Starting a new online business
Most US states have rules that go something like this: You will almost certainly have to pay some registration fees, as noted above.  Depending on how you organize, you may or may not need to file a separate tax return for the business. (If you're sole proprietor for tax purposes, then you file on Schedule C on your personal Form 1040.)  Whether or not you pay taxes depends on whether you have net income.  It's possible that some losses might also be deductible. (Note that you may have to file a return even if you don't have net income - Filing and needing to pay are not the same since your return may indicate no tax due.)  In addition, at the state level, you may have to pay additional fees or taxes beyond income tax depending on what you sell and how you sell it. (Sales tax, for example, might come into play as might franchise taxes.)  You'll need to check your own state law for that. As always, it could be wise to get professional tax and accounting advice that's tailored to your situation and your state.  This is just an outline of some things that you'll need to consider.
You're gonna start a business but you can't choose your own name? C'mon man, that's the fun part.. Have you researched the demand? In a dying industry like hard copy games, what sets you aside from big players like GameStop? What's gonna set you apart from all the rest? Sorry to say but right now you don't even have a name, my friend. My advice is to write out a detailed business plan &amp; come up with ways to keep yourself afloat. Either way, like I said, you're entering a dying industry that may have something like 10 years at the max considering digital copies are becoming the majority. Personally, i'd rethink your business concept because you may be calling it Game Over before you even push start.. Good Luck First of all $1k is not enough money to start a web business.  You're probably going to lose all your money, your business and your friendship.  Second of all you need to retain a lawyer.  I really can't emphasize this enough.  If a lawyer is too expensive for you, then THIS BUSINESS IS TOO EXPENSIVE FOR YOU.  If you don't have the money, then you don't have the time.  When you say it's his idea - did he come to you with a fully written business plan?  Even if he did, that's not really worth 20% of the equity.  I would insist on 50/50 if the capital is 50/50, and salary to whoever is working on it.  You're not going to have profits in the first year.  Let me repeat that.  YOU'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE PROFITS IN THE FIRST YEAR.  Things never, ever, EVER work that way.  Or ok they do but it's like 1%.  It's not going to happen to you. "Watch out for PO financing. A lot of those contracts have nasty terms like ""I agree that SCAM CAPITAL will be my sole source of credit for the next 2 years."" that can get in the way of using bank debt or credit cards. They may even tell you otherwise to get you to sign, but they are the payday lenders of the business world.   It can be great when it works, but there are a lot of shark men. While you can grow your company on po financing, understand that those companies exist to suck all the profit out of small, non-innovative companies, who needed a hand and their terms reflect that.   If your business is that good maybe you can get someone to buy in instead? The second benefit to this is that if things go tits-up, then you don't have any personal guarantee. You will likely have to guarantee PO financing in most parts of the country." **http://www.newpa.com/business/growing-business/download-guide**  You want practical? This is nuts and bolts and geared to someone starting their own business from scratch.  It is put out by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania so it is very Pennsylvania oriented.  You might want to check and see what kinds of similar business publications your state, province, or territory has for free.  Do not discount this kind of information. The price is right. On the web have a major scale business website, for example, Amazon, eBay, shopclues etc. When your business website additionally connected the web index like yahoo, google, and bing through the internet this is known as the Business to business directory. You can list your business in global trade connect business directory and get a huge buyer from all over the world. Else you are really missing a huge opportunity to find the online searcher. If you have a new company and you want to attract investors, such as venture capitalists and private equity, incorporating in Delaware LLC probably makes sense. There are actually many investors who will only invest in a Delaware Online incorporation, so starting off by creating a Delaware corporation from the beginning may save a lot of money and stress down the road. You can also choose to form an LLC in Delaware, to begin with, then convert it to a C corporation later. "For practical purposes, I would strongly suggest that you do create a separate account for each business you may have that is used only for business purposes, and use it for all of your business income and expenses. This will allow you to get an accurate picture of whether you are making money or not, what your full expenses really are, how much of your personal money you have put into the business, and is an easy way to keep business taxes separate. You will also be able to get a fairly quick read on what your profits are without doing much accounting by looking at the account balance less future taxes and expenses, and less any personal money you've put into the account. Check out this thread from Paypal about setting up a ""child"" account that is linked to your personal account and can be set up to autosweep payments into your main account, should you like. You will still be able to see transactions for each child account. NOTE: Do be careful to make sure you are reserving the proper amount out of any profits your startup may have for taxes - you don't want to mix this with personal money and then later find out that you owe taxes and have to scramble to come up with the money if you have already spent it This is one of the main reasons to segregate your startup's revenues and profits in the business account. For those using ""brick and mortar"" banking services rather than a service like Paypal: You likely do not need a business checking account if you are a startup. Most likely, you can simply open a second personal account with your bank in your name, and name it ""John Doe DBA Company Name"" (DBA = Doing Business As). This way, you can pay expenses and accept payments in the name of your startup. Check with your banker for additional details (localized information)." Keep in mind a good lawyer will have the contract cover the five D's: Its really best to lay these things out ahead of time.  