Business & The Rural Post Office
May. 8th, 2020 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aWhen I landed in Hawaii, one of my first priorities was to set up an LLC for my writing business. As I ramp up the amount of work that I'm doing in that regard, it seemed important to separate out the business from my personal life, which also allows them to be mutually protected.
So I created Designers & Dragons LLC and started doing the things like setting up a bank account and a Paypal account.
Though this was a top priority, it actually took a few months to get to it — which should have been fine, as I was planning to start spending more time writing no sooner than April 1st (and as it turns out, a few : months later). But I almost ran headfirst into the shelter-in-place as a result. So I did the bank work, for example, a day or two before the shelter-in-place happened.
But, it all got done. When I sent out my first new Lost History last week, it was the first thing to be marked with a Copyright from Designers & Dragons LLC.
Yay: achievement unlocked.
One of the things suggested by everything I read was that you maintain a separate mailing address for your LLC, to really show they're separate. No problem: the Kalaheo post office is literally down the street from us. It's a slightly less than 10 minute walk. So, I got that set up too (and in fact had it ready before I set up my bank account, as it was one of the building blocks).
But, it turns out that maintaining that separate mailing address might not be as simple as I'd hoped, at least not here in semi-rural Hawaii.
First up, they were confused as heck when I set up the box. They double-checked that yes, I lived in Kalaheo, and carefully explained to me that they do home delivery here. (They don't do so further west of us, which I guess is semier-rural Hawaii.) I agreed that yes I got mail at my house, but said that I wanted a different address for my LLC. I don't know if they got it or not, but they set up the PO Box.
Except it hasn't worked out like I'd hoped. (Which suggests that they didn't get it.)
After I set up my bank account, the bank mailed me checks, which arrived fine, and they mailed me an ATM card, which the post office bounced back. Why? I dunno yet, as I haven't gone into the bank to ask (and when I called they said they had no record other than the ATM mailing being refused). But that really made me doubt the efficacy of this whole maneuver, because the PO Box apparently couldn't be trusted to actually receive mail.
And then this week there was even more bizarreness: a package that was addressed to my home address never was delivered, but instead said it was ready for pickup at the post office. When I went down there, I discovered a pick-up notice IN MY PO BOX, even though that's not where the package was addressed to, nor is the PO box in my personal name. And then a postal worker admonished me that I needed to have people address things right (to the PO box)!
At this point I was the one who had to explain that I got mail at home, and the package should have been delivered there. After that talk, we presumed that someone overly helpful had done something not helpful. Because in Kalaheo, like at Cheers, everyone knows your name, and apparently knows where your LLC's PO Box is.
Meanwhile, at home, I continue to get mail for the LLC of the doctors who lived in our house two or three renters ago and apparently didn't worry about getting LLC letters delivered to their home.
I may have to switch over to that, because the rural post office is letting me down in this regard.
And today was Friday which means it was my one day of real work dedicated to my own writing (for the moment; we're almost to the next step!).
I'm thrilled to say that it was the first day that I mostly got to dedicate that full time, as planned.
The problem to date has been physical therapy, which has been regularly getting rescheduled into the late morning or early afternoon. But today, Kimberly had an appointment at 2.45 and I had my penultimate appointment at 3.30, and they stuck.
So I got to work from about 7.30-2.00 (and then another 30 or 40 minutes while waiting for Kimberly's appointment) and I got great work done.
My main goal today was to put together a part of the Designers & Dragons TSR Codex having to do with the Giant and Drow adventures, because I'm going to be on a podcast tomorrow to talk about the drow. All the sections took rearrangement and rethinking, some took light polishing, and the piece de resistance, D3: Vault of the Drow, required an almost total rewrite (and expansion). But I managed to get it all done (albeit starting in on it last night and continuing into the night tonight) and as a result I have 20 pages of new first draft text for the TSR Codex, or about 8,000 words.
