eCommerce Tycoon

**dlaroche22** · 02-01-2008, 01:10 PM

Can someone tell me what is required to open an online business. The type of business that I am wanting to open up is a single sale item, which consist of a subscription to information that is on my website. I'm not sure if I need to go to the court house and officially declare a business name or not. When I look at merchant account applications it wants to know the name of the business.

Another question that I have is how do I handle the tax aspect of the online business. Do I have to charge taxes and if so how do I go about reporting them.

Thank you for your time into this matter!

**simonj@plimus.c** · 02-05-2008, 03:28 PM

The smart play is always to create some kind of business designation: this gives you, as an individual, some protection in law. Whether you go LLC, C Corp, S Corp, Partnership...that will depend on how you view the balance between the cost/hassle of maintaining the business structure and the legal/financial protections you get from having one or the other. I'd say for the time being, an LLC seems like the way to go.

As to taxes...well, without being more self-serving than necessary (!), I'd say take a look at Plimus (where I work), as we'll take care of that for you. Basically, the only time sales tax would be due in the US would be when the customer buys in California - and we'll collect and deliver for you. I won't claim Plimus is free, but our fees are darned low, and we take the hassle out of the selling process and leave you free to build product and get it out there to sell.

If I can supply any specific information, please PM me at your convenience.

**phppoddotcom** · 02-07-2008, 07:45 AM

The first thing you should have in mind when opening an online business is to have good business plan, it's good if you get to know the trade law in your state and register your own company, then make some research for hosting and software you would like to use and go for it. Good luck!

**manor** · 04:46 PM

I started my small, very small on-line shop using a shopping cart website which I'm developing, I bought the site,domain name and hosting from <link drop removed > (I thought it was cheap)

I liked doing it that way as it was all done for me, I found they had a template which I only needed to change two images, I need to make some changes but found uploading the products easy and the admin is ok for what I want.

Hope this helps.

**chrishirst** · 02-17-2008, 04:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manor

I started my small, very small on-line shop using a shopping cart website which I'm developing, I bought the site,domain name and hosting from <link drop removed > (I thought it was cheap)

I liked doing it that way as it was all done for me, I found they had a template which I only needed to change two images, I need to make some changes but found uploading the products easy and the admin is ok for what I want.

Hope this helps.

That's amazing!

And of course it's purely coincidental that the whois registration name just happens to be;

Quote:

Administrative Contact Name: Chris Dally
Administrative Contact Organization: Manor Web Services
Administrative Contact Address1: XX Manor Road
Administrative Contact City: Fleckney

isn't it!

**rolda hayes** · 02-17-2008, 05:28 PM

Busted!

**agent01** · 03-01-2008, 03:10 AM

These resources would greatly help...

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/index.html
http://www.businessnameusa.com/

Good luck!

**VN-Ken** · 03-05-2008, 01:45 AM

Be sure to also get a business license. Although you may be self-employed and all business will be done online, you are still required to have a business license. You can go to your local city office to apply for one.

They will usually just come out and inspect the area you are working at.

**ForrestCroce** · 03-05-2008, 02:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlaroche22

Another question that I have is how do I handle the tax aspect of the online business. Do I have to charge taxes and if so how do I go about reporting them.

That depends where you are. Your message and site don't offer any clues.