You can’t sell yet—do these eight setup steps first!

Most new founders sprint toward sales, then hit a wall when the bank asks for paperwork or the state rejects their name. We’ve been there. This conversation is a step-by-step guide to building a real foundation—clear, legal, and ready for growth—so your momentum doesn’t stall when it matters most. We break down the eight essentials: choosing a unique, searchable name; registering your entity with the state; securing your EIN; deciding if you need a sales tax ID; opening a business bank account; setting up accounting software; purchasing your domain; and creating a professional email. Along the way, we share practical pitfalls to avoid, from misspelled brand names that hurt discoverability to sales tax obligations that quietly create filing requirements you can’t ignore.

You’ll hear why a simple “business book” with core documents makes bankers smile and saves hours across vendors, payroll, and CPA handoffs. We compare DIY versus using services for state filings and registered agents, and we explain why QuickBooks or similar tools help you price smarter, track margins, and prepare clean taxes. On the digital front, we show how a basic website and domain-backed email build trust fast—whether you’re launching a local trade service or an online shop.

To make all this easier, we built a free checklist app with progress tracking, tips, and tutorials: app.launchingpros.com. It keeps you on track, reduces rework, and frees up your energy for customers and growth. If this helped, subscribe, share it with a founder friend, and leave a review so more entrepreneurs can find us.

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Transcript

The Eight-Step Foundation

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So when you first start a business, there's eight key steps to starting that business. And most people don't think of most of them. I think when you first start a side hustle or business, we've started several businesses. And the I remember I was the same way when I first started a business, which was a woodworking business. I was doing woodworking, doing all the stuff, and it was really fun. The first thing I thought was, I'm just gonna get my business name and just start getting a bank account and just go after it. It's like there's so much more that would be nice. That would be super nice. That's all there was to it. But there's so much more to it. There is, and so there's eight key steps that you need to do as a business owner just to get your foundation, get a footing going before you can actually do the business. Right.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

And let's keep in mind too, a lot of these are legally required. Yeah, you have to, it's not just a nice to have it's not suggestions, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

They're things you need to do.

Naming Right and Checking Availability

SPEAKER_01 0:47

Yeah, you have to have them, otherwise, you could get in trouble.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Yeah. And so the first thing obviously is to choose your business name, right? And sometimes this might come easy, and you're like, oh, that was really catchy. I really like that name. I'm gonna just go with that. Awesome. But there's other things you need to check beforehand, right? Right. So for your business name, go through and make sure that they're available on social media, go through and make sure that they're available for the domain, go make sure there's not somebody else using that domain. And then other like also it might be taken through the state. You have to register with your state, and so if it's already taken, you got to choose a different name because you don't want to be, you know, like the same name as somebody else, but then you add LLC, but it's still the same name or whatever, depending on what you you make your business.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

And I think we checked on this, like it does have to be unique in your state.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

It does, yeah. So you go through these steps when you're choosing a business name, it's not just this is a cool name, I'm gonna go for it. Some other things you should consider is if you misspell it because you think it looks cool, that's awesome because it makes you unique, but it also make it a little bit harder to tell people where to find you. Right. Like if you're if you use a K instead of a C on something, um when you tell someone, hey, this is my website, you have to explain to them every time, spell it this way, right? Which kind of a pain.

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Yeah, all the I's is Y's, or you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

And and sometimes those businesses are real, like there's big big businesses that do that. A lot of businesses do that because it makes you a little unique. But you have to keep that in mind that you're gonna have to explain it um to someone, or if they search something, you may not pop up because your name's different, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

Yeah, it might like other other companies that might be spelled the similar like the correct way might show up before you.

