Today I took the first steps to setting up my marketing side project, “Marketing Mac.” I am calling it my side project because I want it to provide the income, freedom and support I need so I can leave my day job, and spend real quality time with my family, and also have the ability and time to work on my main ComDotAu passion project.
I was intending to set up Marketing Mac on the first of July, on the first day of the financial year, but a combination of bureaucratic difficulties and my own fears and trepidation about whether I would follow through with the business and could operate it the way I was imagining.
After a few days delay, I woke up early this morning, set my fears aside and invested an hour before work registering my new business. I wasn’t really intending to do it this morning, preferring to work on some other tasks, but maybe that would have been just another day of procrastination and avoidance. For me the hard part is usually starting something, erroneously thinking the task is going to be difficult. The funny thing is, once I start, I see it through to the end, and the task really is easier than I imagined.
I had wanted to give this business a point of difference to my ComDotAu business projects and build this one around my “personal” brand. Originally, I wanted to call it McGregor Marketing, but McGregor is a reasonably common surname, and I discovered a couple of other businesses using either that same name, or something very similar whilst researching my new business’ details.
Besides over coming my fears, I also had to brainstorm a new business name after the disappointment of not being able to use the name I was imagining. Then, I hit upon the name “Marketing Mac”. It still has a close association with my surname, I can still tie it to my personal brand, but I have the added bonus of being able to build a business brand around it in the future.
I decided to register the domain name first, only because I thought it was the easiest first step, and I was on the website anyway researching the name. As I have written in other posts, it is difficult coming up with great dot com domain names because usually all the good ones have already been snapped up by cyber squatters. The marketingmac.com domain was no exception. In my case however, I am setting up my business as an Australian business that I primarily intend to operate in Australia, so I settled on the domain “marketingmac.com.au“. I also settled on a couple of similar international domains that I may utilise in the future, but for now they will just redirect to the com dot au domain.
When registering an Australian domain name, it is a requirement that the if the name is registered for a business, you must supply an ABN (Australian Business Number) to validate your reason for purchasing the domain. I already have an ABN thanks to my business registrations for my ComDotAu projects, but unfortunately the Australian Business Register decided to cancel it back in May because they think I’m not running a business because I haven’t needed to file a tax return for it yet. I am, I’m just not making any money from it yet because I’m still working in the background creating the websites.
When I tried to register the domain name, my domain name registrar came back informing me that my registration was on hold pending confirmation of a valid, non-cancelled ABN.
Next step, register my new business name and get by ABN reinstated.
I decided to initially set my business up as a sole-trader structure, primarily because it is much cheaper and much easier. Later, down the track, I will change it to an Australian proprietary limited company when I am ready.
I initially thought this was going to be the harder task of the two, assuming it would be more difficult to reinstate my ABN, which is probably why I registered my business after registering my domain name. There was also a niggling security doubt in the back of my mind. In order to register my business and reinstate my ABN, I was redirected away from the government “dot gov” registration website, and onto a private “Microsoft online.” website.
I discovered this on the first of July, when I had initially decided to register my website. I was a little pressed for time on that day, and since I was following Google links to find the websites, I didn’t trust that I was in the right place, another reason why I delayed my registrations. Yes, I am security conscious and a sceptic. Maybe you might think I am overly cautious, but even if it takes me a little longer to achieve something, I call it doing my due diligence. It is not in my nature to jump into something without weighing up my options, particularly if something doesn’t quite seem or feel right, much to the chagrin of those who dive in head-first, to hell with the consequences!
This morning, I had time to do my due diligence. I followed the links from the government site to the Microsoft one and decided that it was definitely the place where I was supposed to be. I filled out the online forms for my business name and reinstatement of my ABN, paid the required fees, and that was that.
Marketing Mac is now a registered business in Australia, and I have my ABN back. One final task before I go to work, email my domain registrar and ask them to recheck the Australian Business Register for my ABN. By the time I finish work tonight, marketingmac.com.au should also be ready to roll.