New Beginnings
Hello reader and greetings from southern Georgia!
It’s been a journey and a learning experience for us here at Hewett Portraits LLC. My wife Laura was born in Georgia and has lived in Georgia and a few other states, but as for myself, Edgar, I was born in and lived in southern Ohio for 42 years. So the decision to move our home and business from Ohio to Georgia was a huge decision. Not only was it a huge decision, but also a huge undertaking.
Within weeks we boxed everything up, put things in storage, sold items we decided to part with and put our home up for sale. People that know us was surprised at how fast it all happened.
Then the travel itself with our vehicles packed with as many items that we could fit was burdensome. Definitely not something I would want to do again for sure.
After the travel was complete, we began the moving in to our new rental home and started settling in. Honestly though there are some items I wish we could’ve brought, but in time the things we put in storage will also make this journey, during our return trips to visit our friends and family we left behind in Ohio.
After we got settled in and relaxed some and became more familiar with our new surroundings we began our work setting up our business. We’ve talked to the nice people at city hall, local and online business related phone calls and even a meeting online. It’s been kind of exciting, every step taking us closer to the goal.
The process to creating a business legally is an undertaking within itself, the forms and paperwork. The steps can be a bit confusing at times. A brief summary though first you have to get an LLC approved by the state. The next step is applying for an EIN. After that you can acquire a state tax ID number. Then lastly you can file the form for the city with all the necessary information and wait for a background check. About a week later we was approved by the city and legally, officially became Hewett Portraits LLC. Now keep in mind not all states and cities are the same, be sure to research the requirements and maybe even seek legal advice if necessary, because it’s important to get it right.
Once the process was over though, I felt like a celebration was in demand. We both felt the excitement of opening our business in the state of Georgia and all the possibilities that opens. We can’t wait to shoot our first beach wedding either. To sum this post up, we are happy to finally be back in business and we can’t wait to see you all. We hope you will choose Hewett Portraits LLC for all your photography needs.
Moving from Ohio to Georgia
May 21st was a heartbreaking day for Hewett Portraits. It was the last day we would be in business in the Portsmouth area. Shutting the studio down after almost 3 years of work was really hard to do. But changes in our lives came fast and we too had no choice but to move fast as well. So we packed everything us and prepared for the move.
Starting over again in a new state comes with a new set of challenges. Laws and fees are different in every county. It's something you must do a little bit of homework to accomplish. But we are moving forward in our new city of Hazlehurst, GA. Today June 2nd, we visited Hazlehurst city hall and got the forms and information that's needed to open a business in our new location.
There's still prep work to be done, but we are moving forward and looking forward to providing our services to the people of Georgia and those visiting the surrounding areas, beaches, ect.
So if you are in need of a photographer for an upcoming wedding or vacation don't hesitate to call to schedule an appointment because within the next 2 to 6 weeks we will be legal and fully operational.
New Website
I just want to say building a website is a huge undertaking even when you have experience. We were planning on making updates to our previous website, but not for the reason this new website was created. I'll begin with the positive points of Wix.com. Wix has many options and possibilities for creating websites with the potential of making sales online. However beware of Wix's payment plans. We paid for the 1 year plan to test the online waters of our business, which has brought its own successes. Wix though after the 1 year plan was over was going to change us for the normal yearly payment. We were offered a 2 year plan for $40 cheaper, which is tempting. What happens though in 2 years? Well in 2 years we would be tempted into the cheaper plan, the 3 year plan. Which brings us to what happens in 3 year, there is no 4 year plan so you have reached the top of the ladder, the most expensive plan and no cheaper options. So in an attempt to maintain your business expenses you have fell into a very costly trap. I wanted to write this to warn anyone thinking of creating a website of how these introduction schemes work. Make sure to do your research and ask questions, before taking your business onto the internet.