GO GO GO

It's going live!

 

 

 

The joys of owning your own business means that you can stay up all night and work if you want to. As I'm typing this, it's 2:30 AM for about the 18th night in the row :) Which is one of the reasons you didn't get any more updates in the meantime.

 

But because I am a merciless taskmaster, I kept my poor developer chained to his desk until 9 PM on a Friday night before switching my domain to live. >:-D

 

No but really, we were supposed to go live on the 15th, but a few functions were refusing to cooperate.

 

And no go-live goes off without a hitch - in my case my suppliers gave me some bad news about delayed deliveries from England. Boooo. So the inventory is arriving next week instead of this week as planned.

 

So if that's the worst thing that goes wrong, I'll count myself lucky! There are still some small fixes upcoming - like the Blog News pic on the front page doesn't open the blog like it should...

 

But please have a look around at my page - and remember not to be shocked at the lack of items in the inventory, they are coming, pinky-swear, cross my fingers hope to go bankrupt!

 

www.allesparty.at

 

DISCLAIMER: MR. WEB DEVELOPER SAYS IT WILL TAKE INTERNIC UP TO 12 HOURS TO TRANSFER, KEEP CHECKING!

 

 

Want a tax number? Take a number

A company tax number is what allows you to buy goods for your business and claim the sales tax back from the government. No tax number? Then you have to pay the sales tax of 20% like any end consumer, even if you are buying inventory to resell.

20%

Good news for Washingtonians! According to this website, at 8.9% you are taxed less than 90% of the other states :)

I applied for my sales tax number six and a half weeks ago on July 6th.
I still do not have a tax number.

I'm guessing that's why they allow people 6 months to start their businesses, because 90% of the time is just waiting for stuff to happen while you golf.

Remember how I mentioned in my last post that my business start is September 1?
Yea, that's approximately 8 days away and I still can't buy inventory or cardboard boxes to put it in.

When I handed in my tax number request forms to the IRS, I was told "Eine Erhebungsdienst wird sich bei Ihnen melden.". This means I will be contacted by the inquiry dept to ensure that I really am planning on starting a business, because they will not hand out those tax number to just anybody.

After they decide you mean business (see what I did there? ;)), it takes another 3-5 days for them to actually issue you the tax number.

After a month had gone by, I went back to the IRS and asked where my number was. I received the standard answer that the inquiry dept. will come by. When asked how long that takes, I was told they didn't know, but that they'd write an e-mail.

Now at 6 weeks, I had to take action. I can't afford to pay 20% too much for my inventory. After being shrugged off last time I asked for info in person at the IRS. I decided to embark on the Telephone Campaign of Terror.

After being transferred around several times to get to correct department, the fun ensues :)
Here's the short version:

ME: When does my tax number arrive?
Them: I don't see anything for you yet.

ME: It's been 6 weeks. How long does it normally take?
Them: It depends.
(I can totally play this game...)

ME: On what?
Them:  Well some people are on vacation...
(I can hear her getting agitated)

ME: Please check when I am scheduled.
Them: I think they are currently working on requests started in May/June.
(Notice all the non-committal answers you get?)

ME: Fine, but when am I scheduled?
Them: I don't know. The person is normally out of the office on inquiry visits.
ME: Well then can you transfer me to their supervisor or someone who can check the schedule?
(oops, now I can hear she's pissed, lol)

Them: I can give you their extension...
ME: If they are out of the office, I'm guessing the phone extension probably won't help me. Please give me their name and e-mail address.

My phone call must have made the rounds inside the dept., because when I called the guy's extension, he already knew who was calling, haha!

Since squeaky wheels apparently get all the grease, I got an appointment for the next day. He said he would forward my documents and that I should expect my tax number by mail the middle of next week.

I'm praying that this really turns out to be the case, but the guy at least offered to call me and let me know the tax number over the phone if he sees it first.

After relating my phone story to some friends, one of them said:

"It's all just a test, if you don't have enough persistence to get information out of people who don't want to give it to you, then you're probably not going to be a successful business owner."

Wise words indeed!

 

And here's a dilbert

 

 

So what's been going on? or (Was bisher geschah)

So what's been going on in the meantime you ask? Or as my husband's work colleagues wondered - how come you have so much time to go for lunch and play golf all day? :-D

Collecting information on the steps you have to do a certain task is kind of like asking Professor Dolores Umbridge how many lines you have to write. There's just not a definitive answer. You're done when you're done.

