T-Shirt Business Legal Advice

[Apmix]

I'm currently forming a start-up t-shirt company in Austin,TX and I had a few legal questions.

-Is it best to form an LLC or is there a better option?
-What other legal steps do I need to take legalize my business (i.e. register a name)?
-Am I able to run my business from my apartment?
-Should I copyright my designs right away? I know you are not required to do so but you are protected better if you do, is it suggested to do it right away or wait?
-How do I go about paying sales tax on my items?
-What is the best method of contacting the right local lawyer to answer these questions?

Thank you very much for all responses ahead of time

[Ergo1]

I'm currently forming a start-up t-shirt company in Austin,TX and I had a few legal questions.

-Is it best to form an LLC or is there a better option?
-What other legal steps do I need to take legalize my business (i.e. register a name)?
-Am I able to run my business from my apartment?
-Should I copyright my designs right away? I know you are not required to do so but you are protected better if you do, is it suggested to do it right away or wait?
-How do I go about paying sales tax on my items?
-What is the best method of contacting the right local lawyer to answer these questions?

Thank you very much for all responses ahead of time

Start by finding a lawyer or CPA to answer your first two questions. Different legal setups become more advantageous depending on how you want to grow your business. If you want to stay small then LLC will work but if you want a high growth business then you need to be looking at S-Corp to start and then let that naturally convert to C-Corp.

Don't worry about copyrights until you get your legal standing out of the way. How you deal with copyrights from there will largely depend on how your products are generated. I wouldn't worry about this too much until you start getting larger.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions on this. I'll try to help if I find time.