I watched, first hand, two friends start a business.  When they were broke and struggling the worked very well together.  Then the money started rolling in.  Despite exceeding their dreams they were constantly at each other's throats fighting and bickering over stupid stuff.  In the end, because they had decent legal docs, they both were able to pull money out of the business.   Had that not been worked out they would have destroyed the business so that no one would have profited. If you do go the online route (there's TONS of information out there on how to launch an e-store) make sure you're aware of the caveats. Amazon sellers for example can be shafted pretty hard on returns, as policy generally dictates that you eat the costs. If you don't have a lot of capital this could be back-breaking.   Don't let that discourage you, though! You could make a decent business essentially just setting up an online storefront and drop shipping items from elsewhere, which could fund the capital needed to open a brick and mortar shop.  To answer your question directly, what everyone else has said is definitely important and correct but don't ignore the smaller things like the fact that you could have a page that presents the items better and makes things look more appealing/luxurious, and the fact that not everyone punches every item they're considering buying into Google to compare. Decent marketing can go a long way (depending on what you're selling, at least) "This question is really general to answer. That's like asking ""Is it easier to be a dog or a cat?""   Your answer is going to be defined by your circumstances and approach, which are going to come somewhere from the following:  - How much capital do you have to start stuff?  - Can you get a loan? If so, how much is it? - Do you already have a business model? Is it going to effectively compete against existing, successful businesses? - Do you have a unique advertising gimmick?  - Is this a technical business? Does it require a patent? Is that patent already secured? - Do you already have a new idea or technology? - Where will you find talent? - Do you have any experience with investment? How aggressive are you going to be investing?  - Do you have any experience with business?  Just remember, the overwhelming majority of businesses fail. I know several business owners (some successful, some unsuccessful).   The list goes on, and honestly I don't think Reddit is a good place to start." Yes. I'm not a coder by trade, but learned on my own as a hobby and then launched a barebones version in 2015 and then a full-fledged version just a few months ago. I'm a lawyer by training and I had been thinking for 12+ years that there needed to be a more efficient way for professionals to get clients and for clients to know the level of expertise of a professional through the power of the Internet. I had tried to hire outside web developers on my own about 10 years ago, but got burned but learned some valuable life lessons - if you are passionate about something, learn to do it yourself - you almost always will be better off. The result today is Hire.Bid and I'm happy to say we are kicking ass. If Reddit has taught me anything, it is to chase your dreams and make shit happen yourself. You'll regret not doing so. Make it happen. If it is a hobby and something you are passionate about first, you'll have a much better chance of success in the long run. Just my $0.02. Now today all small and big business depends on the internet. So businessman should be those business lists in the multiple online directories. In the USA maximum user buy product through the web. If you have a business, then you can list your business globaltradeconnect's Business directory online. Where you can get more customer, product information, business location and direction. It's awesome to list a business on other online website like Google, Facebook, Bing. A good idea is try use your weekends to develop your business/plans at first. Most business startups don't boom overnight, it takes time to build.  Dont quit your job, that is revenue you can build your business with.  The most important thing is to have a sound business plan, not too ambitious, not too realistic. Well I was trying to describe it very generally because I think if other people heard the idea especially on an business thread the idea would be taken easily. And the idea came to me about a month ago and I guess I didn't explain well but I was wondering what kind of homework I need to research. My intention was for people to give me an idea of where to start. I've already started to write out a business plan I just didn't know if there were places to go to find people to invest into it or not. And I'm totally fine with criticism and what not but the way he came out was actually humorous to me, to call someone's idea bad when you don't know what it is is just silly. Snapchat seemed like a stupid idea in my opinion. Why would I only want to see someone's picture for 10 seconds and it goes away forever? But hey that turned into gold. So you never know what can be successful and not these days and how are you supposed to find out without taking the risks and going for it. So I guess a specific question is, if I write a business plan, what is my next step, who do I show it to? Become your own boss web business can be easily done with great fortune. The bonus are apparent to running your own kind of business particularly online, however, what you require to attain those bonus might not be so apparent. There’re various elements, however, the 3 most essential elements are mindset, proper training and education and posting yourself as a leader.