Skip to content

embeddedera-business

Running the company side of EmbeddedEra LLC (founded April 2024, Raleigh NC): accounting, taxes, social media, listings. Site work lives in embeddedera-site; the store in ebay-store.

Status

  • 2026-09-11: Google Business Profile created (verification pending), Bing Places imported from it, cal.com booking link live (https://cal.com/embeddedera/20-minute-call), Web3Forms intake on the site.

Open

See ~/Notes/tasks.md — this section is now generated from the task register.

Gaps, round 2 — "what am I not thinking of" (2026-09-11)

Ranked by risk. ✱ = can bite before anything else is noticed.

  1. ✱ Product compliance. Anything with a radio (BLE, nRF, sub-GHz — the controller product) needs FCC authorization (Part 15; modular approval if the radio module carries its own FCC ID, which is the cheap path). Mains-powered → UL/ETL or a listed supply. EU sales → CE + RoHS declaration
  2. WEEE. Batteries shipped → UN38.3 and carrier hazmat rules (already noted for eBay). Labels must carry the marks. Audit the 3 products against this; record the modular FCC IDs on the parts.
  3. ✱ Insurance. General liability, product liability (hardware sold to the public), and errors-and-omissions for design services. Quotes from Hiscox / Next / Thimble-type carriers; home-business rider on the homeowner policy is not enough.
  4. ✱ Contracts. A master services agreement / terms for design work (IP assignment on payment, limitation of liability, acceptance, payment terms); a mutual NDA; contractor agreement with IP assignment for any helper (without it, the helper owns what they create); terms of sale + warranty + return policy for the products.
  5. Trademark and handles. USPTO search on "EmbeddedEra"; register if clear (~$350). Buy embeddedera.net/.io/.co defensively. Social handles are inconsistent (embedded_era on Instagram vs EmbeddedEra elsewhere) — pick one for anything new.

Money

  1. ✱ NC resale certificate (Form E-595E) so parts bought for products are bought tax-free; pairs with the sales-tax registration already flagged.
  2. Getting paid. Decide the rails: Stripe invoices (card + ACH, auto-reconciles), plus ACH/wire details for POs; deposit policy; net terms only for repeat customers. Wire the chosen rail into the invoice PDF's remit-to block.
  3. Internal rate card (never published): hourly, NRE minimum, per-unit assembly, rush, minimum order. Every quote derives from it; without it every quote is improvised.
  4. Time tracking. Hours per project feed costing and hourly quotes. Free: Kimai (self-hosted, API) or a 5-line vault log per day. Without it the rate card is a guess.

Operations

  1. Shipping. Business accounts (USPS Business/Pirate Ship free, UPS) for discounted labels; packaging spec (ESD bags, MSL bags for boards); hazmat for batteries; international needs HS codes and a commercial invoice — the doc template can produce it.
  2. Supplier accounts as a business (Digi-Key, Mouser, LCSC, JLCPCB/PCBWay) with the resale certificate on file and net terms when offered.
  3. Component lifecycle monitoring on our own BOMs — the obsolescence service applied inward: a weekly check of every MPN in the ERP against lifecycle status (Nexar/Octopart free tier or distributor APIs, via part-lookup), ntfy on EOL/NRND. Ties to InvenTree alternates.
  4. Product documentation: datasheet/quick-start/user manual per product, firmware changelog, a support page — the docs section of the site. Warranty end = ship date + term, from ERP data.
  5. Firmware release process: semantic versions, tagged builds, signed/checksummed images, the flasher pinned to a release, version recorded per serial (already planned).
  6. Support path: support@ alias → label → the same draft routine; RMA via return orders.

IT security

  1. Email hardening: DMARC from p=none → quarantine → reject once reports look clean; DNSSEC on at Cloudflare; registrar lock at Squarespace; MFA on Google, Cloudflare, GitHub, Resend, Vaultwarden (check each). hello@ is public — expect phishing; SPF/DKIM already good.
  2. Offboarding checklist for a helper: ERP user off, Cloudflare Access email removed, Workspace account suspended, Bitwarden shares revoked, physical keys.

