Dear lord, what have I done?

Needing money, I found a side job on Craig's list to network an office with a network switch and Ethernet cables.

The man who hired me liked my work so much he has hired me on regularly for spot tech support.

The need for money isn't going away any time soon and at the age of 40, I get nervous about trying to get another job when medical bills scare some employers away.

With that in mind, I thought I would start a business that could take the place of my job one day. I got a web site name that fit my idea for a tech support business and registered www.firststoptech.com.

I developed an invoice with my new business name and I was recently paid for a rather big job with the business name right on the check.

I can't cash it. I MUST become a business.

This is for the best. I did the last job with a buddy and part of the money is his. I subcontracted two minor fixes to another friend. I have two employees, of sorts. Contractors really, but they answer to me.

I am CEO, supervisor and project manager now.
I do business development and marketing.

Now I have a check in 4 figures that I can't cash and my buddy deserves his cut.
I've told him of the obstacle.
I'm looking into a "Doing Business As" as explained at http://entrepreneurs.about.com/od/businessstructure/a/doingbusinessas.htm

I've done it once before for a non-profit project, but this is an ongoing thing.

I also need to get the banking account going, but the DBA was a requirement. So first things first.