Choosing your market niche

By Mikal E. Belicove: Director, Community & Education - Doba

If you and I were to decide to go into business together, and we chose to open up a brick and mortar store on Main Street, there's no way we'd sign an 18-month lease, order display furnishings, install carpet, hook up a phone line, and hire employees without first knowing what we're going to sell. Yet, online retailers--or, more accurately, casual sellers who want to become successful online retailers--do it every day.

Without giving much thought to a company name, product line, or business or marketing plan, new online sellers sign up for services like Doba, work with a third-party vendor to build a webstore, and only then get around to asking, "Hey, what should I sell?" They head to eBay, see what is selling, and then decide to sell the same products--usually consumer electronics--for slightly less than the competition. They end up being disappointed, mainly because their profit margins are so low.

The problem is that...

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The Benefits of Tax ID Numbers and How to Get One

By Mikal E. Belicove, Director - Community & Education, Doba

The IRS doesn't require certain small businesses to have a TIN (Tax Identification Number), but more and more businesses, some of which you may want to do business with, require a TIN.

What is a TIN or EIN?

A TIN is like an SSN (Social Security Number) for businesses. It identifies your business entity to the IRS and to any businesses or individuals who may want to do business with you. Like an SSN, a TIN is nine digits, but the nine digits are arranged a little differently. Instead of appearing as 000-00-0000, a TIN appears as 00-0000000.

The IRS officially refers to the TIN as the EIN (short for Employee Identification Number), because the number was originally intended and is still primarily used by companies who must process payroll taxes for employees. The number is usually referred to as a TIN when used to identify a business and as an EIN when used to report employment taxes, but TIN and EIN are just different names for the same thing.

Do I need a TIN?

Depending on how you've structured your business and whether you have employees on your payroll...Read More