Business Registration Dilemma

**rzz** · 09-25-2009 04:19 PM

Here's my dilemma:

In order to apply for wholesale prices from one of my key distributors I need to have my business license. Now the problem is that this will be a start-up. So originally my plan was to wait until I had all the wholesalers/distributors lined up before I jumped ahead of myself and began applying for all my licensing and etc.

Now it seems as If I need to register for at least my business number (gst number) before that, so my question is: can I register for my business number without a location, (this will be a retail store, so I will eventually have a business address) and change it later to the retail location?

Or how would you approach this problem?

I'm from Canada, while most of my distributors are based out of the US so I'll be doing a lot of importing, not sure if that makes a difference or not... just thought I'd give a heads up anyways.

Thanks
Richard

**ronniespringer** · 09-26-2009 12:05 AM

I've always legally formed my new venture at my current address, BEFORE signing up with any distributors or signing a lease for the new location. Legally forming is step 1... Finding a location may be step 15 or 20... Once in operation at the new address I just send a letter out to all my suppliers of the change of address. The only problem is occassionally I have had certain manufacturers want to see the location before they sign us up. In those cases I have gotten pricing lists, product availability and everything I need up front then had the location and original shipment approved at some point during the build-out phase. If approval of a particular vendor or franchisor is required for your business - sign the lease contiginent on approval by the vendor or franchisor.