Or perhaps an even more apt analogy is Hansel and Gretl. You find a breadcrumb which leads you onto the next one...


My random task since my last post was "What do I need to do to register my business?"

• Breadcrumb answer 1: It only takes 5 minutes (their words!) We can help you with that. Bring documents a, b, and c.

Cool! That easy? I even have all those documents ready at home...

• Breadcrumb 2: Well, before we can register your business, you will need to register your company name it in the official Register of Companies. Fill out form x and bring back. (Side Note: This is a purely optional step, but being registered in the office register gives your company a more professional rap, which is important for Webshops, which can otherwise be started by any Hans or Franz)

And at the next meeting....

• Breadcrumb 3: The form is filled out correctly, well done! But before you are allowed to submit it, you have to do an online search of registered & trademarked names to see if it's available. Then you can submit a query to do an official search of company names. Fill out query form z.

I emailed the form right when I got home. Sat around enjoying many rounds of golfing, waiting for the results from the search 1 week later.

• Breadcrumb 4: My query comes back saying the name is available and "suggests" I add a qualifier to the end of my company name that labels it in the type of business it is. Their suggestions are "Online Webshop" "Online Webseite".
  
  Since I don't want the word "Webshop" in my official company name,  I want to go back and ask in more detail about how rigid the rule is on their suggestion. I also wanted to ask why a close competitor with a similar name to mine doesn't have the name like "webshop" attached to their company name.

Sit back and enjoy the sun at the golf course because it's July and the person who answers that question is away for vacation in the meantime.

• Breadcrumb 5: Apparently the rule is this - if you use a 'fantasy name' like 'Partylicious Parties', then you don't have to add anything because it's a made-up name and not a real word.
   
  However, if your name only uses regular words like "ACME Parties", then you have to add something that narrows down what you do.
   
  E.g. if you are in event organization, you would have to have "ACME Parties Event Organizing" or in my case, with an online shop "ACME Parties Online Shop".
   

We compromised on appending "Shop" to my name and was told that would be fine for the company register.

• Breadcrumb 6: Great, looks like you're ready! But before you can submit your registration form, you will need to go to a Notary and have your signature certified so that you can legally sign documents for your company name.

Trot down to nearest Notary, sign a piece of paper and fork over 60 Euros at information desk. Apparently for only 60 Euros, you don't actually get to see the notary in person.

• Breadcrumb 7: Perfect, NOW you have everything you need. Take the form you filled out for breadcrumb 2 and submit it to the Austrian Justiz Landesgericht für ZRS Graz. (some justice building?) This will take about 10 days to clear.

10.9.8.7.6.5.4.3.2.1 and it arrives! I got even more golfing done during this time, so win-win :-D

• Breadcrumb 8: Everything looks good, but before you register your official company name, we will help you fill out this "Neufög" form, which is how you apply for not having to pay any registration fees as a first-time business owner...

But the good news was that 8 was the last step! Then it only took 5 minutes for them to send off my application for registering my company effective September 1, 2016.

Alles Party Shop e.U.
(e.U. means registered company)

So much stuff going on

Just when I felt like things were stalling a bit, a bunch of stuff comes together all at the same time.

On my way out the door to my meeting at the WKO (Chamber of Commerce), the mail carrier shoved a small package into my hands. YAY, my first marketing materials!  It was a roll of stickers I ordered last week as handouts. :)))

They come in a clever box that lets you either take them out on the flat roll, or pull directly off the backing.

Then back at my external home office...

OMG it stopped raining for the first time in 4 weeks. I had to take my stuff outside pronto!

I started writing this post to the sound of two fine looking young men taking a chain saw to the wooden beams that separate my inventory room from the rest of the house.

My handyman said "I'm a little bit scared" when he talked about cutting through those posts today. So am I :-O

As you know, my house was built approx. 80 years ago. Back at that time it was apparently a thing to have maid's quarters built directly onto the house. It's even drawn into the main house plans as "Magdzimmer". It's these rooms I'll be using as my warehouse.

