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[YoungRichDude]

I talked with a guy who owns a fencing company. He says before he is ready to move ..but he 's asking for me to send him my company info before he pays.. what do I send him?

[Mr Subtle]

A link to your website?

[Mister Natural]

I talked with a guy who owns a fencing company. He says before he is ready to move ..but he 's asking for me to send him my company info before he pays.. what do I send him?

um,,, I guessing he wants to verify that your business is registered with the state. And a EIN registered with the Internal Revenue Service.
If you don't have these in place,,, you need to do so. As you now see, these two inexpensive necessities separate real moneymaking businesses from the fly by night pretenders and the out right scammers.

And maybe a physical mailing address and a company phone which is answered with a professional greeting instead of someone answering and saying,,, "Hello?"

I've also encountered bizz owners who have been burned by some low life masquerading as some kind of advertising publisher who,,, disappears with their funds.

Sadly this is a pretty common scam they have to defend themselves against. So his concerns are legitimate.

[mgmason]

The EIN is easy to get online from the IRS, takes about 5 mins here:
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online
The Trade Name (aka DBA) took about 2 weeks in my state, NH, as they don't do it online. Maybe your state is online. For me it cost $50 and it's good till 2019 :)

I would get the EIN and send it to him, he most likely wants it to write your service expense off on his taxes.

[YoungRichDude]

Yeah im in GA. I looked and it says I have to pay 220$

[Mr Subtle]

Yeah im in GA. I looked and it says I have to pay 220$
This says to form an LLC in GA is $100 (plus a $50 annual fee)...

http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/georgia-form-llc-31893.html

[cbuckley00]

Was that his creative way to get rid of you? Did you just show him how much you don't know about a business?
I'm asking because I don't know and want to prevent this also.

[YoungRichDude]

Is this the name of your business? *Is there a physical office address for your business or home business? Also, in your invoice, please list in detail the service you will provide, zip codes of coverage area, dates of mailing campaign, quantity, etc. *Please write invoice as same agreement as discussed over the phone. Keep in mind, I will show this to my partner, so don't leave anything out. Also, my business partner would like you to include a couple store/business references. Once we have this, we will pay the invoice.**

[Mister Natural]

Is this the name of your business? *Is there a physical office address for your business or home business? Also, in your invoice, please list in detail the service you will provide, zip codes of coverage area, dates of mailing campaign, quantity, etc. *Please write invoice as same agreement as discussed over the phone. Keep in mind, I will show this to my partner, so don't leave anything out. Also, my business partner would like you to include a couple store/business references. Once we have this, we will pay the invoice.**

All standard information between two parties doing business together.
Easy stuff

[YoungRichDude]

Easy if i had biz refs

[Goblue1918]

Don't bother with this guy. He is racking you over the coals to find a reason to blame you if his offer doesn't work.

This is tough to do when you are starting out.

You are asking him to pay $250 - $500 for an advertisement, it's not like you are asking him to pay $2,000 - $3,000 for a fence that is warranted to be even and straight both on the vertical and horizontal axis as verified by a satellite.

I wonder what he did when he first started out digging holes for fences? How did he reply to all of these questions? What references did he use? Ask him for his contract to use as a template.

If he responds that he did get these questions and that he answered each one in detail, that is another reason to run, he is thinking on the side of the brain that is looking for fault and reasons why something won't work.

If he can't take looking you in the eye and believing in you, stop wasting your time and move on. Do you want him telling all his cohorts that your card didn't work?

By the way, all the agreements with the legal BS, is just that..BS.

The Post Office will give you a receipt and proof of mailing. If anyone claims they did not get the card that was on the route, the Post Master is more than willing to talk with you and answer any questions.

Go get his competitor and send them a copy of the ad when it goes to print.

Bill

[sixthflag]

The EIN is easy to get online from the IRS, takes about 5 mins here:
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online
The Trade Name (aka DBA) took about 2 weeks in my state, NH, as they don't do it online. Maybe your state is online. For me it cost $50 and it's good till 2019 :)

I would get the EIN and send it to him, he most likely wants it to write your service expense off on his taxes.



^^ What HE said! Goblue1918, I mean.

When I would get such questions years ago I used to tell people to dial business directory assistance (411) and ask for my company's phone number. Nobody ever questioned if I was "legit" or not after that. If you're not registered, you might want to consider it. Doesn't have to be real expensive anymore like it used to be, Vonage and other options work well, and you can forward the number anywhere you want, from your cell phone to an answering service, or even to a Twilio solution. Don't know if this is possible or not, but if it is then a Twilio number in directory assistance might be the least expensive way to go.

But the truth is, if you give out your EIN to every person who asks for it you are practically begging for your business identity to be stolen. There are other ways to verify you are a "real" business besides giving out the whole number to someone who is not even a customer of yours yet.

I would NEVER send them the entire EIN number! It's just too easy to do fraud to someone's business when you do that. Most people don't know that, but yes, it's very easy . . . to leave YOU stuck if this turns out to be a shady person. And yes, sometimes fraudsters are in business. I've seen it. All it takes is for them to file YOUR DBA in a different county or at the state level if you have not already filed it in the same place and use your info - YOUR EIN - on credit aps, and (s)he's off and running toward leaving YOU holding the bag months or sometimes even years later when you finally discover it.

What I MIGHT DO INSTEAD is, take a copy of the statement from the IRS that you get at the end of the online process or that they send you in the mail, and I would black out part of the EIN number. If they have filed for the number for their own business then they will recognize the copy of the stuff you get from the IRS and that should show them you are legit.

