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<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>I want to thank everyone for your insights. I'll try to follow
up individually today.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>~Peter</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 12/20/21 3:26 PM, Don Lesser wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:729AF11C-3C9C-46DA-A12B-146E870764D1@ptraining.com">
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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
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net"><hidden-discuss@lists.hidden-tech.net></a> wrote:<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
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<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"
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data-unique-identifier="" moz-do-not-send="true"><font
size="1" color="#ffffff">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"
moz-do-not-send="true" class="moz-txt-link-freetext">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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-- <br>
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<div dir="ltr">
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<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Shel Horowitz - "The Transformpreneur"</div>
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