January was a big month for my book venture. I finally incorporated. The company is called i30 Media Corporation. For now, the official website is in30minutes.com, which contains links to all of the book websites in the In 30 Minutes® guides.
The venture began operations long before January. I published my first book ebook — a Dropbox for Dummies alternative — in July 2012. For the remainder of 2012 I operated the business as a “doing business as” entity. I used a DBA name for the publisher, but it was not a company in the sense of having liability protection, shares issued, or a distinct tax ID for revenue and banking. Even though I could have incorporated in 2012, I waited for several reasons:
- The venture needed to be profitable and on a growth trajectory (profitability in the second month of operations, strong growth soon after)
- I wanted to wind down operations of my previous venture before officially launching the new one (old company ceased operations in October, dissolved in November)
- I did not want to launch at the end of 2012 and deal with corporate tax returns for just a few months, as well as and other formation costs
- Company revenue had to be enough to cover formation costs and some other necessary post-launch fees
All of these conditions were met on January 1. I incorporated, using the very helpful guides at the Citizen’s Media Law Legal Guide (a project of the Harvard Berkman Center, which also hosts this blog!) as well as my own experience incorporating an earlier venture.
What the future holds for my publishing business
Will the venture be successful? That depends on a number of factors. But for the time being, I have created something that readers want and are willing to pay for. Now I have to deal with scaling the series while running it as a real business.
More news about the venture will be published in the coming months. Stay tuned …
