Well, it’s the end of the first week of self-employment, and I feel like it’s been fairly productive. I’ve gotten a lot done so far, including a number of groundwork items that I had to get worked out before I even started this week. Here’s the major things I’ve had to set up so far:

Health Insurance
This was a big one, since my wife and I are hoping that she will become pregnant soon, and we’ll no longer have the convenience of the automatic health insurance through my employment. Fortunately, I had done most of the research for this already a few years ago, so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time comparing policies and carriers. Instead, I went straight to the carrier that worked for us in the past: Regence BlueShield. They had a pretty good plan that covers my wife and I for just over $300 a month, which I applied for in mid-January. My previous coverage through my employer ended at the end of January, and the new coverage with Regence began on February 1st, so the transition was seamless.

Post Office Box
Since I’ll be running a number of projects under the Thatch Mound banner, I wanted to have a legitimate mailing address to use for business purposes. When I went to the USPS website to check prices, I was surprised to find that there was a fairly wide variety in the price of PO Boxes across even the three Post Offices closest to me, with prices for six months of the small box ranging from $42 at the Post Office in walking distance to just $18 for the Post Office in Woodinville, a nearby town that I frequently visit for shopping and banking. Naturally I chose to get a box in Woodinville.

Business License
The last big thing that I have already worked out was to apply for a state business license. For $20, I was able to register the Thatch Mound name, and get a sole proprietorship license to operate a business in the state of Washington. Fortunately, no additional licenses are required for my town or county. I don’t think I necessarily needed to get a business license, but I figured that it would be good to have come tax time, and for $20, it couldn’t really hurt.

There are still a few other things that I need to work out, the biggest of which is to set up a separate checking account for the business, so I can keep my business expenses clearly defined. I’m sure I’ll think of other things too as I continue these next few months.