Since it was originally designed as servants' quarters, the only way up to the two rooms is through a narrow spiderweb infested rickety back staircase. We wouldn't want the servants using the main staircase obviously...  ;-D

A master Zimmermann (carpenter) made a hefty door frame to act as a replacement for the vertical supporting beam you see there. How weird is it that a vertical beam doesn't go all the way to the floor? And then there is the random crossbeam. Craziness.

They are popping in the frame this afternoon. I'll be so happy to have the doorway done so I refinish the floor and start moving the racks in!

Exciting news!

But this time it's someone else's news :)

I've been following Heather's blog since we met online during a contest on Pattern Review a couple years ago. On Friday, she sent us all a teaser that big news was coming up.

And what fantastic news it was! She became a new business owner, taking over a yarn store called Itsy Bitsy yarn!

I find it so exciting to hear about other people who have pursued their dreams. Like me, she said it was something she's wanted to do since she was little. Also like me, it just took a lot of education and other careers before making the leap.

Congrats to Heather!
I hope you will all take a gawk at her blog and wish her all the best :)))
http://thingsimakeplusrocks.blogspot.co.at/2016/06/exciting-new-now-live.html

And I thought boxes would be easy to organize

I think there has been a tear in the space/time continuum. The days are speeding by!
So much to organize, so little time :)

What time I haven't spent renovating the warehouse room has been spent trying to figure out stuff like which boxes I need.


At least with gas you only have 3 options!

I never knew there were so many norms and standards. Which FEFCO box meets your needs? Check it out here,

White boxes, brown boxes, long boxes, short boxes. Some you have to glue together, some just need tape. For a little bit more money, you can get ones that you just fold together and tuck in the flap. For a lot more money, you can get your logo printed on it. How many colors? 1/0, 4/0? Pantone, CMYK...

However, the biggest problem so far is finding the right size. You can't just pick any old boxes. You have to find the optimum convergence between product size, box costs and shipping fees. 

Party plates have standard diameter of 23cm. So I need a box that has a base at least 24 x 24 cm. Cups have a diameter of up to 10 cm. So if you want to pack a box with both cups and plates, I need a height of at least 14 cm.

In order to keep shipping costs down for customers, the longest side + shortest side has to be less than 45 cm.

All of a sudden there aren't that many boxes that fulfill these measurements that don't cost an arm and a leg. My dream box would be 30 x 30 x 15 cm. But after browsing more box catalogs than I care to remember, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that apparently isn't a standard size.

After receiving a custom quote on boxes of that size, I'll have to settle on a sub-optimum size and/or start researching importing a less expensive custom box.

Hinterholz 8 or The Money Pit?

For non-Austrians, Hinterholz 8 is the Austrian version of The Money Pit.

I've begun renovating the room where my inventory will be stored and I'm starting to feel like an extra in either one of these movies.

To be fair, the house is 78 years old, started in 1938. The original owner was a stonemason, so the foundations of the house are excellent. Over the years, additions were made, renovations became necessary and as always, budget is tight.

As a complete newbie when it comes to home renovations, let me share these fine tips for home renovation with you, as learned by my current house:

• Wasps have eaten huge holes through your 1/4" particle board wall? Just tape a single piece of paper over the hole and cover with wallpaper. No problemo!
  
  Don't worry that you can see sky behind the hole, Austrian winters are short, and in the summer it lets the hot air out again... right?
  
• Are fees for the dump skyrocketing? Adding a new layer to the existing stained carpet has the added benefit of doubling as your carpet padding.
  
  Besides, thick oak plank wooden floors are so passe. And who wants to sand and stain? Just screw particle board directly into the wood floor and glue a layer of industrial blue laminate over it and you'll never worry about finding those pesky screws again. In a few years, you can just add a new layer of sticky felt tiles. And again a few years later so that the door no longer opens without help from your shoulder.
• Newspaper is your best friend. It makes an excellent layer under wall plaster, evens out warped floor boards and educates future generations on the news of the day.
  
  In my case it's Aug 1971 - Oct 1972. Say 'Yes to the People's Party'. My 10 second research on this shows that they sadly lost by a few points to the SPÖ (socialists).
  
  If your budget can afford it - combine with tin foil for even more coverage.
  
