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A reselling business as an EC - form an LLC?
eggbeater
11 replies5 threads Junior Member
For the past 5 months my S21 has been building a small online business reselling "hypebeast" clothing and shoes (such as collectible Air Jordans, Yeezys, Supreme Brand clothes) He advertises mainly through his business Instagram account and Offerup. He makes a small profit by selling around $750 to $1000 worth of merchandise monthly. I think it is a great tool for him to apply concepts like supply/demand, branding his own business and negotiation.
At this point this really has become his biggest passion so it definitely will be an EC that he will be listing on his college apps. My question is does he need to form an LLC or a corporation to make it more legitimate in the eyes of the admissions committees?
His other EC's will include high school basketball and volunteer work as a junior member of the local Lions club.
17 replies At this point this really has become his biggest passion so it definitely will be an EC that he will be listing on his college apps. My question is does he need to form an LLC or a corporation to make it more legitimate in the eyes of the admissions committees?
His other EC's will include high school basketball and volunteer work as a junior member of the local Lions club.
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Replies to: A reselling business as an EC - form an LLC?
He doesn't need to do it for the sake of college admissions; just that if he's comingling cash with money that comes from other sources, it's going to make filing his taxes and other administrative tasks more complicated than it needs to be.
His call. But learning the bookkeeping of being an entrepreneur is a good skill to master early on.
Keep in mind key terms like "researching" products. My son had to figure out pricing based on current situations and value since it can change quickly so "predictive analysis" comes up. Using excel spreadsheets, dealing with customers, stock etc. Colleges get that it's not listed on the Dow.. Lol...
It's all great lessons to learn and I think an absolute great EC. Shows motivation, determination, and willingness to learn.
First of all, since this is an activity of his, and hopefully an interest, of course, it should be listed. It’s part of who he is. Why on earth would he omit something that is so intrinsically part of his life?
If you are asking if this activity is going to pack a lot of clout in getting acceptance to the most selective schools, ...ummmm, not so much. It appears a lot of kids doing this. Like a helluva lot. Unless it’s something truly out of the ballpark homerun type thing , it goes into the stack with others uniqueness out of what has become same, each kid trying to spin as much importance and uniqueness in what is rapidly becoming a commonplace EC
I would be really careful not to create a ton of administration...sales tax collection, income tax returns, etc. It's a great experience and something that should speak well for your son, but you don't want to distract from a potential $250k education for a few hundred dollars per month of profit. If you calculate the income/hour....is he making a reasonable return for his time? By the time you get things organized with professional help (accountants, lawyers), you could make no money this year.
I would also be leery to make too much of this for college admissions. I think it's a great EC, but it's one aspect of a multi-faceted app.
Every kid is different, so there is no one 'correct' answer. Many kids applying to colleges have more interests and activities than fit on the CA form. And even for those that have so few that they do fit on the CA form, it's a good idea to pick and choose what they show the school, even down to putting them in order of importance.
This could be the type activity that's important enough it's the top thing listed on this kid's app or it could just be one of dozens of things this kid does and not be important enough to be listed.
In my son's case he did since what he has done was so different according to a friend of ours that is a college counselor. My son has been doing live auctions bidding against adults /jewelers /collectors since he was 9. Even his Michigan counselor told him it's only the second time she had read this in an essay and the first was one of her best friends that she introduced to my son, that also collects /sells coins (certain type). But it was how he interrelated his experience to engineering that was clever.