Dismantling the Business

Cross-posted from LiveJournal

Andrew and I had a business partnership under the name Life Magic, an umbrella for our various activities: writing, publishing, healing, teaching, and psychic research. It ran at a loss in recent years, and at some point last year I changed its status to 'not trading' as Andrew was far too ill to conduct any business activities, and I was far too busy caring for him.

Business names used to be handled by the Department of Fair Trading, which has a branch within easy driving distance of where I live, and staff I always found helpful. Transactions were smooth and straightforward. Shortly before Andrew died, however, responsibility passed to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, with an administrative centre in another Sate and no local branches. Transactions must be done online.

After Andrew died, I went online to change my registration from partnership to sole trader, i.e. removing his name from the business, preparatory to changing the status back to 'trading'. I found the website complicated and intimidating. I attempted to make the change from partnership, giving as my reason that Andrew was deceased. I didn't think I'd succeeded. I eventually found a phone number, but was placed in a long queue at a time when I couldn't wait.

A few days later, to my surprise, letters came for both Andrew and me, acknowledging an 'incorrect transaction' attempting to make the change, and informing us that the only way was to cancel the name online and apply for it anew during a period after which it would become available to the public. So I made the cancellation. Andrew and I were both advised that had been successfully completed. (What part of 'deceased' did they not understand?) That was late May. I had until 5th July before it would become generally available.

I admit, I procrastinated. That website! Also I had one cold after another for a few weeks. 'Plenty of time,' I told myself. At the end of June, I thought I'd better pull my finger out. Oh-oh, I very soon discovered that I needed to state my ABN (Australian Business Number). Then I discovered that the one I had was for the partnership. I would need to apply for a new one of my own. I couldn't see where to do this, so I phoned the Taxation Office. I knew, during the recorded message, that the buttons I was hitting would not lead me where I wanted to go — no provision for that, as far as I could interpret the instructions — but hoped that once I reached a real live person I could be redirected. As indeed happened. A very helpful young man redirected me; another sent an email with full instructions on where and how to obtain my ABN online.

Problem — the site was closed for maintenance. This continued for a couple of days. Time was now getting very short. What would I do if I lost our business name? Hmmm, did I really need it? I realised there were options. I started to wonder if the Universe was blocking me for a reason.  So I pulled some Tarot cards and got a very clear message that to go ahead with the business name would involve me in struggle, for no real benefit, whereas to simply use my own name for any business transactions would be good in all sorts of ways. Among other things, I'd save myself the business name registration fee and a lot of ongoing red tape.

Finally I found the ABN site up and running. In fact, it seemed it might have been so earlier than I thought, and that I had been getting a cached page. But, 'no accidents', as both my last two husbands, Bill and Andrew, used to say. I had been delayed for good purpose, to get me to question the need for the name.

I was asked to verify that I was entitled to a personal ABN. I was directed to a page where I could check my entitlement. Yes, I probably am entitled, if only just, but it's clearly not mandatory. I asked myself, 'Do I really need an ABN? Am I in fact running a business?' I double checked with my pendulum. Both logic and intuition answered no to both questions.

I am semi-retired. I run a writers' group in a voluntary capacity, and do psychic readings at one Sunday market per month. Otherwise I see clients and students only according to the infrequent demand and my own inclination. I never stand to earn more than I am allowed to by Centrelink to augment my Age Pension. Even when I was doing three markets a month and declaring the takings to the Housing Department, I never earned enough to affect my rental payments. In the eyes of the Tax Office, the things I do would in fact be classified as hobbies.

So — no business name and no ABN. But what if I want to republish Andrew's books some day, not to mention publishing some of my own? Well, I can get a business name and an ABN then if it seems necessary — but in fact, people do publish books privately, under their own names. In any case, no need to decide just yet.

New problem — the Life Magic website. What should I do about that? Well, when I first set it up, I was unable to register Life Magic as a business name online; it was taken. The website is in fact a blog set up to function as a website. Life Magic is simply the name of the blog. I did get a domain address. The one I was able to get was www.nissen-wade.com — which of course will be perfect now for operating under my own name.

But hang on, I just had all these new business cards made! 500 of them, to a new design. Semi-retired as I am, I'm not going to get through them in a hurry. Well, luckily I used very cheap printing (yes, Vistaprint, and a darn good job they did). Then I looked at them again. The design has been revamped to give prominence to my name rather than Life Magic, now that there's only me involved. The Life Magic name appears, quite small, directly above the website  URL. I can argue, truthfully, that it's simply the name of a blog, not a business name.

So that is how things are. I spent much of yesterday making alterations to the Life Magic site, facing the fact that I must remove Andrew from partnership there too, reframing it as my own: Life Magic, the website of Rosemary Nissen-Wade. I had to delete and/or rewrite various bits of it. This felt quite confronting, for sentimental reasons, as it had been OUR site. However, he is no longer here. There is still some reference to him, as appropriate, but not in any ghoulish or disconcerting way, and he no longer appears as the joint owner/author. The truth is, I had been running it more and more, albeit with some consultation, as he became less and less able due to illness. 

It has a different email address from all my other blogs. I have now brought Andrew's personal blogs into my own list, under my email address, for easier management. (I plan to use them for his writings, and some day they will become archives.) I could do the same with the Life Magic site, but that could be a bit tricky due to the domain address, and after all it's no big deal to leave it where it is, with links to and from the other blogs.

That leaves our joint blog, The Truth About Fairies, which can't be de-Andrewed in the same way, as much of the material was written by him, or jointly. It must accommodate the fact that he's no longer with us, but address the practicalities more delicately. It's in serious need of updating anyhow. I'm working on it. I'll probably move that one to my own list as well.

What a rigmarole! But it was time. And so I take another step forward, out of a partnership which was both personal and vocational, into my own, single life.