Seraphim
Active Member
Out of all you said this is the part that gets to everyone, if it's a hobby you do it with friends not global.
Too many people just start up and then go away, with peoples money.
That's the no-no that get's everyone upset.
Those aren't people starting as a hobby and growing into a business. They're people trying to get rich quick in the hosting world and finding it not so possible. They quickly dry up their limited funding and disappear. If they cared at all about their clients they wouldn't just grab and run, they'd explain why they were letting go and make a graceful exit.
People who start out as a hobby start out very much the same way though, but the difference is they care about what they are doing and make a point of doing what it takes to deliver on their promises. It results in a business built on their passion for making things right, at first funded by other things but eventually going on to turn a profit of it's own. A lot of the hosts that have been around for a long time started out this way.
Also, does it really matter if a small startup is registered or not. Filing taxes is an individual responsibility, which falls on every legal citizen as well as every business executive to see that it gets done.
The federal income tax forms have provision to declare income that wasn't already counted by a payroll processing agency or other tax claim, that's the provision you use to declare taxes on any qualifying income you make regardless of source. It's the same way a waiter declares taxes on their tips. Which by law they are supposed to do.
Deeplist, my point there is the very structure of a business is that it is designed to collapse to protect it's staff from legal or financial crisis. Businesses come and go as per the natural cycle of things, and it doesn't really matter if they are registered or not other than for legal reasons. Some will succeed, some will collapse, and others will struggle on in limbo, handicapped by poor management. The only places where a registered business is an advantage over an unregistered one is in legal and financial aspects where a registered business has additional leverage. In terms of the ultimate quality of a service as seen by a client, it makes little to no difference at all. The quality of a service comes from the way it's management operates it, not from it's legal status or financial standing.