That makes me very happy for my first real day of my own work as I'd intended, and I think it speaks well for my ability to do this type of work and really push out new books as I settle into my new routine in Hawaii.
So I created Designers & Dragons LLC and started doing the things like setting up a bank account and a Paypal account.
Though this was a top priority, it actually took a few months to get to it — which should have been fine, as I was planning to start spending more time writing no sooner than April 1st (and as it turns out, a few : months later). But I almost ran headfirst into the shelter-in-place as a result. So I did the bank work, for example, a day or two before the shelter-in-place happened.
But, it all got done. When I sent out my first new Lost History last week, it was the first thing to be marked with a Copyright from Designers & Dragons LLC.
Yay: achievement unlocked.
One of the things suggested by everything I read was that you maintain a separate mailing address for your LLC, to really show they're separate. No problem: the Kalaheo post office is literally down the street from us. It's a slightly less than 10 minute walk. So, I got that set up too (and in fact had it ready before I set up my bank account, as it was one of the building blocks).
But, it turns out that maintaining that separate mailing address might not be as simple as I'd hoped, at least not here in semi-rural Hawaii.
First up, they were confused as heck when I set up the box. They double-checked that yes, I lived in Kalaheo, and carefully explained to me that they do home delivery here. (They don't do so further west of us, which I guess is semier-rural Hawaii.) I agreed that yes I got mail at my house, but said that I wanted a different address for my LLC. I don't know if they got it or not, but they set up the PO Box.
Except it hasn't worked out like I'd hoped. (Which suggests that they didn't get it.)
After I set up my bank account, the bank mailed me checks, which arrived fine, and they mailed me an ATM card, which the post office bounced back. Why? I dunno yet, as I haven't gone into the bank to ask (and when I called they said they had no record other than the ATM mailing being refused). But that really made me doubt the efficacy of this whole maneuver, because the PO Box apparently couldn't be trusted to actually receive mail.
And then this week there was even more bizarreness: a package that was addressed to my home address never was delivered, but instead said it was ready for pickup at the post office. When I went down there, I discovered a pick-up notice IN MY PO BOX, even though that's not where the package was addressed to, nor is the PO box in my personal name. And then a postal worker admonished me that I needed to have people address things right (to the PO box)!
At this point I was the one who had to explain that I got mail at home, and the package should have been delivered there. After that talk, we presumed that someone overly helpful had done something not helpful. Because in Kalaheo, like at Cheers, everyone knows your name, and apparently knows where your LLC's PO Box is.
Meanwhile, at home, I continue to get mail for the LLC of the doctors who lived in our house two or three renters ago and apparently didn't worry about getting LLC letters delivered to their home.
I may have to switch over to that, because the rural post office is letting me down in this regard.
And today was Friday which means it was my one day of real work dedicated to my own writing (for the moment; we're almost to the next step!).
I'm thrilled to say that it was the first day that I mostly got to dedicate that full time, as planned.
The problem to date has been physical therapy, which has been regularly getting rescheduled into the late morning or early afternoon. But today, Kimberly had an appointment at 2.45 and I had my penultimate appointment at 3.30, and they stuck.
So I got to work from about 7.30-2.00 (and then another 30 or 40 minutes while waiting for Kimberly's appointment) and I got great work done.
My main goal today was to put together a part of the Designers & Dragons TSR Codex having to do with the Giant and Drow adventures, because I'm going to be on a podcast tomorrow to talk about the drow. All the sections took rearrangement and rethinking, some took light polishing, and the piece de resistance, D3: Vault of the Drow, required an almost total rewrite (and expansion). But I managed to get it all done (albeit starting in on it last night and continuing into the night tonight) and as a result I have 20 pages of new first draft text for the TSR Codex, or about 8,000 words.
That makes me very happy for my first real day of my own work as I'd intended, and I think it speaks well for my ability to do this type of work and really push out new books as I settle into my new routine in Hawaii.