  
  
  
• Both newspaper and tin foil make an excellent foundation layer for the next 5 layers of wallpaper over the years. When you're sick of the top layer of wallpaper, be sure to paint it white so that people think they are looking at a smooth finished wall, instead of one that looks like this. 
• When you add wood paneling to the slanted walls and ceiling, make sure you cover up all those layers of wallpaper to make a smooth finish. That will ensure no one will be able to remove the wallpaper without removing the paneling first. But no one will want to do that anyways, since you have excellent taste in gold and brown wallpaper!

But at least I'm down to the antique wood floor and I'll be putting filler in those screw holes (which had to be ripped out), sanding and refinishing. It took a whole week to get to the bottom layers though and I'm still washing wallpaper gunk off the walls.

As for the wood paneling, I ended up having to razor along the edge to get rid of the wallpaper. I'm not up to the task of removing the paneling. Hopefully in two more weeks my warehouse will be ready to move in my new racks!

I'm in! Well almost

Good news, I'm in! I will officially be entering the business start-up program on June 2nd. I wasn't actually worried about it though to be honest. Since the partner group gets paid for assisting in start-ups, they aren't the ones wanting to discourage people by not letting them into the program. :)

I took in my new and improved business concept along with the five year financial plan. My Betreuer (agent) said that I was WAY more prepared than most people, who just waltz in the door with an idea in their head.

I got a bunch of useful hand-outs that show me that I need to generate 80K in revenues in order to earn 1k less a month than I used to.

At that income level, a cool 1000 euros a month goes to pension fund, accidental insurance coverage, medical insurance coverage (don't ask me why those are two separate things) and self-employment insurance (basically your new unemployment fund). What's left over gets taxed, according to that handy tax table I posted.

It's a socialized country, so you gotta fill up the coffers in order to make it work.

However, it was other people filling up the coffers that enabled me to enter the start-up business program and get money each month without dipping into my unemployment fund. If all goes really badly with my start-up, I will still have my full unemployment assistance available to me if necessary.

So nothing's free of course, but I feel you do get good value for your money in the end with the services that are provided in this country.

But that's what starting a business is all about, right? Working twice as hard to earn half as much! Or maybe I should start scrum in my business, lol ->
(just kidding - in my experience with scrum, Jupiter must be in exact alignment with an ascending Saturn on the last full moon in order to create the right work environment for this statement to come even close to being correct)

Business plan - the first 5 years

I'm refining my business plan in preparation for my next meeting. It's already up to 11 pages! However, since I am having it reviewed by German speaking people who might award me with start-up money, I decided to write in their native language instead of mine.

Unfortunately, this means that it takes me about 3x as long to write it, and therefore contains a suspiciously high number of bullet lists instead of full sentences. :-D

Part of your business plan is to draw up a 5 year plan for finances. I put this off for quite some time since my least favorite part of this idea is working with the numbers. However, since I used to be a programmer (albeit not a very good one), I was able to transform this clear and concise tax table:

into this unreadable Excel formula:

=IF(SUM($G24:$R24)>90000,(((SUM($G24:$R24)-90000)*455000/910000)+32880)/4,IF(SUM($G24:$R24)>60000,(((SUM($G24:$R24)-60000)*14400)/30000+18480)/4,IF(SUM($G24:$R24)>31000,(((SUM($G24:$R24)-31000)*12180)/29000+6300)/4,IF(SUM($G24:$R24)>18000,(((SUM($G24:$R24)-18000)*4550)/13000+1750)/4,IF(SUM($G24:$R24)>11000,(((SUM($G24:$R24)-11000)*1750)/7000)/4,0)))))

where cell G24 is Jan theoretical taxable income and cell R24 is Dec theoretical taxable income.

For the eagle-eyed out there, you'll notice I left off the tax for taxable income over 1 million dollars. I'm only describing the first 5 years after all. :-D

Visiting the unemployment agency AMS

AMS is one of the many Amts (state agencies). A wise Austrian once explained to me that "on the happy fun scale of 1 - 10, where 10 is being a space tourist and 1 is visiting marine boot camp, visiting any Amt (state agency) rates about a -5."  It is in fact a way of saving the state money by hoping people will just stay away instead ;)

Here's how not to visit your local AMS office:

1. Visit the wrong Amt.
   
   I admit I should have looked it up first. I went to the same office I went to last time when I was unemployed for a month 6 years ago. So I get there and there are approximately eleventy billion people waiting in front of me. The lines are so long, you have to take a ticket. (you'll understand the emphasis here later)
   
   Remove sunglasses, insert fork. One hilarious woman came in after me and asked if I thought she'd need to buy a parking ticket, or if the 10 minutes grace period would be enough. :-D
   
   After the length of a bible, my turn is up! Woo! First things first - name and address.   Wait - you live in Andritz? Sorry, you're at the wrong Amt! Argh. OK, thank you.
   
