<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto">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. <br><br><div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div><div dir="ltr"><br><blockquote type="cite">On Dec 20, 2021, at 2:20 PM, Shel Horowitz via Hidden-discuss <hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net> wrote:<br><br></blockquote></div><blockquote type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">Hi, Peter,<div><br></div><div>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.</div><div>)</div></div><div hspace="streak-pt-mark" style="max-height:1px"><img alt="" style="width:0px;max-height:0px;overflow:hidden" src="https://mailfoogae.appspot.com/t?sender=ac2hlbGhvcm9AZ21haWwuY29t&type=zerocontent&guid=8a98a495-7f32-4b6c-81b8-b5ecd410b0a5" data-unique-identifier=""><font color="#ffffff" size="1">ᐧ</font></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, Dec 20, 2021 at 9:58 AM Peter S via Hidden-discuss <<a href="mailto:hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net">hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>Hello Hidden Techers,</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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).</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>While I've been buttoning up things from a security perspective,
I've also been researching the associated costs of actually
running a website. <br>
</p>
<p>Specifically:</p>
<ol>
<li>Purchasing/Sustaining a domain name via Namecheap</li>
<li>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.<br>
</li>
<li>Email Hosting..<br>
</li>
<li>(Possibly) SSL Certificate purchase</li>
<li>More?</li>
</ol>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>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.<br>
</p>
<p>I've never started a business of any kind before. <br>
</p>
<p>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? <br>
</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your time and wisdom (and patience for my
newbie question),</p>
<p>~Peter</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
</div>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"></div><div>Shel Horowitz - "The Transformpreneur"</div><div>________________________________________________</div><div>Contact me to bake in profitability while addressing hunger, </div><div>poverty, war, and catastrophic climate change</div><div>* First business ever to be Green America Gold Certified</div><div>* Inducted into the National Environmental Hall of Fame</div><div>* Certified speaker: International Platform Association</div><div><a href="http://goingbeyondsustainability.com" target="_blank">http://goingbeyondsustainability.com</a> </div><div>mailto:<a href="mailto:shel@greenandprofitable.com" target="_blank">shel@greenandprofitable.com</a> 413-586-2388</div><div>Award-winning, best-selling author of 10 books. </div><div>Latest: Guerrilla Marketing to Heal the World </div><div>(co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson)</div><div><br></div><div>Watch my TEDx Talk,</div><div>"Impossible is a Dare: Business for a Better World"</div><div><a href="http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809" target="_blank">http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809</a> </div><div>(move your mouse to "event videos")</div><div>_________________________________________________</div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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