Starting a Business

Where to start!?!? I know how you feel. It can be pretty confusing. I'm still working on a website that I hope to provide those answers, but it's still a ways off before I'll be going live with it. But I'll try to give you a short course.

You're already in the first step.
Determining what business to start. This isn't as easy as it seems like it should be. It's a personal decision. But once you figure that out for yourself...

Getting set up in your state as a business.
Most start out as just a "Sole Proprietor". It also keeps the IRS tax keeping much simpler. When things are going better, you can look into other business forms (S-Corp, etc.) There are those that may tell you to incorporate in order to protect yourself, but when you don't have much, what do you have to worry about protecting. So, keep it simple until you have it going and have a need to worry about such things.

Because you're planning to start a business in your home, you should investigate zoning ordinances in your city. Some residential neighborhoods may have strict zoning regulations preventing business use of the home.

You have the option of just using your name or choosing a business name, or dba ("doing business as"), for your business. Procedures for doing this vary among states. In many states, all you have to do is go to the county offices and pay a registration fee to the county clerk. In other states, you also have to place a "fictitious name notice" (DBA) in a local newspaper or register your DBA with Secretary of State. The cost of filing a DBA may range from $10 to $100. Start with your County Clerk's office and they can tell you what you need to do.

State Sales Tax - You will also need to get a "Resale Permit". This may also be called a "seller's permit" or a "certificate of authority". Sales taxes vary by state and are imposed at the retail level. It's important to know the rules in the states and localities where you operate your business because if you're a retailer, you must collect state sales tax on products and some services. Normally, if you make a retail sale in your own state, you must collect sales tax. If it is an Out-of-State sales, then you don't collect. Check with your State Comptroller's office. Here is a site with links to all the State Websites, which should be able to answer questions on setting up a business in your state: http://www.nttc.edu/resources/government/us_states.asp

As far as the IRS, you will have to file taxes quarterly if you're making a profit. Keep good records. Keep in mind, that you'll have to pay "self-employment tax" of a little over 15% (also known as Social Security), the "Medicare" tax (1.5%), plus the regular withholding taxes on your profits. Don't forget, depending on your state, you may State Income Taxes that you have to pay. Figure out how much of your profits will go to taxes and put that amount of each sale into a savings account and earn a little interest on the money before you have to turn it over to Uncle Sam.

Yes... you'll need to register a Domain Name. UNLESS your ISP allows you to use your personal webspace for commercial, but in most cases, they don't. That means you will probably have to get a Commercial Web Host. There are some very inexpensive ones and some of them will take care of the Domain Name registration also. I do not recommend the Free Hosting services. They are usually have too many limitations and they don't do well in the search engines in most cases.
Right now, I'm paying about $7/year for my domain registration and my current webhost is just a little under $11/month.

AFFILIATES - You should not have to pay to become an affiliate.
The links for Vstore and Linkshare I provided allow you to sign up for FREE.
There are no charges to you. You only make commissions on your sales. This is the way it ought to be. Beware of any requirements for you to pay for signing up with an affiliate program.

With Vstore, you can pick one line of products to market. However, when someone goes to your "store", they will be able to click on tabs that offer a whole host of categories. This is a good place to start, if you want to market specific products.

LinkShare is a little different. You sign up to market other Companies and their products, such Franklin Mint, Sharper Image, Target, 1-800-FLOWERS, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Orbitz, Overstock.com, GreatSkin.com, Hickory Farms and MANY OTHERS.

If you want to sell Info-Products, ClickBank is probably one of the biggest affiliate sites for these types of products and there are a few others.

Well, I hope I've helped to answer some of your questions. Let me know if I missed something.

Jim