Hurry Up and Wait
What can I say? I'm a IT guy. I can register and setup a domain in a matter of minutes. I can go from nothing to a basic "Welcome to your new website" in its own hosting environment in about an hour. I'm used to being able to set things up quickly.
By comparison, the (ahem) whiplash-inducing "speed of business" feels like being behind a dump truck on the Washington Beltway during rush hour: infuriatingly slow and with no clear view of what is causing the delay.
Filing the LLC was the lynch pin of everything. That takes at least a week, although the filing is simple enough. It is a one page form filled out in Acrobat Reader, print, sign, attach a $100 check, mail to Richmond. Then wait. A week before it's listed in the SCC database. It's been another four business days since then, and I haven't seen the official certificate in the mail yet.
The LLC gives me the legal authority to get the bank account, enroll in the iPhone Developer Program and do various other filings and accounts in the company's name. The bank account is necessary to keep personal finances and Sentai Digital finances separate.
The bank account is simple enough. First you need to get an EIN from the federal government. That takes about a minute to do online and they e-mail you a PDF letter with the EIN in it immediately. Then wait four days to get the check card and the PIN to activate it.
Once I had a way to pay for it, setting up this web site -- domain, hosting, SSL cert -- all happened in a couple hours one afternoon. Content? That'll take longer, but at least it doesn't hold up anything else. Except maybe sales.
Getting an in-bound phone number from Skype happened as fast as I could choose a number.
Getting a Post Office box took a bit of research on the USPS web site. It turns out that different post offices have different price schedules for their boxes. Once I found one that was close enough to visit and not too expensive, getting it was a trip to the Post Office. That takes, well, as long as a trip to the Post Office.
The current state of affairs: waiting for Apple to enroll the company in the iPhone Developers Program. (It's been three business days so far.) That'll get me the ad-hoc signing certificate I can use on my personal phone for testing and the submission signing certificate to publish it on the iTunes site.
What comes after that?
1. Fix some last minute issues.
2. Install the App on my own device and spend some time testing it. Go back to 1 a couple times.
3. Submit the app to Apple and wait for them to evaluate it. Go back to 1 if they reject it.
4. Celebrate the first published app! Woot!
5. Wait for it to sell enough that Apple will cut me a check.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Welcome to business.
