So friends, I have surpassed the first hurdle: I have had my proposed business name approved and reserved for 56 calendar days. Luckily, I managed to swing my first choice, which means I won’t have to change my personal domain name: Painted Sky Illustration & Design (my website is here, if you’re curious).

So what’s next? I am going to try to apply this “Getting Things Done” momentum to the rest of the process. The next step is to register my sole proprietorship provincially, and obtain a business licence from my municipality. The excitement mounts! It all costs cash money, which is a pain but hopefully worth it.

In other news: I’m currently reading Timothy Ferriss’ wonderful book “The Four Hour Workweek“, and I have to say that I’m only about a quarter of the way into it, but I’m really digging it so far and would recommend it to anyone who’d like to be more “effective” versus simply “efficient”. Or, if shelling out for a book is not your style, check out Tim’s blog at this link. I’m going to try to employ some of Tim’s principles in my own business, to make my venture as profitable as possible while keeping my sanity intact.

That’s all for now boys and girls! Stay tuned!

Sorry it’s been so long between posts. I’ve just in the last week moved into a new house, and have been busy carrying boxes and setting up all my stuff. On top of that, I don’t have internet in my new place, and won’t until sometime next week (I’m writing this post from work, shh). What can a guy do?

Another reason I’ve been slow on updates is that I’m still dealing with the name registration bit. It turns out that the name registration process is somewhat more expensive than I though, with a filing fee of around 30 dollars, and then a further name reservation fee of around 60-some dollars if one of my name choices pans out. So, due to this amount I’m going to shell out, I’ve chosen to be a little more careful with my choices before submitting my forms, and to do a bit of research. I would like three solid choices, and right now I have two. So with a little bit more exploration, I should be good to go. I just don’t want to have to file two or three sets of papers, and end up spending like 150 bucks on this.

I’ll check in later, probably when I get internet back at my place. Au revoir!

Okay, the business plan is done (kind of). Due to the nature of my business, there were a lot of sections that didn’t quite apply to me.. also, I didn’t go out of my way to research, instead basing my answers on what I already knew. I figure that with my super-low overhead, I can afford to “live and learn” if my assumptions are totally off-base. Just a disclaimer if you decide to use my plan as a template! Reader beware!

Anyways, here’s the plan if you want to have a look at what I’ve come up with: Business Plan

So, now that that (rather unpleasant) experience is out of the way, it’s time to look to the future! What’s next? It seems that the first step I should step before anything else to get the name of my business approved in my home province.

I did a little bit of looking around, and it seems there are two ways for a Canadian to go about this: most municipalities feature “OneStop” Business Registry Kiosks (visit the OneStop website here), or you can download the forms on the website and submit them by mail to the Corporate Registry, or taken to the local Government Agents Office or Business Centre.

So anyways, that’s what I’ll be up to this week! I’ll check in with you guys in a few days and let you know how it’s going for me.

As you can imagine, I’ve been doing a little reading on the topic of starting a small business. In everything I’ve read so far, there is a lot of emphasis placed on the need to write up a thorough business plan before jumping into starting up a new business. I’ve heard that the big hurdle for a small business is making it through the first year– those first crucial months are what make or break new businesses, and a business plan is intended to minimize the risk of crashing and burning in a very simple way: It allows you to get a glimpse of what you’re getting yourself into.

Now, if you’re anything like me, you hear advice like, “You have to have a business plan” and go, “Okay, sure. So what do I write?” It’s not like you can just open up a blank Word document and type this thing up from scratch (and if you can, you scare me a little).

Luckily, there are lots of resources out there to help fledgling business owners get a comprehensive business plan written up. Here’s a couple of the better ones I’ve found:

Microsoft Office Business Plan Template

If you’ve got a copy of Word, or anything that can read .doc documents, this is a great option. It’s a pretty hefty document, but it walks you through coming up with a business plan by asking questions. I know, it sounds like of exam-ish, but be thankful that this is a document that will actually be useful when you’re done with it!

Canada Business Interactive Business Planner

Since I’m starting my business in British Columbia (which is in Canada if you didn’t know, idiot), there’s a great website I’ve been perusing, Small Business BC where I found a link to this Interactive Business Planner courtesy of the government of Canada. I’m not sure how useful this will be if you’re outside of our great frozen nation, but it sure impressed me. You have to register for an account, but after that’s out of the way, you are walked through a series of questions, and you fill in the blanks to create a clear and concise plan that you can update later, download for your own files, or print. Great!

So, using the tools I’ve mentioned above, this week is all about me writing up my wonderful business plan. I’ll write a post next week detailing what I’ve come up with, and I may upload my business plan as a sample for those going into a creative field. I’ll also detail my next steps in the process of starting my business.

If you have any other tools or resources for writing business plans, I would love to hear about them! Please feel free to let me know about them in the comments.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week!

Welcome to The Freelance Journey. This blog is a chronicle of my steps and progress as I attempt to launch my career as a freelance illustrator. I will be going through, in detail, everything I do on the road to get from where I am now, as a steady nine-to-fiver, to where I want to be, working as my own boss, at home or maybe even in a studio eventually.

Also, I hope this blog will serve as a resource for any who are going through the same things as I am. Since I live in British Columbia, Canada, the various hoops I will have to jump through may be different from yours, but hopefully it will still be a good basic guide on what to do, and in what order. Or, if I am so unlucky, what NOT to do. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out that way.

Well, that’s all for the introduction post. Check back soon! I am aiming for weekly updates as I get rolling here, and my first step on the road to being a freelancer is to track down some documentation on starting a small business in BC, and procuring a business license.

See you next week!