Registering Your Entity with the State

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Right. So so choosing your business name, step one, right? Yeah, once you have that completed, you need to register your business. That's going through the state and making sure that you have that your business entity is created, making sure the name is there. There's a lot of steps to registering your business.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

And and there's there's programs out there that do it for you, or you can do it yourself. Um, it's not that hard to do it yourself, but there are some technical jargon that you do have to be aware of, and you might have to do a little bit of research to make sure that you're doing it the right way. Right. Um, but yeah, like like we we talked about Northwest registered agents before, they're amazing. Yep. Like we I use them all the time and for like registered agent services, which that's something that we'll talk about too.

Getting an EIN and Tax Setup

SPEAKER_00 3:16

But like, yeah, it's so you can pay someone to register your business if you're like, I don't have time, I don't want to learn how to do this. The other way, do it yourself, it's a lot cheaper. So there's that, but you are gonna spend time doing it. So, and it also depends on what state you're in. Some states require a lot more, some states require less. So it just depends. Yeah, but registering your business would be that next step um on creating your business and getting that front roll.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

So then you you take care of it on the state level, but there's also the federal level, which is a lot of people hear it as like the EIN number, right? Yeah, the and and that's where you basically register with the IRS saying, Hey, here's my business and here's who's who owns it, like and and then they give you like a number, and that's kind of your social security number for your business.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Right. And so that that number is your tax ID. So that's when you run taxes at the end of the year and have to pay the say the tax for how much money you brought in for the business, that is that number you'll be using, right? And every business will have one, and you need it. You can't just use it unless you're a sole proprietor and you're just using your social security for that. Right. But there's down there's there's downsides to downsides to that too. It's more simple, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

But there's there's a lot of advantages of right.

Sales Tax IDs and When You Need One

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And I will say that we are not lawyers, so correct. But this is just basic information for you to think about and use. After the after applying for an EIN, you now have to get your sales tax ID.

Opening a Business Bank Account

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yep. So this one is a little nuanced because there are certain things that you do need to collect sales tax for and certain things that you don't, and it also varies by state. So we won't go into all the little nuances, yeah. But like if if you wanted like a basic rule of thumb, like if you're gonna be selling physical products, you need a sales tax ID for where you're gonna be selling them. Yeah, so like if you have a physical storefront, your your sales tax, you're gonna collect sales tax at your store, so you need to register in your state. Yeah, there are some services that do that are digital that require you to also collect sales tax in your state. And so, yeah, it one thing, if you are 100% certain that you don't need to collect sales tax, don't get a sales tax ID. Yeah, because once you do, you have to keep reporting sales tax, even if it's zero, yeah, unless you dissolve that sales tax ID, right? Right. But so make sure that you check with a business attorney, uh CPA, somebody that knows what you need to collect, what you don't need to collect in your specific state, and and then go from there on determining whether you need to get a sales tax ID or not. Right.

SPEAKER_00 6:05

And then the next would be opening a business bank account. Now, that one you will still need a bunch of different things to open up a bank account. You can't just go in, which we've talked to business bankers that they deal with this all the time. A lot of people just come in and say, Hey, I'm opening, I want to start a business, I want a bank account.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

And they're like, Well, you need a lot what's your articles of organization, what's your EIN number, all this stuff. Like they need all this information before you can actually open up a business bank account.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

So you have to make sure all your ducks are in a row, right? And there's a lot more to it than just having it. So when you go to open up the bank account, make sure you have your like what everything you just listed, make sure they're in a folder. That's the easiest way. Bring it in. And so when you open it, they can just go through your folders, make copies of all the information they need, and you can open up your bank account.

Organizing a Business Document Book

SPEAKER_01 6:58

And we we have uh we can include a link on a on a business book that we've put together. We use it for our businesses. It is so nice just to be able to hand it to the person that's opening up your bank account and say, here's all the info you need, and they look at it. And every time I've done this, they look at this book and they're just like, This is perfect. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Because most of the time, people come in when they're first starting business and are at least missing one document. Yeah, sometimes three or four. So it's this this book is nice because it gives you a structured layout of okay, I need this, okay, move on to the next one. Oh, I gotta print this out, put this in the book. And then when you go, it's really easy. Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

This is this is a book I just put together for myself, and it's like, you know, every business owner needs this. Like because you also throughout the years, you're going to be referencing something in that book.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

You know, if they're like, oh, what's your EIN number for something? You know, you're gonna have to look it up. Or, oh, I need to set up a bank account, and or not a bank account, but I need to set up a service that requires my bank account routing number, account number, and we have a direct deposit form right in that book that you just flip open to. It's super nice.

