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Wrecking Ball
Jul 16, 2011
Hello goon tycoons.

I have been putting off starting up my own small business almost 5 years longer than I have needed to, because I have no idea where to start and it feels overwhelming.

Currently I am working full time for someone else's company, and I would like to be able to transition to working for myself 2-3 days out of 5.

I am a jeweler by trade, and I would like to be making and selling my own stuff, along with working for the other company (until I hopefully gain enough work to solely be doing my own design.)

I live in BC Canada, and would probably start by marketing myself online, if that makes any sort of difference for advice.

Basically I need to know how/where to apply for business license/name/ trademark stuff.
Or if there is already a megathread for this someone could direct me to, that would also be nice.

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root of all eval
Dec 28, 2002

Wrecking Ball posted:

Hello goon tycoons.

I have been putting off starting up my own small business almost 5 years longer than I have needed to, because I have no idea where to start and it feels overwhelming.

Currently I am working full time for someone else's company, and I would like to be able to transition to working for myself 2-3 days out of 5.

I am a jeweler by trade, and I would like to be making and selling my own stuff, along with working for the other company (until I hopefully gain enough work to solely be doing my own design.)

I live in BC Canada, and would probably start by marketing myself online, if that makes any sort of difference for advice.

Basically I need to know how/where to apply for business license/name/ trademark stuff.
Or if there is already a megathread for this someone could direct me to, that would also be nice.

I am not sure if Canada is any different, but in the States there is little reason to go through the song and dance of registration and separate accounts until you are pushing good numbers or considering hiring employees. Business debts and assets are personal debts and assets unless you incorporate, but even then, the corporate veil is pretty drat thin for a single operating owner. In the US, tradenames can usually be obtained from the individual states of operation for pretty small amounts. My tradename in AZ cost a whopping $15. If you don't mind people writing checks to your name, that's not even needed.

In short, the legal trappings of a business are the least of your concerns this early. A good business plan and thoughtful operations planning is going to be complex enough.

I am no expert and IANAL, but that's my understanding of the situation locally.

Sell something to someone, bam, that was a business transaction as far as law and the IRS are concerned. It doesn't have to be any more complicated until it actually needs to be, if that makes sense.

surc
Aug 17, 2004

Hey, I just went through setting up a sole proprietorship in the U.S.A. so I don't know how much help my info will be. Also I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice or medical advice or anything.

Basically the whole process for me was that I printed a form from online from my county clerk's office, then went in with it and paid $40USD to complete my "Fictitious Business Name Statement" (colloquially referred to as a Doing Business As or DBA most of the time). I then had a 40 day window to publish that I was doing business as that name in a local newspaper so that people could be all "Oh it's this motherfucker who's doing business as this company!" or whatever, and probably to make it easier to look up without going to the city I guess. At that point I have satisfied all the legal requirements to transact business as my business name, and can deposit and cash checks made out to the business, etc.

If you want to be an LLC or anything it gets more complicated, but basically the complications when you start it are that you pay more money to file more paperwork.

Also, separate from that, make sure nobody owns the trademark on your business name, that can lead to nasty stuff if you do not! You should then probably look into trademarking your business name once you have established nobody else has it trademarked. The way things are set up in the U.S. you can conceivably go get your business set up and start selling stuff and everything all fine and dandy in the eyes of the law and then like 6 months later somebody could show up, owning the trademark for the name and sue you. I have literally 0 idea how that works in Canada though.

kiraeh
Dec 7, 2014
I have a close friend/roomate who has been making and selling chainmaille jewelry as her sole income for a few years now after transitioning into it in a way similar to what you're looking to do and I can ask her for details when she gets home, but in general I would recommend to dive in headfirst. The paperwork is minimal- record keeping for tax purposes is the most important thing.
The only reason to go ahead and register as a business right now is if it will allow you to get a better wholesale rate or a tax break on supply purchases, otherwise I would recommend to start with establishing a small online shop first.
There are a lot of wrinkles that you will want to iron out with that before it will really turn on- what online marketplaces you want to use, how you do your packaging and photography, graphic design, if you plan on doing local shows and what sort of display you plan on setting up- and you should do some even if you want to start mostly online. These are all much harder than the paperwork and you should start doing them and figuring out what will work asap. You might end up changing your focus in the beginning if customers respond to different parts of your product line than you expect, and that might affect your business plan and even name- my mother started a small natural cosmetics business some years ago and her entire line changed completely over the course of her first year as customer feedback affected her development.

Just do baby steps. Make an account on etsy or zibit or artfire. (etsy is bigger but the other two are hungry right now and really working on improving their presence.) take pictures of a few things. Post them. Do that a few more times. Feel discouraged after a week because you have no sales. Redo half your pictures. Get a sale. Get another. Fix something in your descriptions that's confusing people. Become frustrated because no one is buying the designs you love most. Redo those pictures again. Raise your shipping price because Canada Post is the worst.

