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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>
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      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>
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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>
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              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"
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              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>
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              0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
              rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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                <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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          <div><br>
          </div>
          -- <br>
          <div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">
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              <div>
                <div dir="ltr">
                  <div dir="ltr">
                    <div dir="ltr">
                      <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" moz-do-not-send="true"
                          class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://goingbeyondsustainability.com</a> </div>
                      <div>mailto:<a
                          href="mailto:shel@greenandprofitable.com"
                          target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true"
                          class="moz-txt-link-freetext">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" moz-do-not-send="true"
                          class="moz-txt-link-freetext">http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11809</a> </div>
                      <div>(move your mouse to "event videos")</div>
                      <div>_________________________________________________</div>
                      <div><br>
                      </div>
                    </div>
                  </div>
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            </div>
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