Accounting Software and Clean Books

SPEAKER_00 8:08

It's very nice. Yeah. So after you do that, you need to set up some basic accounting software, right? Like you need a way to collect money when you sell a product. Um, if you're selling a digital product, a lot of the most of this will be online, right? Like it's a software. So whether that's QuickBooks, Fresh Books, there's a bunch of softwares out there that are great because it keeps everything all housed, and you can go through and select, okay, this is this you can connect it to your bank account, and through your bank account, you can, as things come in, you can now organize it. And at the end of the year, when you actually pay taxes, you go to your CPA, it makes it way life way easier. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

And then well, and there's also some free apps too that are available, like Wave apps, um, free accounting software that's actual accounting software, and it's pretty decent too.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

Yeah.

Domains and Professional Email

SPEAKER_01 8:53

Um, or if you're very d diligent, you can use an Excel spreadsheet, right? You know, or Google Sheets or whatever. You just have to make sure everything is in there and it's categorized properly. But you know, those are a couple free options out there.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Yeah, and the and using Excel, or if you're really old school trying to write everything that is so time consuming, it is so getting a already done software that does it for uh businesses all over the country, those are the easiest ways to do it. For sure. You'll cost you a little bit more, but save you a lot of time. I think that time versus cost area, it's usually easier.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Well, and one advantage to something like FreshBooks or QuickBooks is most accountants are pretty familiar with those platforms, I'd say, especially QuickBooks. And so, like, if like when your business grows, hopefully you can just hand it over to an accountant and they can take it from there. They're not gonna have to input a ton of data from like an Excel spreadsheet into QuickBooks to get you going. So if you start out on the right foot, you're just gonna be that much better off in the future.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

And on top of that, it'll also break down a lot of the softwares or all the softwares will break down, okay, like this is how much money you're making, this is your cost, this is where so it'll give you kind of am I progressing? Am I making good profit? Or do I need to adjust my price? You can kind of use their analytics and their their printouts to help optimize your business. Yeah. After that, it's purchasing a domain. Now, this is important. Like you have to be available online, whether that's just a basic website for is for your service industry, like a plumber, electrician, blue, a trades job, you still need something that they can contact you, a contact form with your information, the services you provide. It can be extremely simple on those websites, but you need a domain for that website. Now, a domain would be your URL. So if you don't know what a domain is, it's the like Google website, yeah, right. Your website.com. And you need that. So that's one thing we're talking about picking a business name to check on the domain as well. And you can do that through a bunch of different services. GoDaddy is a obviously very popular one. You can do it through Squarespace, which is also Google domain, they're all one now. There's a bunch of different ones you can use and make sure that your domain is available before you really go through the whole process. So that is one of the steps in on when you're looking at okay, what business name should I do? This is check the domain first. You could do these steps and then go purchase your domain, make sure it's available.

The Free Checklist App for Founders

SPEAKER_01 11:19

And then kind of to go along with that, like once you do have a custom domain, you can get a custom email address. And so, I mean, a lot of times a lot of these new businesses will do Gmail or something like that. And you know, some some businesses that's fine, like no one cares, but overall, I think it's a really good idea to just take that little extra step. There's free options out there, yeah, like Zoho, Zoho Mail. Yeah, you can do up to five email addresses for free. Yeah, like get on that, go through the process, just get a custom email address. It just makes your business look legit.

