kenpom

We are looking for a spot to set up ane extension / US office for our UK business.
It has been suggested that Nashville is a good spot and geographically it looks good for us.
We will be loking for a very small storage place with an office for packing and shipping our UK made products.

I am keen to canvass opinions on many things including

Do any of you guys know or live in Nashville, if so what's it like.
Is there an good availability of industrial premises.
What would the likely rent be for a small unit say 500 to 1000 sq feet.
Does Tennessee have minimum wage legislation for employing a person to oversee this and if so what is that minimum wage.
Would I be able to second one of my current members of staff ( British) to go and set this up and if so what sort of visa would they need.

This is at the scoping out phase and any comments or thoughts would be helpful especially if you have been through this experience.
Of couse drop me a line if you want to chat more.

Cheers

Ken

Pulaski

A UK citizen can enter the US on the VWP for business purposes to SET UP a US operation,which would include finding and renting premises, hiring staff, setting up utilities, opening a bank account etc. but not running the business on a day-to-day basis.

What do you need your premises for just storage? In which case a large lock-up unit at a self-store facility might be enough, but then you might need a PO box too to receive mail (either at the local main post office or at any nearby UPS store). I am not sure what a small unit on an industrial estate might cost, but it might be tough to find a unit as small as 1,000 sqft, that sounds very small. If you asked me to guess, I'd say around $1,000 /500sqft /mth would be the likely minimum cost for a fully functional industrial unit, with office and toilet.

There is a federal minimum wage of $7.25, but I would, question whether you're going to find someone that you'd trust to work unsupervised, 3,500 miles from head office for minimum wage. You should also contact a local accountant for advice on what tax and payroll obligations you would be on-the-hook for? You may also want/ need an LLC, which is very easy and cheap to set up (mostly can be done on-line). Do you need a full time employee, or just part time? It may around be better/easier to contract with a distribution agent who already has premises and staff (depends exactly what you have in mind for your business?)

Also, is there some reason that Nashville is the "perfect location", because you'd be locking in a perpetual two flight journey to visit your US operation, whereas Charlotte NC is probably similar in many respects, but has direct flights from the UK.

kenpom

Thanks Pulaski

I think setting up an LLC would the way to go.
I guess all we need for storgae is about the size of a large double garage.

We would want somone there to maybe answer the phone / email during the working day, and to pack boxes and despatch when orders come in.
There may aslo be some extra packing down of bulk containers to do but nothing too tricky.

We have no need to be in Nashville so your comments re Charlotte NC are very pertinent.


One other thing that occurred to me is, an we rent a house and use the garage for this purpose ie have a business registered at a rental property?

Just a thought as we really dont need too much space.

We have thought about using a sub contractor but aren't sure about this

Thanks again

Ken

Bob

If you don't need to move yourself to the US, could just set up the business, gets tricky if you want to move people from the UK, would need to look into L1 and E2, but would require decent sums of money and neither sound like a good fit for what your describing, but worth a consult with a immigration lawyer.

You can register a business anywhere, pretty much, but there might be something in state law, I don't know.

You'll want to consider liability insurance and medical insurance benefits if you want someone trust worthy to stick with the job.

cranston

Ken, if geography is not an issue Dallas or Houston should be on your short-list.

kenpom

Hi Guys

Thanks for your input thus far. We have been doing a lot of talking and thinking about this and have come up with a slightly different plan.
We ship our goods mainly as small parcels so what we are thinking of doing to begin with is

1 incorporate a company in the US
2 Use a virtual office arrangement with a desk available for hire for short periods when we are actually over there in person
3 drop ship directly from the UK to US with us paying the duties up front to alleviate any customs hold ups
We are looking at the East coast which we think is a good idea, and also lookign at where we can fly to direclty we have come up with the following locations

1 Baltimore
2 Washington DC
3 Raleigh
4 Charlotte
5 Atlanta

Any comments welcome especially from folks who may have done or are doing a similar thing.

Cheers

Kenpom

RoadWarriorFromLP

If you want to sell products to retail customers via mail order, then you should be able to just contract with a fulfillment house to do the work of receiving, packing and shipping. A lot of those are located in places such as North Dakota because that allows most of your customers to avoid paying state sales tax.

Corporations and LLCs are formed at the state level. If you are fairly large (i.e. large enough to get sued), then you'll want to form it in Delaware, as the courts there are corporation-friendly. Otherwise, just form it in the state where the office is located.