Finally!

I am sosososo excited! Last week I wrapped up my torture at the Mother's Day Out program and now I am free to prepare for the new baby, work on house rennovations before she gets here and put more energy into my online bookselling business! I'm doing pretty well on Amazon for the effort. The steps I've taken this week is to find an inventory program...I'm going with BookHound. My number one reason is that it is FREE. On top of that it seems to have all of the features that I've been looking for. I've cancelled my Amazon Webstore because, well, it sucked. They have a long way to go in getting that thing to be user friendly. It also limited me to only having my Amazon Storefront on a website under my domain name without any option to add anything else...plus they charge and additonal $100/month! I think that when you are starting out in a new business the less money you have to spend the better. The good thing with that experience is that I got a discount for the website hosting my domain because I signed up initially with the Amazon Webstore. I recommend BulkRegister if you are thinking of starting your own website. After cancelling the Amazon webstore, I needed to get a website up in a hurry. After perusing BulkRegister's site, I discovered that they had a very user-friendly and, again, FREE, web site creator-Web Site Creator Lite. It is offered by CM4All (cm=content management). They offer very inexpensive upgrades. I think I will eventually move up to their e-commerce option which is only $11.75/month. That's a lot more affordable than what I had going on Amazon! My next decision will be to purchase bookkeeping software. If I can make the funds, I'd like to buy Quickbooks. Oh and I did set up a separate bank account for Book Philosophy. I decided to go with Charles Schwab for several reasons. They do not require any funds to open an account, they pay interest on your checking balance and they require you to open a brokerage account (again, with no funding requirements). I've already talked to one of their financial advisors (another FREE service they offer) and was advised on the best ways to grow my little bit of money over the next three years in order to save for my bookstore. I would also like to join the American Bookseller Association, but the Provisional Membership for people planning to open a bookstore is $350. That is something I will definitely work towards, however, because of the benefits of membership, including help with a business plan catered to their industry. I figure three years is enough time to gain experience, find my true niche, write a business plan, and-especiall-save money. When I go to a lender I will have three years of experience under my belt and will be able to show them that i have a pretty good chance of running a successful business.