How to Start a Home Care Business: The Proposal (part 4)

5/25/2019, Saturday

Hey everybody, Its me again, Charles Lamson, Editor and Chief Writer of The Rant with Charles Lamson. So I woke up bright and early this morning and started doing more research on how to set up my business entity by going to this website again, Starting a Business - Missouri Secretary of State. It was there that I came across this useful piece of information:

Sole Proprietorship/General Partnership

Sole proprietorships and general partnerships can be formed or created without the involvement of the Secretary of State. In fact, the Secretary of State does not receive or accept filings related to the creation of these business types.

However, Missouri law requires any person or business entity which transacts business in the state under a name other than their own “true name” to register that business name with the Secretary of State’s Office as a Fictitious Name Registration.

Online registration of a fictitious name with the Office of Secretary of State can be accomplished at Business portal.

So I clicked on Business portal and found this link, Business Entity Fees & Forms. I clicked on that and found this link, Fictitious Names. I clicked on Fictitious Names and found this link, Creation, Renewal, Correction and Amendment of Fictitious Name. And, lo and behold, that took to me to the form I need to fill out to register my fictitious name with the Secretary of State. I can just fill it out online and print it out and mail it in.

The only problem is that I don't have a printer and I'm short on cash. So, I called my mom to see if she could help me out and she said she would. So I should be getting a cheap printer tomorrow.

But I'm still not very clear on the fees involved. So I still have to do more research on that. Which I'm going to do right now (be back in a few minutes). To find that out I went to the Fees and Forms site. And there I clicked on this link, Schedule of Corporation Fees and Charges and found the below information:

CHAPTER 417 FEES—Fictitious Name Registrations Fictitious Name Creation, Renewal, Correction or Amendment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .$7.00

So I have to fill out the fictitious name form, print it out, and mail it in to the Secretary of State with a money order for $7.00. Not too bad.

And I decided the name I am going with is Apex Home Care. Here's a little graphic I whipped up, just on a whim (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Apex Home Care

I'm not much of a graphic artist, but you get the idea. Its a work in progress.

5/26/2019 Sunday, 11:18 AM

So my mom brought me a cheap printer by today.  Just something I'll need to print forms and stuff for my business. Thanks Mom! (hehe). So tommorrow's a holiday (Memorial Day - for those of you in other countries) and today is Sunday, so I figure I'll Just fill out that form online, print it, sign it, and mail it in with a $7 money order on Tuesday.

But until then, as you can tell, I have been sort of floundering around on this business proposal, trying to figure the best way to come at it, and what all exactly should be in it. But after I got clear on what I was supposed to do in setting up a business entity, I figured its time to quit dicking around and actually start the proposal.

So I figured a good place to start was the Small Business Administration's website sba.gov. They have tons of useful information there on how to start an above-board, legal business. And sure enough, upon arriving at their great site with this pretty black lady on it (see Figure 2), I clicked on this link Write Your Business Plan.

Your business plan is the foundation of your business. Learn how to write a business plan quickly and efficiently with a business plan template.

Booyah! That's exactly what I needed! So starting next post, I will be borrowing heavily from the above mentioned website, first doing a brief overview of what should go into a good business plan (or proposal) And then the post after that, I'll begin my actual official proposal I plan to submit.

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