Your Questions About Doing Business Online Government

Jere answers:

Domain name is your web address. Examples include

http://www.yahoo.com
http://www.google.com
http://www.orbitz.com
http://www.ssa.gov

That web address is called domain name. It can be a .com for commercial sites, .gov for government, .org for organizations, .net and several others

You get your domain name from companies such as GoDaddy.com by first checking in if the domain is available, which can be anywhere from $6.99 per year to $45 or more per year

If the domain is available, you now create a website using that domain name as the address. Once you have the website done, you contact a web hosting company so they can put your website on the Web using your domain name as address. Web hosting can be anywhere from $3.99 per month to as much as $2000+ for dedicated web hosting

Jere answers:

” I don’t really want to tell the government as I don’t want to pay tax.”

Please believe me, nobody wants to pay tax.but we have to and yes if they find out you are earning they will come after you and you can be charged back for as long as they want even although you can only claim back for 6 years.

I’m not a tax man but in UK the first £9,440 (rising to £10,000 next year) is tax free, so if you are earning £24,440 per year only £15000 is subject to tax @ 20% = £3000.

This can be adjusted to take account of any genuine and approved work related expenses.

Note that if you are considered employed or self employed, you will also be subject to National Insurance contributions.

If you have any real doubts I suggest you get in touch with a good chartrerd accountant with tax knowledge as it is better to keep on the right side of HMRC as they can also fine you a surcharge for non or even late payment.

Jere answers:

I suggest you check out the low-cost loans provided by the Small Business Administration http://www.sba.gov

It is hard to find grants to start a business. Unlike the myths that some perpetuate, federal government and even private foundations hardly give grant money for a for-profit business such as a photography business. And yes, grants mean PAPERWORK – lots and lots of it, that is why a cottage industry of grant writers was born.

Nonetheless, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov – these are two sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support a for-profit venture.

Even if you buy books on “how to get grants” or list that supposedly has information on grants — all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently. But still the info is the same – hardly any grants for starting a for profit business.

Even SBA does NOT give out grants. From the SBA website http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html…

“The U.S. Small Business Administration does not offer grants to start or expand small businesses, although it does offer a wide variety of loan programs. (See http://www.sba.gov/financing for more information) While SBA does offer some grant programs, these are generally designed to expand and enhance organizations that provide small business management, technical, or financial assistance. These grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments.”

Here is a listing of federal grants for small businesses. See if there is any available for individuals for starting a business — THERE’S NONE.
Http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.BROWSE_BENEF_RPT.show

Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. Minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT – Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women’s Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women’s business center that will train women entrepreneurs

For private grants, you may want to check the Foundation Center’s Foundation Grants for Individuals Online. It’s a subscription based website ($9.95 per month) but their opening blurb only says that the database is ideal for “students, artists, academic researchers, libraries and financial aid offices.” Entrepreneurs are apparently not one of them, so I take it they also don’t have listings of private foundations who give grants to would-be entrepreneurs.

Http://www.cfda.gov
http://www.grants.gov
http://gtionline.fdncenter.org
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/vol66/grants.htm
http://www.sba.gov/expanding/grants.html

Jere answers:

As one who has concerns in this area, I have come up with a few things that I think are essential.

First, right now, there are thousands of pornographic websites that give you plenty of “free looks” before you even enter the site, prove your age, provide a credit card, etc. I think the gov’t should make it mandatory that ALL pornographic websites must have a “plain home page”–that is, the opening page is devoid of any sexual images, etc. Otherwise, youth can visit such sites and get an eyeful without any need to actually “enter” the site.

Second, I would make it mandatory for all current and future porn websites to end in “.sex.” For instance, if there is a website named “porn.com,” it would become, “porn.com.sex.” This would allow EASY filtering (i.e., a computer could be programmed to simply not allow any access to websites with .sex endings). Something similar was was voted down by an ignorant Congress. But it did not go far enough. It did not require ALL porn sites to end in .sex. That is the only way to be able to automatically segregate that sort of stuff from other internet material.

Third, I would make failure to comply a BIG DEAL. Any website in the world that showed such images without following the rules, would be fined a tremendous amount of money. Further, search engines should bear some of the responsibility–if a website like that is lurking out there, then Yahoo and Google, once alerted, should block it from their search engine.

Fourth, I would give tax incentives to search engines to NOT show pornographic websites. That is, if a person wanted to see such, they would have to actually TYPE IN the website address, and not just do a search on “sex,” etc.

Lastly, I would get LIBRARIES out of the porn business by making it clear that because children are in libraries, they cannot permit pornography on an computers the are visible to innocent passersby. Period. It is an outrage that my tax dollars are used so that libraries can ensure that any pervert can come to the library and view whatever trash he/she wishes to view–sometimes in view of children.

Jere answers:

When the economy is doing poorly, and that affects all of us.
The Stock Market goes down, and that lowers our savings and 401Ks.
Housing prices also have plunged, and that makes people nervous, as tthey may owe more on their mortgage, than their house can sell for.
When that happens, people cut back, often heavily on their spending.
That means fewer products are sold, so the Manufactures lay off workers. It affects transportation, as they are delivering less goods.
It affects Department stores, as they too aren’t selling product, so they lay off workers, or don’t hire new ones.
Those small companies, suffer, especially in smaller towns, if one of their biggest employers shuts down, or moves off shore, for cheaper labor. That has a big ripple effect around the town. As there is no place you can find to get a new job.
The only way to break this cycle, is for Government to step in with varies plans, to stimulate the economy, as in lowering taxes and offering stimulation packages. They also need to trust those who they elect, will do the job. They need someone who will instill confidence in restoring the economy/
Historically, the Party that most people trust on that issue, is the Democratic Party. As you can easily see, it todays Presidential Race.
Even when people have jobs, but see others losing theirs, it makes them nervous, and gives them reason to tighten their belts, and save harder.
Only when that fear has been lifted, will people relax their spending habits, enough to get the economy back on it’s feet. Recessions, can be long and deep, or short and shallow.
So it’s going to take time, who ever takes Office next year. So we need
a good steady man, who can lead and is smart enough, to come up with good solutions.
To me that man is Obama. As the polls are showing, that seems to be the way our country is leading just now.