[Hidden-tech] Starting my own small Business Website

[Don Lesser]

This is a job for an expert. The SBA offers free business consulting for these types of questions. Chambers of Commerce should be able to get you to the schedule for an SBA advisor. You don’t have to be a chamber member. The MSBDC  in Springfield offers a lot of good info for free. I’d go to them as a start. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Dec 20, 2021, at 2:20 PM, Shel Horowitz via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi, Peter,
> 
> On the tax side, you should consult with an expert. Buying a half-hour of time may be a really good investment. My understanding as a non-expert is that to qualify as a business and take the deductions, you need to show a profit three years out of five. I am not in that field and am not soliciting that business. (I'm a marketer, and would be happy to explore with you whether there might be commercial applications for your dashboard--I think there might be.
> )
> ᐧ
> 
>> On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 9:58 AM Peter S via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:
>> Hello Hidden Techers,
>> 
>> I want to apologize up front for what is a serious 'newbie' question.. but I was hoping to draw from your collective wisdom, if possible.
>> 
>> I've built a small website that essentially aggregates all of my home utility data (from the various utility websites) into one dashboard.  It's been a personal project of mine for the past few years, written in Django, that I've essentially developed/hosted on my home Linux server.  Its written to be scalable, so that it works for any US State/City, assuming the web crawlers were written for the utility web sites.  I see this as a hobby venture (that could grow to be more).
>> 
>> I'd like to go live with it, and make it available to some of my friends/family, if they were interested in using it.
>> 
>> While I've been buttoning up things from a security perspective, I've also been researching the associated costs of actually running a website.  
>> 
>> Specifically:
>> 
>> Purchasing/Sustaining a domain name via Namecheap
>> Web hosting (maybe multiple nodes... one for main Django app, one for Redis Queue workers, one for Splash Javascript rendering support) via Digital Ocean, Heroku, or AWS.
>> Email Hosting..
>> (Possibly) SSL Certificate purchase
>> More?
>> I haven't yet decided on which hosting services etc to use (multiple topics for other conversations).  My assumption is that in the short (and most likely long term) this won't turn a profit, and would just be a small money hole.
>> 
>> I thought it might make sense to at least capture these costs under some sort of 'small business' umbrella.  My naive hope is that maybe it would have positive tax implications.
>> 
>> I've never started a business of any kind before.  
>> 
>> So.. what do I need to do?  I need to get an EIN from the IRS.  I've heard an LLC may be more than I need.  What would be your suggested approach? 
>> 
>> Thanks in advance for your time and wisdom (and patience for my newbie question),
>> 
>> ~Peter
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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