Minding Your Business

Are you ever minding your own business, checking your email or scrolling through social media, when suddenly you get an alert from a craft store? They have a special sale. BOGO. 70% off. Going out of business...

You know you shouldn't. But you're just going to look. You don't technically need anything, but if it's a really great sale, you're practically making money. And then that ribbon you've been drooling over, that organizer that would make transporting your crafts so much easier, or that tool you've been waiting to go on sale appears in your browser. And you feel like you shouldn't, but you also feel like you need to push the buy button.

What if, you could push that button and feel no guilt? Because buying the craft item you need is not costing you anything. In fact, it might actually make you money? We know it sounds like a dream too good to be true, but it is for us. And it could be for you.

Are You Scamming Me?

We make Homecoming mums in Texas. The fancier, the more custom, the more creative, the better. Got a theme in mind? let's make it boujee! Maybe you make mums too. Maybe you crochet. Whatever your (addiction) craft of choice is, there's a way to make the crafting experience cheaper, allowing you to craft more, sell your products, and maybe even help you and your family save on taxes (but we are not accountants).

We talk to people all the time who love to craft, whose passion is creativity and design, who wonder how other people sell their crafts at a lower cost. Who wish they could buy all the ribbon, but it's so expensive. We tell them, start a business. It's super easy. You can do most of it from home, and it will change your life. Or, at least, it changed ours.

Overcome Your Fears

We know it's scary. You're not an accountant, or a lawyer (we aren't either). You don't have a business degree (or maybe you do). What if you fail? What if people don't buy your products. What will it mean for your ego, your family?

We aren't experts in those areas either, but when we learned about wholesale pricing, paying less for goods (and sometimes no sales tax) because we were running a business, we decided, even if we lost money, we would be spending less on supplies, so we would lose less by running a business. And, we'd heard that if we lost money, we could take it off our income taxes. So we decided we didn't have much to lose, we took a leap of faith, and we started our business. We were scared the whole time we did it, but when it was over, we were shocked by how simple it was.

Then we went to our favorite craft store and had our first "Business Owner craft spree." When we saw our total of $3,000 on the register, and then they entered our wholesale number, and it scrolled back to $1,500, we were hooked. We could now craft for practically free! And because we paid less, we could charge less, but still make a profit. That's important to us, because we want Homecoming and other milestones to be celebrated by everyone, with every budget. We don't want for kids to go without when we can help. Giving back is foundational in our business model.

Come on Merida, Be Brave!

Are you ready to take the plunge? We will be here with you, every step of the way. We may not be professionals but we can and will share our experiences with you. We've built a great, supportive community of other mum designers who are more than happy to help you too. The third step is the scariest, but it's so easy, that once you're done, you may feel a little let down. Or a little euphoria. Or maybe both. We did too!

Step 1. Choose a Business Name

Your business name should be meaningful to you, and it makes your life easier if it also tells potential customers something about what you sell. In our case, we were two mums and we were making mums, and one of us is a statistics nerd. So we named ourselves Mums2. While you can raise the 2 on your word processing program, you can't in email. Or online, but the stats nerd was so amused with the cleverness of the squared that we ignored it and pressed on. We went with Mums Squared, thinking our advertising would have the mathematical equation, and moved on to step 2.

We're BCS Mums now, an evolution that's a story for another day, but "BCS Mums, we make homecoming mums" is a much cleaner business name that we don't have to explain nearly as much. It tells people where we are located and what we do. We still like the play on words of mums making mums and helping mums!

Once you've chosen a name, search it in your preferred search engine. (We love Google, and no this isn't sponsored.) See what comes up in your search. Are there other businesses with the same name? Does something totally unexpected come up? Or do the results not really show a clear pattern? If not, that's a good sign that you've chosen a name you can make your own and represent your brand.

Step 2. Get a Business Email Account

This part isn't too hard. Choose your favorite email service and create an email with your business name. Again, we prefer Google, in part because it makes things easier later on if you want to index your business online. We're going to trust you know how to do this part. You're 40% of the way to being a business woman!

Step 3. Register for a Texas State Sales Tax ID.

You're already online, because you're reading this, our very first blog post. So click on this link (https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/permit/) and take a deep breath. The website is intimidating and a bit overwhelming. Grab our metaphorical hand.

There's a lot happening here, and we do suggest reading through it, but first things first. We're pulling the plug. We're officially starting a business. Here we go!

Use your new business email and register for a new account. Apply for your sales tax, enter your local address and county, double check the tax rate matches your local sales tax. You have to choose an industry. Choose something that seems appropriate to you. Our industry is Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses. We knew we would be advertising on social media and eventually building a website, so most of our orders would come through electronic shopping. Other mum friends have selected gifts, jewelry, etc. There are really a lot of options. Unless you choose something that's regulated - like health, bath/body, or food, we don't know that there's a huge impact with which industry you choose.

Press submit and take a picture. That's your Sales Tax ID. Congratulations! You are officially a business!

Step 4. Register for a DBA

That searching we did in step 1 comes into play again here. Google your county website and DBA.

DBA stands for Doing Business As. There are a lot of technical blogs and information you can find with the legalese, but what it boils down to is this piece of paper lets you do business, advertise, and collect money in your business's name instead of your personal name. This step isn't technically required, but we recommend doing it, because when you are selling to and dealing with strangers on social media, you might not want them to have your full name. Unless that's just us?

In Brazos County, you can fill out the form online, print it, and drop it off at the local courthouse. There was a nominal fee for filing, which may vary by county. Ours was $25.

Step 5. Celebrate!

Leave a comment below telling us about your experience starting your business, and how you feel now that you've done it. Encourage others. Ask questions. Join us on Facebook at Central Texas Homecoming Mums & More for a supportive community of other mums who design mums.

Contact your favorite craft stores and register as a business, with a tax ID, so that you get wholesale prices and you don't pay sales tax on materials you will use to create the products you sell. If you're buying ribbon, go to our homepage at bcsmums.com and apply for wholesale. You'll be amazed how quickly you'll recoup that $25 DBA investment. You will have to file (and pay) sales tax to the state once a quarter, but we will walk you through that when the time comes. And if you don't have any sales, you won't have anything to pay, but you do still have to file.

Stay tuned for more!

Love you,

BCS Mums

formerly Mums Squared