During the initial stages with your plans to start your business you will have to come up with a Name for your company. What's in a name right? How hard can that be and really what difference does it make? Well if you are smart you would be well served to make sure that you and your team set some quality time aside just to determine your company name. I can't begin to tell you how important this task is because whatever name you choose it should align to your plan to brand your company with that Name. Your company name should be something that you are proud of and not ashamed to say in large crowds when it is your turn to introduce yourself. It should be something that rolls off the tongue and embeds itself into the subconscious of everyone that sees or hears it if only once.  This "name" will guide you and your business through everything imaginable during the life of your company. The importance of this name sets the foundation for your company. Some folks say find a way to re-associate your Company name into an Acronym. Some like long names and some short. You will find that after typing your email address a couple of hundred times it will become immediately apparent that you chose the right name. Long company names can be contentious particularly when you are typing it 50 to a 100 times a day. Say it over the phone in a role play atmosphere. Sounds a little corny but if you say it with hesitation I suggest using another name because if your line of business requires hiring employees they too will sense your hesitation and will in turn mimic your hesitant reaction while selling your goods and services to other prospective customers. Find a name that you can say with confidence and zeal. What happens if someone else has that name? Can you register your domain name for your email and website with the name you chose? Often business domain names are somebody elses' property which requires you to use your creative genius and find a way to tailor other possible naming conventions that can be translated to your actual name, or that relate closely to your name.  Remember to spend some time with this seemingly thoughtless task, remain flexible and do your homework to make sure that all of your loose ends are tied up. By the way Carl and I started out by deciding to list as many names as we could think of that we felt spoke to our dream and our line of business. We actually settled on what we had listed as a Tag Line to another name. Even with stumbling onto our choice of Quality Innovative Solutions, Inc. it took us a month to finally come to a mutual decision that resulted in our business name.

My guess is that anyone that decides to go in business for themselves supporting the Federal Government really has no idea what they are up against. Yet many individuals find themselves crossing this decision threshold of self reliance daily. Carl and I were really no different than anyone else placed in this situation. Some stimulus causes you to decide that you can do it better (whatever "it" is) and then against all reason you cut the strings with your job and boldly step out ready to take on the world.  Sounds great doesn't it? You immediately conjure up dreams of no one telling you what to do! Matter of fact your thinking drifts to how it will be with you telling everyone how to do it. Then after aligning your workers in the early morning hours you take time off drive to the airport in your 7 series BMW and fly to Tahiti.  Why not you are the boss right? I have to say vignettes like this kept me going for a while but unfortunately it immediately becomes apparent that this dream is a big hoax! My kids constantly chastise me for not taking any personal time off especially vacations. I don't have time because this thing we built eats up all of our time! So my most sincere advice to anyone pondering this crucial step toward freedom is to make sure that you take some time and scan (really read) the Small Business Administration's information on what to expect when you start your business. This is a free repository of great and pertinent information that I still find extremely useful. Remember your business doesn't care whether you have a life or an appointment to see a health care professional it always requires your attention and continually sucks your time away from family and all the other fun things in life.(On the other hand had Carl and I not made the jump we would have never experienced the power and politics that comes with being a business owner.) Also realize that when you do cut the strings that you will soon be making decisions and prioritizing your business needs over the wants of your own three year old. So remember to make wise decisions in the beginning because unless you have figured out how to subsist without food and shelter you will at times find yourself sacrificing precious things like family outings in favor of client meetings. So the moral of this story is to appreciate first the impact of the demands of your decision to start.

I never really thought too much about the standard requirements for starting a business because luckily for me, Carl Seastrand and I were used to demanding projects and working extremely long hours both in and out of the Navy. Little did we know what awaited us with our plan toward success? We like others before us had a viable plan and we were confident that our work ethic would help to get us to that veritable summit of success. I plan to walk you through our path and hopefully provide insight and helpful ideas that save you money and get you where we are today. Both Carl and I are approaching our 6th year in business and still uncovering hidden land mines that have kept us from solidifying our dreams. However we have not detoured from this path and everything and I mean everything we learned in the Navy is needed to survive.  I am excited to act as a voice to beginning intermediate and advanced Service Disabled Veteran business owners and promise that your journey will be no less rigorous than that you met in the field or at sea. Congratulations on your choice to follow this journey. Please stay in touch and feel free to follow us on Twitter by searching for qisolutions or Carl Seastrand. We are both new at Twitter but we learned through our association with SCORE and HP that social networking is necessary to use in today's fast pace business growth environment. Also visit our website if you get a chance because we will be discussing how we put this together too.  All the best and keep stroking.