Week One of Starting My Business
On November 24, while on a Thanksgiving holiday visiting my mom and stepdad, I got the impulse to start a business.
I started selling my art as far back as high school when my stepmom arranged for me to do three murals for different family friends on bedroom walls (as well as some painting on my own bedroom wall), but I've never really considered starting a formal business. Every so often someone would offer me money to make art for them and I was like, "Sure, I can do that."
In October one of my friends asked me to create a portrait of her guinea pig Bun who had passed away and paid me to do it (tipped too!!) because she's incredible and so supportive. Then the week before Thanksgiving another friend (and my amazing boss) hired me to create a logo and mailer postcard for her new business.
I've been at the Entrepreneurship Institute at Utah Valley University for over six years now and my mom and stepdad own seven franchises of a disaster clean up company so I'm not sure why the time to start my own business is now, but apparently it is.
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
I plan to use this blog as a weekly record of the steps I take to get everything going to look back on myself to see the progress I make and so that someone else starting a business in Utah might have somewhere to see what goes into starting a business and might decide, "Hey, I can do that, too."
Since November 24, I have:
Registered my business and paid fees using Utah's One Stop Online Business Registration
Tried to register on Taxpayer Access Point, but haven't been successful yet
Set up an email account via Google Workspace
Paid for my domain via Google Workspace
Created a free Canva account specifically for my business
Signed up for a Creative Market account
Started a digital folder where I can store all my business files
Designed my logo
Downloaded and learned Vectornator to make vectors for my logo files in color, black, and white as well as the logo mark on it's own for icons
Created a LinkedIn page
Created an Instagram page
Created an icon for both social pages
Applied for a business banking account with Bluevine and got approved
Started a budget using my YNAB account
Applied for a business license with Vineyard and received my license
Connected my bank account to my personal account to transfer the money I've already earned
Registered my business with the IRS and received my EIN
Created a simple Google webpage
Changed my mind and created a webpage with Wix
Decided to finally pay for upgrading Wix so I can use the domain I purchased
Begun creating my website with Wix
Begun setting up my Etsy shop (I need to go back now that my bank account is active)
Set up Venmo for business
Created my first three invoices using Canva for the illustration for my friend and the logo and postcard mailer
Taken my fourth client job and received payment
Begun designing my first Instagram graphic pack
Purchased some packs of fonts from Creative Market during the Cyber Monday sale
Created a MailerLite account to begin building a subscriber list
Created my email signature
Tried to connect my domain to my Wix site (I haven't figured it out yet)
Checked out Gumroad as a possible shop host
Watched at least a dozen YouTube videos from YouTubers who have started and been successful with digital products
Looked at existing digital products on Creative Market and Etsy
Visited a ton of event planner's Instagrams to get a feel for what an event planner might look for in Instagram templates
Read about sales tax in Utah
Watched part of a SkillShare video on how to create digital stickers
Started telling people I've started a business
Started this blog
I've done a LOT (thanks holiday weekend) and there's still a lot to do, but I'm looking forward to it. So far I'm having a lot of fun, even though it's mostly been filling out paperwork.