The CHALLENGE of Starting an Art Business ALONE

Have you ever been hit with an unexpected challenge while pursuing your art dreams that causes mental and/or financial grief?

I'm in the process of getting all of my legal paperwork in order for my new art shop (Sockartstudio) and must I say, it is a process! Government websites can be unclear and crucial information is often strangely located in hard-to-find places. On the off-hand, customer service can be surprisingly helpful at times but finding the right person to talk to can also be so difficult!

Recently, I made a mistake that cost me over $70!

This month, I tried to update my Fictitious Name (a name you'd like to do business as other than your legal name), from 'Majestics0ck' to 'Majesticsock', and add 'Sockartstudio' as an additional name. Should've been an easy change but my request was rejected!

And for such a silly reason at that!

"Majestics0ck was listed twice." -LA County

They didn't see the '0' in my original name and thought I submitted a duplicate! The email was sent from a 'Donotreply' address, so I couldn't respond and wasn't able to find an email to contact. I decided to cancel the original name and reapply.

The cancellation fee was $26.

After submitting a new application, I was approved for notarization (when a government official verifies your identity). This part's on me but I couldn’t get it notarized in time because I was in the middle of a name change and my new driver’s license was still in transit.

That was another $10.75 down the drain.

I reapplied again and successfully got notarized...

I should be good to go now, right?

Well, there's more to this story. Under the 'address' section of the Fictitious Name application, I wrote what I thought was my new P.O. Box address. Turns out, I messed up! I used the USPS location address instead of my actual P.O. Box. In my defense, the address listed under 'P.O. Box Address' in my USPS account seemed correct but apparently not! You don’t get your real P.O. Box address until you go in person to finalize everything.

I'm not sure if the county clerk can help me adjust my address yet, but from what I’ve read online, I might have to reapply...which would be another $41.75.

Altogether, that's $78.50. Yikes!

If I had been just a little more patient about finding someone to contact, I might have only needed to pay around $5–$10 for a simple business name change and adding an additional name. Times like this, my go-go-go mentality really kicks me in the butt!

However, as complicated as this all was, I'm honestly still so happy about the progress I DID make!

I have a new P.O. Box, new fictitious names (even though I have to fix the address), and I'm really grateful to have met the sweet county clerk lady who's helped me through all this! And when I finally open my art shop, Sockartstudio, it's going to feel so much more rewarding because I accomplished it all on my own despite the challenges.

Let's keep pushing!! And as always, good luck!

Majesticsock