Starting a small business. Where to start?

Jamie -- when I first moved here in 2006, MOL ended up being a crucial component in my getting involved in the Maplewood/South Orange community.   It started with Tom Reingold inviting me on a bike tour when I found MOL and posted that I'd be moving in soon.  When we used to have F2F's, I met most of the people who make up my core friendships now.  Your inspiration made a big impact on my life!

jamie said:

ridski said:

Not to take anything away from MOL, of course, but social media has been around for a long time.

True - the first ISPs like Prodigy were big on interaction within groups and hobbies.  MOL was early at interacting at the local community level.  When I start virtually all town sites were informational - there was very little that allowed input from users.  This is what inspired me to begin.  I'm constantly trying to reinvent things a bit - even though it may not look it from the out side - but we have had over 300 tweaks happen in the last few months.  Many not obvious, but hopefully we'll be able to show you what's been happening behind the scenes soon.    

Thanks for sharing.    

The last thing you should do is to ask for free advice from those with no experience, especially a poster who has not lived here for four years and seems to be an expert on everything Suggest that you contact the government funded small business development center.  These entities charge very little or nothing and are associated with several local universities such as Newark Rutgers and William Patterson.

Thanks Champ.  I thought it was obvious these people are my friends. 

Thanks for your advice.

Oops. Did I sound like I'm an expert? I'm not, and I didn't mean to sound like that. I did form my LLC when I lived in Maplewood, so I do have experience. I think angelak knows the difference between our anecdotes and real expertise.