October Entrepreneur Meetup!

October Entrepreneur Meetup!  “Can social media help grow your business?”

On October 21, The Network Hub held the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup at the office (422 Richards Street, Vancouver).

 We had a guest speaker Yu-kai Chou and over 150 people in attendance. Yu-kai is a Serial Entrepreneur and Social Media Advisor with over 5 years of adventures in the high tech startup world. He is the Founder and CEO of Viralogy Inc., a Social Personalization and Analytics Platform for eCommerce sites. Yu-kai’s team has also run many successful social media campaigns for LG, Levi’s, Los Angeles Lakers, Activision and more.

He spoke about the importance of social media. When he asked the audience if they were using social media, almost everyone raised their hand. Social media is one of biggest marketing tools and strategies out there. So, the audience listened carefully and asked lots of questions.

The meetup was packed with energetic people! There were lots of different business ideas being discussed. I think new connections and resources for business were made!  

I enjoyed meeting, chatting, and wine-ing with cheerful and dedicated people. In addition, Goldies Pizza supplied us with a few tasty pizzas and those were gone instantly! And thank you to Lonsdale Event Rentals for sponsoring us with beautiful glasses and tables!

  The Network Hub is planning a bigger meetup in early December. Don’t miss out!

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Next phase of working at home is coworking

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Restless at-home workers improve by collaborating face to face
• Home-based workers say “coworking” balances freedom, teamwork
• Coworking groups are meeting or forming in more than 40 U.S. cities
• The trend comes as single-person businesses increase

“The reason people work alone, is because they’re looking for freedom,” said Bachman, a 34-year-old Web developer who telecommutes part time. “It may be ironic that you crave isolation, but you also want to be socially interactive with others like you.”

“Starbucks was a place to get out of the house and be around other people,” said Sherry Heyl, a Jelly coworker and home-based social media consultant. “But you can’t turn to the person next to you at Starbucks and say, ‘Can you look at this proposal and tell me if it looks all right or check it for typos?’”

Read more about: Next phase of working at home: Leaving home

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Coworking: Lower office space cost with more benefits

When you are operating a business, you want to minimize your expenses as much as possible and  commercial lease is a huge expense for most people.   Freelancers, part-time workers, self-employed,  startups,  entrepreneurs and even  small businesses find themselves saving thousands of dollars.  With shared resources such as internet, printer, fax, meeting room and included amenities such as utility, cleaning expenses and access to networking events usually organized in the space -  coworking has huge benefits at significantly lower pricing.

Welcome to the world of coworking, where freelancers, part-time workers, the self-employed and start-up principals trade in their temporary work spaces at coffee shops and living rooms for a shared office.

“I’m a very collaborative person and I noticed that when people are doing freelance work or have their own business, it can get very lonely,” Rokusek (right) said. “It’s nice to have a space where folks can work on their own projects but also have a sense of collegiality.”

“The coworking movement is about collaborating with people,” he said. “It’s a great place for impromptu brainstorming sessions. If you need creative minds for projects, it’s the kind of place to find people who are willing to help. It’s also a place with the kind of energy you can’t get at a coffee house.”

Read more about: Coworking spaces: traditional office, low overhead

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How we incorporated our business

Must be something in the air but at least a dozen young entrepreneurs have asked me, “How can I go about incorporating my business?”

It is a wonderful thing for the economy when someone decides to venture into the world of entrepreneurship but it can also be very overwhelming.  Sole proprietorship or corporation?  What name should I use for my business?  What logo? Should I trademark my logo?  Incorporating federally or provincially?   It all becomes very overwhelming but thankfully there are FREE resources available to help answer those questions.

When The Network Hub was conceived, my two partners and I were students, so, there was no way we could afford lawyers to take care of everything. Although, depending on your business, you should DEFINITELY be talking to a startup/business/incorporation lawyer.

Jay, John and I have had experience working together and we previously incorporated for our other company so we were familiar with the process.  To register your business name, you have the option of going in person to Small Business BC or submitting your business name online with BC Registry Services.  Now here is the odd thing, you would think submitting would be a 24/7 service – nope, not with BC Registry Online.  BC Registry Services operates from 6 am to 10 pm Monday-Saturday and from 1 pm to 10 pm on Sundays.

We opted to go in-person because we wanted to incorporate our business name. Now, when your company is incorporated, the name is checked against a list of registered corporations in BC to ensure there are no duplicates.  We wanted to consider all possibilities of our company name submission, so that it would not rejected because that means $49 gone to waste and we would have to resubmit.  With proprietorship or partnership, business names are not protected so you can have multiple companies with the same names. (Note: if you feel overwhelmed already, get yourself a good lawyer to incorporate for you)

Once we got the approval letter mailed back from the BC Registry Services, we went ahead and started the incorporating process.  You have 56 days from when your business name is approved to decide on a business structure, otherwise, you have to submit AGAIN for approval – another $49 dollars.   If you have no idea which business structure is right for you – go to Small Business BC, Google it.,or consult a lawyer.

Here is the excerpt from Small Business BC:

1. Sole proprietorship. If you plan to operate the business on your own, either under a business name or your own name
2. Partnership. If you plan to operate the business with one or more partners
3. Corporation. If you plan to operate the business as a separate legal entity, separate from yourself and your personal assets
4. Society. If you plan to operate a not-for-profit organization, in which any funds or profits will be used only for the society’s purposes
5. Co-operative. If you plan to operate a business that is owned and democratically controlled by the people who use and benefit from your services

A major difference between a corporation and a sole proprietorship or partnership is that, in a corporation, no individual person is responsible or liable for debt (unless specifically outlined in a contract or legal document for your business). Also, if any members of your business leave or are replaced, it won’t affect the business as a whole and operations can continue, uninterrupted.

For us, we chose to incorporate because of liability protection and tax-benefits.   You have two choices when it comes to incorporating:  self-incorporation online at Corporate Online or consult a lawyer.   While we would have loved to have a lawyer to take care of this process for us, it wasn’t possible with all the expenses of starting up a business. So, we decided to register the business ourselves.

With the help of the Incorporation Guide for British Columbia by Self-Counsel Press for $19.95 and about $350 to incorporate online, we were officially incorporated.  Check out Self-Counsel Press for other forms such as Legal Forms for Incorporated Business.

Please note:  This is NOT legal advice. If you require advice, please consult a lawyer!!

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