Terence Chang

Start online e-commerce store business in Arizona

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I think it will be useful to put down the processes of starting an online retail business in Arizona. Who knows what will happen tomorrow. I may start a new business on my own. Although this is not the first company I start, however, it’s my first online retail business.

These are the brief steps.

  1. Search availability of the new company name at Arizona Corporation Commission.
  2. Filing the required documents to register the company as s-corporation.
  3. Download the filing forms here.
    • Covert Sheet
    • Articles of Incorporation for Domestic Corporations
    • Certificate of Disclosure for Business Corporations
    • $95 check write to Arizona Corporation Commission
  4. If the document is filed with Expedited process ($60 + $35), it will take about a week to get the Article of corporation document return ($5/each). Otherwise, it will take about 55 days.
  5. Once received the article of corporation, publish the article in 60 days. AZ Capitol Time can complete the whole process for about $91, including mail the published copy to AZ corporation commission.
  6. Once the process is completed, call IRS to get a new EIN (employee Identify Number)
  7. Download and file the 2553 S-corporation election form to form the s-corporation
  8. Apply the Arizona retailer license online at AZTaxes.gov.
  9. Apply a new business check account with bank
  10. Apply a new business credit card
  11. Find a good company to buy the startup package (including bylaw, minute book, etc)
  12. Register the desired domain name at GoDaddy.com
  13. Find a good hosting company. ex ANHosting.com
  14. Setup open source shopping cart Zen Cart
  15. Customize the logo and layout
  16. Input the products
  17. Setup Paypal business account and link to the shopping cart (Paypal IPN)

The time to complete the entire corporation filing is about a month. Now. It’s up to me how to run the business. Few notes to remember.

AZ requires to file the tax return monthly. Fedral requires to file tax return qurterly.

Small Business starts small – Does domain name matter?

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I have been receiving emails or private messages on many small business forums about where and how to start a small business or home based business. They often asked me how to find their business name and register a domain name for their small business. Does domain name matter to their business? What a domain name can do to help them gain more business or drive their business forward?

The answer is simple. Domain name does matter. A good domain name will attract visitor and help the web site to be indexed and searched easier that just some weird domain name. I registered all my domains at www.GoDaddy.com. They are the largest domain and web hosting company in the world.

Now, what domain name should a small business owner get? Here is some guide lines.

  1. Frist of all, don’t try to get a domain with a big brand name in it. For example, digggoogle.com or googleme.com, which has google in the domain name. You might get sue by those big shop when your site is getting quiet traffic.
  2. Try to find a name close to your own business name.
  3. Get dot com (.com), if you can. Most of search engine will look for your domain + .com to find if there is such a domain existing. The search engine will list it in the order or .com, .net etc. And most of people who only remember the domain name will type something like smallbizdir with .com after that while he/she means to type (smallbizdir.net). Not many people remember to type .net, .org, .info or anything else. So get .com domain as you can.
  4. Find a good domain registration company to stick with. I personally recommend www.GoDaddy.com, because of their credibilities. I don’t host my site with then. Their shared hosting is not as good as what I am getting from ANHosting.com. I would choose GoDaddy.com for higher end dedicated hosting.
  5. If you can’t find a good domain name close to your business name, think about something sharp and easy to remember. Yahoo and Google are both very easy to remember.
  6. Don’t make your domain more than 12 characters long. Most of people will not remember long domain or just forget the .com, .net part of the domain. A long domain will also make your email address hard to remember. A long domain name might not fit your newly design business card of advertisement flyer. Can you remember this email address? terencechang@lookatmywebdeisgnlayout.com. You got the point.

Does domain matter to your business? Domain is just like your company name, it’s part of your business plan and success. Without a good domain name, you won’t represent your business in a good and wealthy way.