our cubes , laser printers and servers from a failed .com. They had been in business for roughly a year. We paid .05 on the dollar. There are plenty of furniture outlets.

Cheers.. we are so close to office space, then the fun really begins.

Mike

Office Space:

Looked at 5 spaces in downtown San Diego. Love the feeling down here. Four did not fit our need and One was perfect.

We are going to take it. The address is 701 "B" Street, Suite 1150. Nothing feels better as a business than getting the address.

Cheers,
mike

A great look and feel makes the company.

Randy Provence has joined our company and is responsible for keeping all things looking nice and clean. After about 50 tries we finished with the current logo!

Here is some logo advise. Less is more. Sometimes people try to make a logo say more than it has to. It is fine to start with an idea that has many elements. But then you have got to cut it back. Keep it simple.

Great logos: Starbucks, Nike, Lucent, ebay

Mike

Great people make great companies... Do you know any?

So far the hardest obstacle what we have encountered is hiring people. It is so tough to find good people. We have used recruiters, we have used craigslist, monster, dice, hotjobs. You name it. But someone explained to me that the reason why there are so few good developers out there, here it is. When the tech bust happened and all the .coms were becoming .gones, people choosing majors in college stopped becoming software engineers and web developers. They choose instead to become mortgage brokers.. Anyway, it has created a vacuum.

So if you know of any good middle ware people please send them our way. Careers@mingle.com and check out Jobs.

Insurance... Paper Work Hell

Starting a business means a lot of paperwork. This no more true that trying to get insurance. By the way you will need at least three types of insurance. With potentially three different insurance companies. Advise: get a broker.

• Property and casualty (most buildings want $1mm in coverage)
  
• Employment (State Disability)
  
• Errors and Omissions
  

You can't hire people or move into your building until this is done!

Mike

Any new business needs a headquarters. It is one of the most exciting steps of starting a business. You get to look at space that might work... space that won't work and space that is just right. You never know how much space to get. You have an idea, you hope the business will do well and you will need more, but you don't want to over commit. More space means more dollars..

The other thing to watch out for about getting space is the length of the contact. Buildings want very long terms, 5 to 10 years. I believe in buying someone's misery, it usually comes cheap. Since in the begining, you don't know how much space you need it makes sense to sublet. You can usuallly get a 30% discount and much shorter terms. Also if you do not require TI's(tennant improvements) you canmove in very fast.

I would recomend using a broker that does not represent the building. If in San Diego, Mike Gallagher at Irving Hughes. Email me if you would like his contact information.

Mike
mingle.com

Legal Stuff..

This stuff is so important. Choosing what type of business structure you are going to use can affect you later on, especially if you hope to sell the business. You need to get an attorney now. In my last few businesses we have used DAK Law, talk to Richard Aaron (he is the "A" in DAK).

Types of Business Structure:

• Sole proprietor
• Partnership
• Limited Liability Corp LLC
  
• Corporation
  

At financialaid.com, a decision to be an LLC increased our tax burden when we sold the company. This cost us a huge amount of money, however, we would use the same structure again due to the ease of being an LLC. If you are profitable (we can only hope) money is passed through to you and only taxed once.

Also if you are raising capital for your business you will have to talk to CPA. Your attorney and CPA will help you decide what structure your business should be.

Cheers,
Mike

Starting a business is an exciting time. All the hopes and dreams of an idea coming to life. It is also a linear process of steps that need to be completed before the next task is undertaken. This blog will serve as a chronical of a new .com business.

Mike and Casey
www.mingle.com