Starting freelance webdesign/seo?

Kyle787

Kyle787

Junior Member
Joined
Jul 15, 2010
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My friend and I are both 20 years old and we wanted to go web designing for local businesses who we know pay $2000+ a year for their dinky sites. I was going to offer to remake the site even better for significantly less and my buddy is a great film/photographer with heavy equipment so we were going to inclue pics, etc with the websites.

Do we technically need a license or official tax ID number? And is there risk involved if we create well formed contracts?

Would anyone come after us if we just reported all of the income to the IRS?
 
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If your going to set it up like a business. I would play it safe and set up a DBA or s corp. with your EIN you never know who you are dealing with and if they put it down and file it on their side as was like 1099
 
It looks like you have got into good business and have skills, contacts, and potential customers. In that case, why not think of going long-term into it, get a proper license, and form a business address? People are dying to get (potential) customers in a growing market and you seem to have those ready in your hip pocket :).
 
srb888 said:
It looks like you have got into good business and have skills, contacts, and potential customers. In that case, why not think of going long-term into it, get a proper license, and form a business address? People are dying to get (potential) customers in a growing market and you seem to have those ready in your hip pocket :).
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Well we have but we're both in college still and in the future we'll probably be looking into other things. Our main goal is to just avoid the whole college life on minimum wage working 4-6 hours a day in debt. We have the skills and knowledge it's just whether or not we're going to get in trouble for making a few self sustainable wordpress websites for companies.
 
But if your client/s show their expenses then you could be in I*RS trouble. So ask a proper tax consultant friend (for free advice:)) about this before earning $,$$$s.

Better to get a pro advice (rather than depend on our half(!)-knowledge) than to get into big trouble later, esp when you're still studying.

I*RS on the wrong side can be real pain in @$$, you see.
 
SpiderMonkeyATX said:
If your going to set it up like a business. I would play it safe and set up a DBA or s corp. with your EIN you never know who you are dealing with and if they put it down and file it on their side as was like 1099
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listen to them, i did the same thing, local web design
taking little crappy sites and turning them into something better, for a few houndred,
getting into the thousands is good, depending on the site design

i got a 1099 , 2co account, built my own site and portfolio
and set up a LLC

CyrusVirus
 
I think you are in great hands here with plenty of experienced members to help you. Get talking to them (PM or posts), and get to know how to proceed. Make those $$$$$$ soon! :)
 
Yeah we are definitely going to report our income. Think it would be OK to start up some projects to check if things are working and if we are successful then form an LLC?
 
Kyle787 said:
Yeah we are definitely going to report our income. Think it would be OK to start up some projects to check if things are working and if we are successful then form an LLC?
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What i would do right now is go out and buy quickbook. Then just track stuff you do for the business in quickbooks. Give it a few months if all goes well then set up the llc or s corp. If not then just file the earnings on your tax return.

Also check with your local city and state. Like here in Texas you have to collect sales tax on web design and seo services. Its taxed at a lower rate but still something to look at.

At the very least right now i would set up a DBA which in most cases is like 16 bucks.

Then later if you set up a llc or a corp you can have a corp name and then doing business as or have them both the same.

Home this helps.
 
Yeah, I was thinking to start the same business.
Take care peeps :), by the way I know that if you work the right way, you can earn a lot.
 
1- you must register a business to avoid liability
2- get a decent accountant and avoid 99% of the tax
3- start making video websites - use your friends skills
 
jinxy71 said:
1- you must register a business to avoid liability
2- get a decent accountant and avoid 99% of the tax
3- start making video websites - use your friends skills
Click to expand...


Funny....
2- If you find one let me know. 99%? Have you ever filed a tax return?
 
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