Basic Legal Requirements

   Please note this is the most basic information to get started with your own business and is a common minimum across much of the U.S. If you are overseas or in Canada check with your local government to see if there are additional items you may need to be legally in business. This goes too for the U.S. there may be more local or state rules regarding small business, We've tried to present what is mostly standard practice.

   First of all after you have decided your basic business stratedgy you want to get your DBA (Doing Business As).  This is the most basic of business licenses and affords you several important things you will need that we will dwelve into in a moment. The DBA amounts to what you are legally naming your business. You get this usually through your local county authority. Give them a call to get the cost and any thing they may need to start the process as well as their location. Usually it costs around $10 - $15 and requires some proof of local residence like a state drivers license or ID.

   Do not pay someone for this! This is the easiest thing you can do in starting your business. There are internet sites that will charge you 10-20 times the cost to do this simple, simple thing. Don't fall for it! All you need to do is go down to the county annex and talk with the clerk. They will take your name idea and check if its taken or not. Obviously something like AAA Auto Service is probably taken, think of something else. This does not have to be your website name. This is your business name.

   Once you have your DBA, you can now open a business banking account. You want to keep things separate from your regular bank account. Expenses are easier to track for taxation purposes if you do it this way. Banks will want to see your DBA certificate you got from the clerk to open a business account. Check the fine print and expenses on the business account, they usually are different with fees from a consumer account.

   Now that you have the DBA, you need a sales tax license. Usually this is free! Just contact the state government by phone or online to get the terms of collecting sales tax. Generally if you sell online out of state you do not owe any local taxes if you are a web only store. If you are brick and mortar with a website there are stipulations in some areas (Check this out with your taxing authority). Some states have now enacted or tried to enact that you collect taxes on customers who buy from their states online. The enforcement has been sketchy and they are not after the small fish right now but be aware of this. Most of all even if you do not sell anything in your state be sure to file sales tax forms with your state for zero sales or you may have to pay a fine for not filing ($50-100).

   Ok so you've done those two things with one leading the way to the other, so what? Well now you have a business bank account and sales tax number, vendors, real vendors will now talk to you. Be wary of vendors who do not ask for a sales tax certificate there are some that are real wholesalers but many are scams that are reselling posing as wholesalers to rip off the unwary. We'll get more into that in another article, but that should be the first sign of caution.

Ready for more? Good! We'll be back with more info!