Hello everyone My name is Tye I’m from Billings Montana . I’m looking for advise on where to start, or things I can work on while putting the funds together to buy a machine. I’ll be starting with a lathe, because I can already get work for it. At first ill be looking to start out of my garage or potentially a small shop, no bigger then 25x40, we will build on my property. I need to look further into this since I live in city limits but there are zoning restrictions on home businesses. I want to get my business name locked it and registered with my state but don’t know if ill need a business license at the same time, if I get a business license it must be register to the place of operation, but could potentially be a problem if the city wont let me operate out of my property. What has others done while operating out of their home? Have you guys worried about a business license? Registering with your state? And what about business names, advertising, getting your name out there? The only thing I know about registering with the state is to verify your not infringing on a business with the same name and someone cant take yours. Please any advise is appreciated or even bring up other topics not brought up in my post. Thanks
I wish I knew this before I started my busyness. The first place to look will be the Montana Small Busyness Administration this is a FREE federal organization. You can use the link I provided or just do a search. They have the answers to most all your questions if they do not they can point you in the right direction. Provide you with a local mentor. Some might say I did this or that but not being in you exact location might unintentionally give you bad advice. Montana | U.S. Small Business Administration
So far I’ve got step one done and its official from my state of Montana. My business name is approved and registered. 
Great work glad to hear you are making progress!
You’ve crossed the first bridge! Technically, I’d say you’ve gone past a few of them because making the decision and commitment is the fist big hurdle. Now just keep moving. It doesn’t need to be big steps, just don’t quit.
Best wishes,
Tom Z
Thank you. This year is gonna be a tough one, we are on a real tight budget because my wife and I are expecting a baby in June. So starting off slow, get things as I can and find the best deals, sell of the things I dont need anymore and hope fully start of next year ill be able to buy a machine or two.
Congratulations on expecting and for taking the first step to your own business!
Randy
1st off Congrats and the little one coming along!! As for the business stuff… Like someone mentioned the SBA they can recommend you to the SBDC (Small Business Development Center) that will work with you on business plans, proposals, pay, taxes, etc etc…
They are the one’s that have coaches that cover various area’s of a state. I worked with them years ago to start my business but everything got put on hold because of health issues. But that is a great place to start and also check with any local trade school with machinist & cnc courses because sometimes they rent the machines to other businesses to keep funds flowing. The one I went to did that and they also offered a start up grant that was used to pay your machine time and that can make a huge difference in getting started off well doing your business!! Good luck man
Hi Tye,
I started out of my house and learned the hard way. I just got hit with a tax audit. I’m no lawyer so you’ll definitely want to double check.
You’ll need.
- Registered with your secretary of state for the business name
- A permit from your city
- Excise tax use permit or resale tax ID from the office that handles sales tax in your state (I screwed up on not getting that)
- A filing cabinet and scanner to keep track of everything if you ever get audited
- A good CPA to take care of your taxes unless you’re good at that then you might just need a bookkeeping software like quickbooks.
The first thing I’d do is go sign up for business classes at the SBA but double check everything they tell you. The one I went to was wrong on about 40% of what they were teaching.
As for machines, You might want to look into leasing them. The tax writeoffs more than make up for the interest and it’s a whole lot easier than getting a loan or trying to save up when you know you can make parts. I made the mistake of buying a cheap Grizzly mill and converting it to CNC just to waste 6 months making one little part per hour.
I just noticed that you wrote this back in January… For getting your name out there you’ll definitely want to learn Google Analytics and Facebook Marketing. They both offer free courses so you don’t want to pay for it. Google search “Facebook blueprint” and “google adwords seo certification”. Learn from Google and Facebook themselves.
There’s a pretty good, yet dated marketing book called “Scientific Advertising: 21 advertising, headline and copywriting techniques” It has some pretty useful techniques for advertising and marketing that you can twist into writing loan applications and whatever else you may need.
For Zoning and City ordinances you can usually get around them just by being nice and talking to your city mayor. Ask to book an appointment with him or try to take him out to lunch. They’re usually bored out of their mind. Speaking of that there’s a book called “How to win friends and influence people” by Dale Carnage that has a lot of useful information in it.
Thank you @BenjaminLegere for this detailed response. So far as of now I have my registered business name I put together some social media pages and then the realization came that I can’t afford to really get into it any further after the arrival of my son. So for now I continue to learn, research and gather up what I can when I can afford it until we are back on track financially and can keep moving forward with this business venture.