Top 5 entrepreneur essentials that you must have to run your business. This is Noelle Randall,
real estate millionaire, entrepreneur, mentor, author, speaker and so much more and in today's
video, I'm going to share with you the top 5 essentials that almost every entrepreneur needs
in order to have a thriving business that makes money and lasts for generations, let's go.
So, we're just gonna get right to it in this video because I want to make sure that you have a
business that lasts year after year after year and it is so important and I know this may sound so
simple but the first thing that every entrepreneur needs as an essential is to register your business.
I know, I know this sounds crazy and probably you're like duh, register your business, but so many
entrepreneurs that I know start a business and they never actually register that business with
the secretary of state. Meaning, you need to get an LLC an S CORP or a C CORP, those are the 3
types of entities that you can create for your business and you register the business in one of
those structures. Now, Noelle is not an attorney or a tax advisor so I'm not going to recommend to
you which structure of business or which entity type you should get but I will tell you it is
super important to get your business registered with the secretary of state and I will also share
with you when I first got started, I did do an LLC which stands for limited liability company.
Yes, limited liability company, LLC. It's basically where you create a business entity other than
yourself that protects you from being sued, protects you from, you know, them coming after
your personal assets, it protects you if something goes wrong in the business and if you no longer
want to do the business, you can dissolve the business and it doesn't dissolve you, you can pass
that business to another person, you can sell that business. In fact when you create and you register
your business with the secretary of state, you are creating a separate entity. Let me say that again.
You are creating a separate entity. This is a separate thing from you. You and your business are
now 2 separate things, meaning if someone wanted to sue you for example, they would have to sue you,
not to your business. For example, if your business does something, they're going to sue the business,
they're not going to sue you, you kind of get it? So, I'm not an attorney, I'm not a tax professional
but I can tell you that getting an entity set up legally with by registering your business with the
secretary of state offers you so many protections and it will open you up where you can get funding
for your business, okay? And this is so important. So many entrepreneurs want to start a business
and they want people to invest in their business or they want business credit cards or they want
loans for their business but if you don't register your business, no one is going to do those things
for you. It's very rare that you're going to find someone that's going to willing to give you
hundreds of thousands of dollars into a business that's not registered. You know, think about that
for a second, like you were to ask me, Noelle, to give you 100,000 dollars for your business,
you're gonna have to actually have that business registered that way it lets me know that you're
taking this seriously, you actually have a business for me to invest in and that this is actually an
entity that has been created and it's really something. so, it's very inexpensive to start your
business entity and get your business registered with the secretary of state, but make sure that
you do it because it is so important. Okay now let me get to these 2nd things because this is an
incredible video and I have some great information. Number 2, an EIN which stands for employer
identification number. An EIN is similar to your social security number. This is almost like your
business's social security number. So, one of the things that is important though is it does
work like a social security number so, once you actually have an official business, you can go to
irs.gov and get your EIN absolutely free. Okay, this is of no cost to you, yes, getting your business
registered with their secretary of state is going to cost you something, maybe a few hundred dollars
but your EIN is absolutely free and again this is super important because like I said, it will work
as your business's social security number. This is how you will pay taxes, this is how you will
pay your taxes, this is how you will file your taxes, this is how you will
apply for credit cards for your business. You won't put your own social security number,
you will put your businesses EIN. Additionally when you go to open a bank account and things like that,
they're going to ask for your EIN so it is the 2nd thing that you will do. After you register
your business with the secretary of state, you will then go to irs.gov and you will get your
EIN, super important, you don't want to miss that step and again, absolutely free, okay. Let's get
to the next thing. Number 3, a business bank account. Now, I cannot tell you how many people
think that they don't need a business bank account, they think that it is okay just to have their
personal money and their personal checking account and their personal savings account
but that is not the deal. If you have a business, you want to have a business bank account, that way
all of the money that you get for your business is not co-mingled with your personal funds. This
is very important. The reason why you got the business registered with the secretary
of state and you got the EIN is so that you can create a separate entity, separate from yourself,
entity that can borrow money, not you, an entity that can get investments
and it's not you directly getting the investment, it's your business that's getting the investment.
You want your business to be able to get credit cards, not you get credit cards, your
business gets credit cards so it is vitally important that you have a business bank account.
One of the things too that it opens up a business bank account is many lenders, especially
lenders for small startup businesses, want to just see that you have maybe even just 3
months worth of bank statements and they will literally lend your business money. All jokes aside,
just imagine if you showed someone 3 months of business bank accounts, all they were looking at
were the deposits, not the withdrawals and they would lend you money based on those deposits,
that's incredible and that is what happens in the business lending world. And so that is why you want
to get a business checking account. One, it doesn't, you know, you get to separate your funds, there's no
co-mingling. It helps protect you so you can actually have those protections that an LLC
offers you and the number 2, this is an easy way for you to get funding for your business. So many
lenders will only just ask for 2 or 3 months worth of business bank statements and they will
loan your business money So please get a business bank account, it's super important. Okay, next thing.