2. Visit the right Amt, but do it wrong...
   
   By taking a ticket like at the other Amt. Awesome, there's almost nobody in line! I get right in. I sit down and the agent asks for my form. Slightly confused, I explain I just arrived. Agent informs me that you're not allowed to just take a ticket, you have to get a form from the information desk!  OOOOOOhhhkay.
   
   Goto front desk, there was only about 6 people waiting - great! Clerk 1 hands me a form to fill out. I realize the form makes no sense (it asked me to describe job offerings that I'd want to apply for). I fill out about half and go back to desk and get the other clerk. Clerk 2 looks at it and asks me in an annoyed tone why on earth would I fill out that form. I point accusingly at Clerk 1, who hurriedly leans over and says she just gave me any old form to fill out to keep me busy because it was soooo stressful having 6 people waiting in line! >:-x (that's me swearing on the inside) I was proud of the fact that I managed to stay polite since I actually need something from these people.
   
   Let's skip to the part where I fill out the correct form and get an appointment to see my assigned Betreuer (agent assigned to my case).
3. Talk to your assigned Betreuer, who is not actually the correct Betreuer.
   
   Betreuer asks standard personal information questions. Wait - you have university degrees? You're at the wrong Betreuer! .... loooossssing willlll to liiiivvvveeee.....
   
   But I'll consider naming my first-born after this guy because he was at least able to set me up a meeting with the partner group who reviews business plans and decides if you are allowed to enter the Gründerprogramm "business start-up program". He even wished me lots of luck to boot.
   
   Yeeeesss! Q'apla!

So here's hoping things go better for you on your next visit. Or maybe you just decided never to quit your job, lol.

But things are now officially rolling! Wednesday is the big day where I get to hand in my business plan for review. Woo! Wish me luck!

Step 1: I am an Arbeitslose (person without a job)

So this is Day 2. I'm officially "arbeitslos" (unemployed). Actually even less than arbeitslos because I'm not eligible for unemployment until June because I quit my job instead of being fired or ending it by mutual agreement. This state between your last day at your job until you're covered by unemployment means no medical coverage, so I can forget about getting sick this month ;)

So how does one become an Arbeitslose? It's not so straightforward as it is in the US:

1. Check your contract for how much notice you have to give. In my case it's 3 months since I was a department manager. As a normal employee it's generally around 1-2 months, depending on how long you've been with a company.
2. Check which days you are allowed to quit on. Most often, this is the 15th of the last day of the month. Meaning if you quit on the Jan. 16th, your notification does not go into effect until Jan 31.
3. Notify your supervisor and CC your letter of resignation to Human Resources.
4. Request a "Dienstzeugnis" (basically a certificate of work) from your supervisor. This is an odd invention where by law, the employer isn't allowed to write anything negative, which would make the employee's search for the next job hard. So even if the employee was really bad, you have to choose intentionally neutral phrases such as: This employee performed his assigned tasks. BUT - you're not allowed to use descriptions where it's easy to read between the lines, such as saying the employee tried their best to fulfill their tasks. (unbelievable huh! check this page out: https://www.arbeiterkammer.at/beratung/arbeitundrecht/beendigung/dienstzeugnis.html)
5. Continue working for threeee loooooooooong months. Seriously, I was ready to stick a fork in my eye by the end.

After this preparation, you are now ready to tackle your first trip to AMS Arbeitsmarktservice (for simplicity's sake, let's call this the Unemployment Office). More on that in a later post...

I am going to be selbstständig!

So what does selbstständig mean exactly? Leo says:

1. Self-employed
2. Dependent upon one's self.

It's actually a very apt word in German because as of now, I'm responsible for paying all my bills out of my own resourcefulness instead of just waiting for that paycheck to roll in at the end of the month :-O

So after I told my boss, I posted on Facebook to let everyone know I decided to pursue my long-standing ambition to run my own party shop!

Woo Hoo! No more 8-6 office hours for me!