Wow! A ton has happened these last few weeks and I need to catch you guys up. I was finally able to get all the info needed to work with the school and I partnered with one of the Sororities that showed interest in working with me. The lovely ladies at Sigma Lambda Gamma (SLG) were a pleasure to work with for a sunset/ evening sale. Also I am now working with a mentor at the Entrepreneurship Center. Being able to work with someone who has done business in Florida before is a huge help! And finally I think I have an idea for a new type of artwork to be sold at CMC.
We've passed the first big barrier, selling on campus. Last Thursday I sold on campus (legally) by partnering with SLG, a sorority at the school. they were awesome to work with! I also learned some new things, the first of which being that the school will not accept 0% cut going to the organization. I didn't think with would be an issue seeing how the leaders of the organization itself agreed to it. The reasoning was that allowing vendors on campus is designed to help the organizations so they need to make a little money. Moving on, I applied to sell at the Spartan Market which is a brand new event coming to campus! The event is a large marketplace to be held in the center of campus, sponsored by the Black Student Union (BSU) for regular vendors and student vendors alike. The timing could not of been better! Although I nearly missed the deadline to turn in the application because I was waiting on my documents that I discussed in my last post (and my rant below). But now I have documents (and insurance that I didn't know I needed and technically isn't required but they wont do business with me with out it so we have that now too, yay!) and we are registered for the Market!
(stumbled upon my own piece while visiting a friend last week)
Earlier last week I met with an extremely helpful man who mentors at the Entrepreneurship center (probably should of popped in there sooner) we met and cleared up a ton of my questions such as: How do I pay taxes? What taxes do I need to pay? When do I need to pay them? Should I get a business bank account? Why should I get a business bank account? Is the IRS going to kill me in my sleep? To which he replied: Online, 6.5% for state, Jan 1st, yes, to separate funds, and probably not but be careful. Joking aside he was a massive help and I will definitely be going back.
Before I talk about the new art I want to introduce I'm going on a rant.
So to recap, a few weeks ago when I was sorting through what I needed and learned that A DR-11 and DR-13 are required to sell at school. I found a site named FastFilings.com that claims that they can get me those documents quickly and within a number of days. This sounded great so I paid them for their service. A week goes by, no response, I message them saying I need these documents asap and I am willing to pay extra for it. They reply that they have already handed it off to the state and will email me a digital copy before the printed physical one arrives in the mail. Another week goes by, I am very frustrated because I had to cancel 2 events that I was supposed to sell at because I waiting on these documents. Last Monday comes and the state mailed me my documents. The service I went through NEVER SENT ME ANYTHING! I then come to learn (from that handy dandy meeting the the ENT Center) that sites like these exist to "scam" new entrepreneurs into paying for things they don't need and act as an overall unnecessary middle man.
Morel of the story: Ask someone who's previously done the thing, before you do the thing.
I now harbor an unbridled rage towards "Fast" Filings. :)
OK I'm done with my rant moving on to art. I was scrolling TikTok as one does and found this really cool piece that I think I'm going to recreate. It involves using string and paint to create this really cool effect. I'm not entirely certain what type of paint was used although my guess is acrylic. I'm planning on testing it out later this week to stay tuned to Friday's post for the results.
(Original artwork by @Studio_teal)