Now back to back-office work again.

It has been almost 2 and a half months since our LLC was formed. Now, the final step of the initial set-up filings, the Statement of Information. 

Within the first 90 days of formation of a California LLC, we are required to file a form called Statement of Information, Form LLC 12. This form is a mandatory form that needs to be filed with the CA secretary of state, where we report the information of the LLC, including name, address, and the owner's information. We are required to put in the most updated partnership information as it currently stands. However, if for some reason there are changes that occur on the information that was disclosed with the original filings, we can update that information by filing a new form, LLC 12. This form must be filed every two years.

Looks like the filing fee is fairly reasonable, only $25. However, I found out that if we fail to file it or forget to update it or forget to file every two years, there are penalties. I am not sure if a reminder notice will be sent to us, so we better make sure to put it on our calendar of to do two years later. This form must be mailed with a $25 check addressed to the CA SOS. It appears that many things are still done by paper. It seems it would be so much easier to be filed online.

Business is underway. Unfortunately, it is still a little slow, mainly due to the constant rain. I wanted to talk about hiring employees today.

It seems finding the right employee could be very hard. We first advertised open positions on Craigslist and our website @ http://www.honeyfishpoke.com/

We received almost 30 applicants. Application pool included older adults and young adults looking for full time positions, and students are usually looking for part time jobs, hoping that it will turn into full time summer jobs later. We were very fortunate that we hired a very dependable store general manager. He used to be one of my dad's past employees. Because my dad liked him as an employee, he had kept in touch. The story is that when he left for the army, my dad mentioned to him that he will always have a job for him if he ever wanted to return. Upon finishing his enlistment, he called my dad to let him know that he will be moving to Arizona instead of settling down in California. My dad was disappointed but he wished him well. Couple months later, he called my dad and said he wanted to move back to California after all. My dad was ecstatic and offered him a job as the store general manager. The timing was as if it was meant to be.

My dad and the store manager interviewed approximately 20 applicants. Within a span of 5-7 days, they hired 10 applicants. These 10 new employees will be rotated between morning shift, night shift, and weekend shift. My dad mentioned how difficult it is to gauge what type of employee a person will end up being. It turns out in the first few weeks of the business, 3 of his newly hired employees ended up leaving, either by our choice or theirs.

Now that the employees were hired, our next step was to set up a payroll system by contracting with a payroll company. We decided to use Paychex. Options were reviewed and decided. I didn't realize that payroll system needs to be up and running. I realized that as soon as employees are hired, their hours needed to be accounted for immediately, including the time they spend training.