Management

  1. Weekly numbers — one page, automated from the systems: leads in, quotes out, win rate, revenue, inventory value, test yield, on-time ship, cash. The vault report routine can build it once the ERP has data.
  2. Bus factor: if Angel is out for a month, who can ship, refund, answer? The vault is the manual; the missing piece is a named person with access. Registered agent covers the legal mail.

Accounting and taxes — the gap the MRP does not cover (2026-09-11)

InvenTree holds parts, stock, builds, orders; it does no bookkeeping. What it hands over by export: sales by customer, purchases by supplier, COGS per unit (BOM roll-up), inventory value at year end. Everything below needs a ledger and a tax filer. Verify each item with a CPA — none of this is professional advice.

Obligations for a single-member NC LLC that sells physical products

  1. NC sales & use tax — register with NCDOR, collect on NC sales, file monthly/quarterly. NOT in any plan until now; sharpest penalties if missed. Out-of-state sales become taxable in another state only above that state's economic-nexus threshold (typically ~$100k/yr there).
  2. Federal income + self-employment tax: Schedule C + SE on the personal 1040; quarterly estimates (Form 1040-ES).
  3. NC state income tax: quarterly estimates (NC-40).
  4. NC LLC annual report, every April (~$200).
  5. 1099-NEC to any non-employee paid ≥ $600/yr; collect W-9s.
  6. Inventory for tax: small businesses may treat inventory as non-incidental materials and supplies; either way a year-end inventory value must exist — the MRP produces it.

Ledger options (rule 2 says free first; this is the one place paid may win)

  • GnuCash — free, true double-entry, invoices and sales-tax tables, CPA-standard; desktop, no API (the box can hand it CSV).
  • Firefly III — free, self-hosted, API; personal-finance shaped: no AR/invoicing, no sales tax.
  • Wave — free core, business-shaped (invoicing, sales tax); bank sync possibly paid — verify.
  • Paid small-business accounting (~$20–30/mo) + a CPA once a year: the pragmatic path if the free tools cost more in mistakes than they save.

Decision path

  1. One hour with a CPA before the first invoice goes through the new system: sales-tax registration, inventory method, entity questions (S-corp election ever?), which ledger they want to receive.
  2. Their answer picks the ledger; Claude automates the exports from InvenTree and the invoice ledger into it; monthly close checklist added to the routines.

Angel asked what paid options exist. Verified from vendor pricing pages except the ad rates, which the scout could not fetch and are market estimates — check before spending.

Tool Cheapest paid Notes
Buffer $5 per channel / mo cheapest real option, has an API, LinkedIn company pages + Instagram
Metricool ~€16/mo 10 brands, API only on the higher tier
Later $18.75/mo strongest analytics
SocialBee $24/mo content library + calendar
Postiz cloud $29/mo same product we could self-host free on this box
Mixpost $299 once self-hosted, unlimited channels, permanent licence — no subscription
Hootsuite ~$99/mo band annual lock-in, built for teams; not for us
Adobe Express $9.99/mo Canva-like; Figma free covers most of it
Figma free fine for one-off graphics indefinitely

Ads (estimates): Meta no minimum, ~$5–20/day to start, B2B CPC ~$1–3. LinkedIn ~$10/day minimum, B2B CPC ~$5–15 — the most expensive place to learn. Google no minimum, CPC ~$1–4.

Position: do not buy yet. The self-hosted Postiz or Mixpost route removes the only real reason to subscribe (renting an approved LinkedIn/Meta app). Revisit after 3 months of Search Console data, and after the free inputs exist: LinkedIn company page, photos, a testimonial. If something is bought first, it should be Mixpost ($299 once) or Buffer at $5–10/mo, not a $29+/mo subscription.

Log

  • 2026-09-11: Affiliate scout done; PCBWay first. Lunch checklist event created on Angel's calendar (12:00–13:00) for the Mac-only tasks.
  • 2026-09-11: Note created. Bing Places done by Angel.