Once you have at least 500 in sales, look up the paperwork for your province and at what point you have to file tax on the income. Write off expenses until you don't have to pay any though, be shameless about it.

Lelorox
Jul 28, 2013

BFC SLACKER 2014
It seems like a lot of people in this thread are suggesting non LLC routes to starting a business.

Just realize that if you have any assets of any sort they can be seized if your business gets sued and you're not under an LCC/INC.

SiGmA_X
May 3, 2004
SiGmA_X

Lelorox posted:

It seems like a lot of people in this thread are suggesting non LLC routes to starting a business.

Just realize that if you have any assets of any sort they can be seized if your business gets sued and you're not under an LCC/INC.
Its not that much different under an LLC.

Ham Equity
Apr 16, 2013

i hosted a great goon meet and all i got was this lousy avatar
Grimey Drawer

Lelorox posted:

It seems like a lot of people in this thread are suggesting non LLC routes to starting a business.

Just realize that if you have any assets of any sort they can be seized if your business gets sued and you're not under an LCC/INC.

The protections granted to you as an LLC if you're operating as a sole proprietorship are minimal, especially if you don't have any assets to shield, and the additional costs of operating as an LLC can be pretty high.

Wrecking Ball
Jul 16, 2011
Well thanks for the replies.

I definitely don't want to do anything the illegal route as I have all the time I want really, at this point.

rawrr
Jul 28, 2007

Thanatosian posted:

The protections granted to you as an LLC if you're operating as a sole proprietorship are minimal, especially if you don't have any assets to shield, and the additional costs of operating as an LLC can be pretty high.

LLCs don't exist in Canada anyway.

OP, just start doing and don't worry about the legal or tax stuff. Keep your receipts for business expenses, and you don't need to charge GST until you reach a certain amount of sales.

When you do actually become profitable (and owe taxes), that's when you can start hiring an accountant and figuring out how to structure your business.

Now's a good time to start up an etsy shop or whatever and take advantage of the weak Canadian Dollar.

Mandalay
Mar 16, 2007

WoW Forums Refugee
Easily the hardest part of starting a business is sales and marketing. All the great ops in the world can't help you if you can't sell your product.

There's also a jewelry megathread you could ask for advice: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3331917

xpander
Sep 2, 2004
Echoing rawrr's advice to Just Do It(TM). I'd recommend setting up a sole proprietorship because it's dead simple and gives you the ability to open a business bank account, get a GST number, and all of the other big boy/girl things you might need down the line. It takes maybe 15 minutes at any registry office(at least in Alberta), you just need the business name and address(i.e. your house). Save receipts for expenses and stuff. Hire an accountant once it makes sense to do so(I'm just doing so now after my first year of operation). Etsy shop makes a lot of sense to start - you can transition to your own store/website down the line if you feel it's right. Good luck!

nickutz
Feb 3, 2004

Put blue and red chicken in mouth plz
How do you deal with domains that are being sat on by people who have no business interest in them? Like the page just has a button on it to make an offer for buying the domain. Even if I were to trademark my business, I assume that wouldn't necessarily grant me a right to the domain.

FateFree
Nov 14, 2003

Your best bet is to make an offer, in my experience $1000 is usually the minimum someone is willing to sell for but it depends on tons of other factors. And correct, if someone else already has the domain you are out of luck. Of course an easier option is to come up with a different name. I wouldn't recommend a different suffix, .com or bust!

Golden Bee
Dec 24, 2009

I came here to chew bubblegum and quote 'They Live', and I'm... at an impasse.
I'd find a lawyer and an accountant you like. Yelp can be helpful here, as well as your personal network.

The most important thing is customers & consistency. When paying you is easier and less stressful than doing it themselves, business will come along.

When you have a 4-6 months of expenses earned, you can give up your other job. Aim for ~1k in side income; that's a reasonable amount for 40 or so hours a month.

neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

Is there a general thread for small business/first-time business owners? I have recently found myself unemployed, but I was offered a chance to start in New York's SEAP program. I've been dreaming of starting my own business for the last decade or so now, but now that I've got the opportunity, I'm apprehensive and have tons of questions. I don't want to hijack this thread with those questions, but I can't seem to find anything else related to this topic to ask in.

root of all eval
Dec 28, 2002

neogeo0823 posted:

Is there a general thread for small business/first-time business owners? I have recently found myself unemployed, but I was offered a chance to start in New York's SEAP program. I've been dreaming of starting my own business for the last decade or so now, but now that I've got the opportunity, I'm apprehensive and have tons of questions. I don't want to hijack this thread with those questions, but I can't seem to find anything else related to this topic to ask in.

Hijack away or feel free start a new thread, the original topic has run it's course. BFC could always use fresh threads.

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neogeo0823
Jul 4, 2007

NO THAT'S NOT ME!!

BossRighteous posted:

Hijack away or feel free start a new thread, the original topic has run it's course. BFC could always use fresh threads.

I'll throw up a fresh thread then, since this one's a year old as of now anyway.

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