Identity theft at the business level is just too easy when you have the whole number, and can be very tempting when someone's business is on the ropes and at their wits' end because the business cashflow is not what it used to be. Can sometimes be very tempting to some people to do such things as a temporary cashflow fix, until they get their footing back and make it up somehow. Sometimes it's paid off and you never even know about it. And other times creditors come calling looking for YOU to pay THEIR bills! Employees working at HSBC in Latin America have even done this to people, have actually opened up second or third shadow bank accounts that the new customers didn't know they had in order to launder money.

Don't make it easy to become a crime victim.

But I can understand how a business might need the number for tax reasons. Once I'm sure I have a paying customer (and that the check has cleared!) it's a different story.

[godsgood]

Getting my DBA here in Michigan took a 20 minute trip to the courthouse and 15 bucks.

[Mister Natural]

What I MIGHT DO INSTEAD is, take a copy of the statement from the IRS that you get at the end of the online process or that they send you in the mail, and I would black out part of the EIN number. If they have filed for the number for their own business then they will recognize the copy of the stuff you get from the IRS and that should show them you are legit.

Exactly what I meant but,,, to lazy to type it all out !

thanks

[sixthflag]

While it's still a really good idea to go and get the EIN and register your business, it's not a good idea to spread the number all over the place so freely once you get it.

The reason I look at things so differently when it comes to EINs is, your social security number is a tax ID number for you. It's the key to your banking and financial life. Well the EIN is the tax ID number for your business. The social security number is applied for with the Social Security Administration on Form SS5. The EIN is applied for with the IRS, on Form SS4. Even though it's through different gov't agencies, both numbers are what's called taxpayer identification numbers. And whether personal or corporate, debt follows tax ID. It's true when you apply for a personal credit account with Office Depot or Staples or Nordstrom's, and it's true with the corporate accounts as well. And yes, you'd be surprised at all the companies that have corporate credit accounts if only you ask. Staples, JC Penney's, Nordstroms, Sak's Fifth Avenue, and many others besides the obvious ones like the computer and office supply sales stores (Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, etc.). Even Best Buy has a corporate credit program.

Dell Computers might go you one even better - not only do they have a corporate credit program, they also have offered in the past what's called a white box program where they sell and ship computers to you WITHOUT the Dell logo on them - where you can put your OWN logo on the CPU box if you like. (I'm not sure if they still do this or not, it was several years ago when I found out about it and things may have changed or been eliminated since then.) But support was on you as a business owner under the white box program, they only swapped out defective hardware and did not provide normal tech support to your customers. But oh the pricing! It's not that it was so much lower than what they sold to retail customers, it's that it was buy three get one free (as an example - they changed their specials and promotions regularly)!

And I don't care what the founder of Lifelock says, I would NOT be putting my social security number out on some billboard or otherwise distributing it randomly to the public for anybody and everybody to see! There are even ways HE can get burned, even with the security Lifelock is supposed to offer for its customers.

Most people are honest. But let's face it, all it takes to ruin everything is one really REALLY crooked person to come along and knock you off your feet, and that can set you back really bad financially. But even worse than the financial hit is the loss of time you will face trying to sort it all out and get it fixed, time you could better spend working on getting more customers and more sales.

Bottom line is, there are some people who are really easy to deal with. And then there are others, those who make life rather harder and are what some people call psychic vampires. This guy has risen to the top to where he has alerted you to the fact he may be harder to work with than other customers. Not saying he's not worth the trouble, because who knows - he might be a really profitable customer who has just been burned a few times too many. But some things are not worth the stress compared to others. And some people are just like that as well.

I once heard an interview where somebody asked Quincy Jones if he had any regrets. And his answer was "Whitney Houston, I didn't get to work with her. Someone gave me a tape back at the beginning of her career, and . . . I was really busy and by the time I got to it she had signed with somebody else."

What's that got to do with your fencing guy? Well, maybe it's just his time to miss out.

NEXT~~!

[scottie]

Is this the name of your business? *Is there a physical office address for your business or home business? Also, in your invoice, please list in detail the service you will provide, zip codes of coverage area, dates of mailing campaign, quantity, etc. *Please write invoice as same agreement as discussed over the phone. Keep in mind, I will show this to my partner, so don't leave anything out. Also, my business partner would like you to include a couple store/business references. Once we have this, we will pay the invoice.**




Like others have said I would forget this guy and move on to another fence company. When he gets the card in the mail with his competitors ad he'll realize the mistake he made (LOL). If he's giving you this much hassle now then chances are he's gonna be a high maintenance customer. I've delt with this type of customer years ago with my other business and I can tell you it's not worth pursuing.

[sixthflag]

Like others have said I would forget this guy and move on to another fence company. When he gets the card in the mail with his competitors ad he'll realize the mistake he made (LOL). If he's giving you this much hassle now then chances are he's gonna be a high maintenance customer. I've delt with this type of customer years ago with my other business and I can tell you it's not worth pursuing.



That's the term I was looking for! High maintenance!

Here's a question for the original poster. Since you only have a limited number of spots on the card, DOES THIS BUSINESS QUALIFY TO WORK WITH YOU?!

[DiamondPed]

I once heard an interview where somebody asked Quincy Jones if he had any regrets. And his answer was "Whitney Houston, I didn't get to work with her. Someone gave me a tape back at the beginning of her career, and . . . I was really busy and by the time I got to it she had signed with somebody else."

What's that got to do with your fencing guy? Well, maybe it's just his time to miss out.

NEXT~~!

Exactly ....

[Artee]

This is a fascinating thread in regard to the EIN. It's a little different in the country I live in, but the business number we are required to have, must be displayed publicly (if there's an office), and is supposed to be on all written materials and it's publicly available on the government's website, for anyone to see if they type in either personal name or business name. I had never considered that it could be stolen, but now see, that here, its actually quite simple for someone unscrupulous to do, since every business (and corporation for that matter) is easily accessed online through a few simple searches within a couple of minutes!