Number 4, you will need a payment processing account. For example, Paypal, Stripe, Quickbooks,
these are systems processing accounts, merchant processing accounts, payment processing accounts
that will allow you to accept credit cards into your business, that allow you to accept checks, you
know, without somebody handing you a check and you bringing it to the bank, they can just give
you a check over the phone or whatever or take a picture of it and then you can deposit it into
your businesses account. So, it's super important that you have payment processing especially
merchant processing that allows you to accept credit cards into your business.
Many people will want to pay you with a credit card, whether it be for your product or your
service, and it is very inexpensive. In fact, in many cases you can get a merchant processing account
absolutely free if you've done those first 3 things that I told you to do.
So, if you have your business registered with the secretary of state, you have an EIN and you have
a bank account for the merchant processing to put your money into, then you are able to get a
merchant processing account. So, hopefully you see how this is working out and it builds upon itself.
So, the merchant processing account. Why is so important? One, you want that for your business, 2,
this is a year, you know, we're in a time where almost everyone is going to pay you with a credit
card. Yeah, being able to set checks is pretty important and people can mail you a check and
you can deposit it but it is vitally important no matter what you are selling or offering that
you can take credit cards. This will not only allow you to have those funds coming into your business,
once you are able to accept credit cards into your business, guess what? Now, the merchant processing
accounts will actually lend you money. This is the incredible thing about it. Literally you get a
merchant processing account with PayPal or Square, just using those as an example, PayPal or square,
and both PayPal and Square can lend you money so, once they see that you're processing credit cards,
even if it's a small amount, they literally will offer you a loan to help you with your business
because they have so much cash, they're very successful businesses and they take a small
percentage every time you swipe a card. So, they have plenty of cash to lend to small businesses
and that is what they do. However, they only want to lend to small businesses that are using their
service so, it's super important. Get a PayPal, get a Square, get a QuickBooks, get a merchant processing
account, get a payment processing account so that you can accept those credit cards and those checks.
And number 5 and this is the most important thing to me not because it's something that you
need for a business, this is really almost a bonus, number 5 is a website. Okay, this is a
time when you need a website. People are going to google you, they're going to look you up, they're
going to want to make sure that you are credible and almost no one I know, okay, you want to
talk to the people that I know, would do business with a business that doesn't have a website,
okay? I've literally asked my multi-millionaire friends, you know, if they had an attorney, if they
were super powerful, if they didn't have a website, would they use them and they literally told me no.
Just because this is a way not only for people to find you and their credibility, in this day and age
if you have not made the investment to have a website where people can find you, then you seem
like someone that's not going to be around for a long time, you don't seem like you're in it for the
long haul. It just really raises a lot of red flags so I would say you want this for your credibility
for your customers that you're serving, 2, when you, again, for the funding they're going to want
to check to make sure that you have a website. Obviously PayPal, Square, even those merchant
processing places, they're going to want to make sure that you have a website because people in
this day and age have websites. This is where you find people, you need to be able to google them, you
need to be able to write reviews on them, you need to see what other people are saying about them
so you definitely need a website more so than social media and some of the other things that
people tell you. You really just at least want to have a website that tells people about you, that
has your phone number, that has your business and you seem credible and it's somewhere that people
can find you, super important. I have one last bonus for you so stay here. So, I know an amazing company
that helps startups so much and you absolutely want to get your bank account with them. North
One bank is an incredible online bank that will allow you to get set up in a matter of minutes.
Additionally, North One is great for new businesses and businesses that need a bank account because
like I said, any entrepreneur will need a bank account and it is super important for you to
have one. North One is an online bank that allows you to bank from anywhere, okay? Because it is
online, you can get your money nationally anywhere in the whole United States. They are nationwide
with their ATM system and you can get an app that you can manage and see your money from anywhere.
North One is an amazing bank. Everything that you need to manage your business finances
is at your fingertips. You will never have to step foot in a bank branch ever again. You will be able
to save time and money on bookkeeping because you can connect your bank account to QuickBooks,
FreshBooks, Wave, Xero and so many other apps where you can manage your business finances
right with your bank account. This makes managing your business finances
quick and easy without needing the help of an accountant. Save automatically for big expenses,
whether you are saving for tax time or your next big investment, North One can
help you with that and some of the tools that they have with their bank accounts.
Again, this is Noelle Randall. I just want to make sure that you have all of the tools, all the
resources and all of the knowledge that you need to be successful. This is Noelle, to your success.