Atomic Automaton is Official!

So a bunch of stress, confusion, and several hundred dollars later, Atomic Automaton is officially a company. This actually isn't my first rodeo with starting a company, but this is the first time I am starting one when there isn't a global recession. Starting a company isn't too difficult, but the process can be arduous, so I opted to use Legal Zoom for my registration needs instead of doing it all myself. Here is what I learned about the process.

Legal Zoom zooms to sell your information

Right after I used their services, my phone was bombarded with spam phone calls and seemingly every professional business service on the planet wanted to help me. Now who knows, maybe this information just floats to the right people since registering companies etc. requires public announcements. That being said, I don't remember the bombardment of daily phone calls when I did my company without a business service. I still get about 3 phone calls a day. The weekends are worse.

There's good with the bad

Even with the phone call nonsense, there are some nice benefits to Legal Zoom. Firstly, the have a handy calendar when all your bills from the federal and state government are due. This is super helpful for someone like me who needs constant reminders, and I get them. I get emails warning me about the due dates, which is great. They also provide the links to the websites to make the payments on. Great stuff.

The cost of doing business

When I started my first company, I made the huge mistake of not becoming an LLC or incorporating, which nearly destroyed me financially when the recession hit. if you plan on starting your own business, make sure you make yourself an LLC or incorporate, so you are not personally liable for the floor falling from under you. That being said, since I never made an LLC, I was delightfully surprised that there is an $800 fee a few months after finishing the paperwork. The cost of going through Legal Zoom, trademarks, and this this fee has me nearing the $2,000 range, so if you plan to go this route make sure you have the funds on hand.

Moving forward

Well now that I'm a snazzy new board game company, what's next? I plan to keep working on Kingdoms of Immacus as well as a new project to keep me overly busy during the few minutes of downtime I have when I'm not working on Kingdoms of Immacus. Hopefully, Atomic Automaton can be a company I can be proud of, and I will continue to do my best to bring the best possible product I can to my future players.