The Comfy Cup Chronicle Part 12: "Nesting" Before The Comfy Cups' Arrival
"Success is where preparation and opportunity meet."
This point in our journey marked a lot of anticipation and excitement. There was a lot to do before the Comfy Cups™ arrived. We needed to form an LLC, open a business checking account, set up a Seller Account on Amazon, purchase envelopes and labels for mailing, we needed to develop a business plan, create a website and social media pages, and of course print out some business cards.
We discussed the idea of having Kyler act as owner of Comfy Cup LLC. However, Kyler's young age complicated things and our accountant advised us NOT to register Kyler as the business owner. Together, we decided that I would act as owner of the company until Kyler was old enough to take over himself. The process of filing our Articles of Incorporation for a Limited Liability Company was simple and we completed the paperwork online for a filing fee of $150. We were issued an EIN tax ID number and opened a free small business checking account at our local bank.
The process of creating a Seller Account on Amazon was not nearly as ominous as we anticipated. Amazon provided us with step by step details on how to create an account and register the products. We started out with a non-professional account, but after one month decided to pay the $39.95/month for a professional account. Amazon charges a fee of $1 per sale for non-professional sellers. Once we started selling more than 40 cups a month, it made sense to switch to a professional account and waive the $1 per sale fee. Amazon still takes a percentage of our sales through the professional account as well.
We purchased the domain name: www.thecomfycup.com and designed our website on our own using WIX.
We shopped many business vendors online, but ultimately purchased all our shipping supplies through Amazon. We simply couldn't find better prices or quality anywhere else.
We designed our own business cards and marketing materials using Adobe Photoshop printed our business cards and printed them at VistaPrint.
There were SO MANY tiny steps we had to take to move us in the direction of becoming a real company.