SPEAKER_00 11:57

Yeah, and they're and even the paid, the paid ones are pretty cheap. Like if you go through GoDaddy, it's I think$7.99 a month. If you pay annually, it's even cheaper. So it's like that's not expensive. Yeah. And then it even Google is a little bit more expensive, but if you like integrate it into your Gmail because you have all Gmails, that's super nice. Yeah. And so it's like, okay, well, if I'm paying nine bucks a month, it's like, well, it's nine dollars. But now you have a professional email that people can contact you, whether that's an info at your or your name at your website, right? So those are the those are eight steps that you should work through to make sure that okay, once you have all these in place, you can start doing the the business. You can start growing the business, reaching out to get sales, that kind of stuff. But without these in place, it makes life really hard.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah. So it's kind of like the foundation of when you're building a home. Like these are the these are the foundational steps. You got choose your business name, register your business, apply for an EIN, apply for a sales tax ID, open a business bank account, set up basic accounting software, and purchasing a domain. That that gives you a great, great base to start a business.

Why Checklists Save Even Experts

SPEAKER_00 13:06

And so we know that sounds like a lot. We went through eight steps, and each step has quite a few steps within those steps, right? Right. And so what we created was a checklist. And our app dot launchingpros.com is now a new app that you can go to and it breaks all these down. And not only they break it down, it tracks you their check marks. So you it actually checks your progress as you go. So as you finish the first step of choosing your business name, you hit check mark and it'll say, you know, like the first step is done. So it it fills that in. Then you can go to the next one. Okay, register. And as you go through it, it keeps that record so you can know where you're at in the process to make sure that you're hitting all the steps properly. And within each one, it gives you good detailed information to whether it's tips, videos that we've done, different things like creating a business email. We have a whole video on there that is a tutorial that you can walk through step by step to complete those things. We know how hard it is as a small business owner to just get started, and this will help ease all that burden just by easily going through each one. And that's what we wanted to focus on was making it easier for small businesses to get started and to grow. And this is the foundation for that.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

It it always amazes me, like when I first started my own business and to see all the steps that were required. I'm like, why is this like why does this not exist anywhere? Like checklists. Yeah, like I just need to know everything I need, and like it just didn't seem to exist out there. Yeah. And so, you know, even now, after I've set up several businesses, I still forget stuff. Just recently, when I opened up a new business, I forgot to do the sales tax ID. Yeah, you know, it's and so something like this, it's not only good for people who have never opened a business before, but it's good for people who have, because you need to, there's so many things to keep track of. We're busy in our day-to-day lives, we get distracted to have something like this to where you can actually go through, check it off. You can see your progress, you can remember, oh yeah, I've done this, or maybe I need to follow up on this because I remember doing it, but there was one more step that I need to check up on. Yeah, just things like that that will be so, so nice for business owners. It it'll just make your life that much easier.

Free Tools, Early Podcasts, and Support

Final CTA to Launching Pros

SPEAKER_00 15:29

Yeah. And this first foundational checklist is completely free. We actually have two checklists on there that are completely free. You just go in and sign up. This first step is all about the foundation and getting started. The next step will get your digital footprint. So creating the website and creating your social media, and we have those available. Not only on the the app do we have those, but we have the podcast. You can get the podcast episodes early, which is pretty cool. So you if you follow us and you listen to our podcast where we have news, tips, and just how to grow a small business, you get those podcasts early. But we also have articles. And if you ever need help, you can reach out to us for a consultation. So go check out the launching pros website or our app, app.launchingpros.com. Sign up for free, go check it out and start your business and the foundation of your business today. If you like this episode, make sure you like and subscribe below, leave a comment and share this episode with a friend that's also trying to grow their business.

SPEAKER_01 16:31

We want to help as many entrepreneurs learn how to launch and grow their business. So we've created a launching pros app at app.launchingpros.com where we have detailed checklists on not only how to start your business, but on how to grow it. There's free tiers, a lot of great information. Go on app.launchingprose.com to check it out.