this week has been a rude awakening.
i think most entrepreneurs start out with this idea that owning their own business will be one satisfying endeavor, both personally and financially and that is what draws them to creating it. no more working on someone else’s schedule, calling the shots and making the decisions, and, of course, seeing your dream job/company become a reality.
that is not what this week has been about at all. it has been a serious reality check. okay, key word research is not bad/actually fun because you hear descriptions of your company and it’s fun to hear form someone else’s perspective. that is where the fun stopped this week.
ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE WOOOOO HOOOOO
accounting software research has been like the first week of summer after my sophomore year of high school that i got myself grounded and couldn’t drive yet. super boring, not fun, lame and necessary. (i did not lie to my folks about my where-abouts from that point on.) i have read more about accounting software capabilities and inventory tracking than i ever thought possible. and i stayed awake (which is more than i can say for my ECON 140 class at KU. yay me.). but i’m here to tell you, this has been the most unfun job thus far. not only is researching which one is appropriate for durtbagz not a fun use of time, i get to be the one to use it. oh goodie. i’m not a mathematician by any means. we’re lucky i just spelled the word itself correctly, see what i’m saying?
who else could i get to use said accounting/inventory software? um…no one and here’s why. 1) i’m the only one on this ship, and b) when durtbagz is a company with employees and turning a decent profit, i’ll have a book keeper and they will complain to me that the job is boring and i’ll say ‘i know, i did it until i hired you and i didn’t get paid for it, in fact, it cost me money to do it’. and i’ll love that day.
HOW DO WE HANDLE THIS…
also, retail companies have to have policies for things like returns (even though i know everyone will love their durtbag more than life, some nerds will return them) and also for the small issue of privacy. no big whoop. thankfully, we only have a small number of products so it keeps things very simple. if you return it in the same state you received it, you can exchange it or get a store credit. period. don’t buy one if you don’t want it. duh.
UH, WE AREN’T GIVING THESE AWAY FOR FREE
well, we are right now until the new designs come in, but that’s beside the point. i’ve learned that there is a whole other world out there involving credit card payment and processing. and everyone gets their piece before it ever touches my bank account. stupid.
first, there is a company that secures your information so people don’t steal it. then it goes to another company who checks with the bank behind the credit card to make sure there are funds for it. then it goes to another which has access to put the funds into my account. all of these entities get a percentage of the price, including the credit cards themselves, of course. they are the worst ones. oh yeah, and you have to pay a monthly fee for them to process your money and take some of it. brilliant.
HOW DOES THIS ALL WORK?
i’ve also been working on learning how the website talks to my software and vice versa. slightly important. getting the voicemail system set up and run through my phone, which needs to be upgraded so i can get online/email on it. and finding a third party back up software so we’re still alive if my house burns down, which could happen at any moment from simultaneous combustion since it’s supposed to be 110 AGAIN out here today.
this isn’t what i had in mind at all when i decided to start my business. this isn’t a funny sign. if it was, it would be a pedestrian walking through a stream of cow pies. however, it is cool to learn about everything that goes into making this company become a reality and also knowing that i not only know how, but am capable of doing every job that is needed for this company definitely gives me a sense of accomplishment. we’ll see how accomplished i feel when i get audited by the IRS next year due to my sweet, sweet math skills.
i guess the point of this post is just to give anyone out there thinking of doing this a HUGE heads-up. this is not easy.
It may not be easy, but if anyone can do it, you can.
M
You can totally do it. We do all this junk for the band stuff. We don’t make a living off the CDs, but we still have to do all the credit card junk, ship junk, pay taxes on junk, and use accounting software to keep track of how much money we aren’t making on the junk.
Bleh.
For what it’s worth we use QuickBooks for our inventory and bookkeeping stuff. We have all our shopping cart and credit card stuff handled by ccnow.com because it’s easy. We don’t have to have a merchant account or a secure server or even a shopping cart. That’s all handled by them on the back end.
Here’s our merch page so you can sort of see how it looks/works: http://www.tmitg.com/merch.php
Sounds like you need a Brett…
sounds like a lot of fun (cough, cough) stuff to figure out. i know nothing about good software for your shopping carts and such, but i have heard good things about QuickBooks and Quicken for book keeping. good luck!