What legal documents will I need to start an online clothing store?

[eriess]

I was looking into starting an online clothing store and I had a few questions:
-What legal documents/permits/licenses do I need?
-How old are you required to be to run an online business?
-How do you buy your own website and from where?
-How do you find the right SSR?
Thanks!

[Encrypted]

Originally Posted by eriess

I was looking into starting an online clothing store and I had a few questions:
-What legal documents/permits/licenses do I need?
-How old are you required to be to run an online business?
-How do you buy your own website and from where?
-How do you find the right SSR?
Thanks!

I'm not a lawyer, so take the following advice lightly. But I would say all you need is an LLC. In order to do that you would need to be 18.

There are numerous options for buying/buildind a website. My advice would be to have a designer make a completely custom design and have a development firm code it for you. You could get something crappy for as little as $100 or something professional for roughly $1,000. I have no idea what an SSR is, so I cannot comment on that. If you have further questions on the website or hosting feel free to contact me.

[GlobalWealth]

No age limit for a business. You can start an LLC at 5 if you want. I have set up LLC's for many clients and I have yet to see a check box for age.

[BrendanMcGann]

I am looking into to a t-shirt design company look at legalzoom.com i think you can do it all through there for about 450 or so

[rdc]

While it's hard to give a complete answer without knowing more details about your overall business plan for the clothing store, here are a few thoughts:

The general package of documents you would need for that might include the following:

Incorporation documents - Articles and Bylaws, as well as Shareholder Agreements and instruments setting up voting trusts/irrevocable proxies/etc in the event of multiple owners taking shares.

Generally, city and state business licenses, as well as a Federal EIN.

If you will have employees, you will need employment contract(s), which may need various provisions including nondisclosure.

Depending on the types of clothing sold, certain intellectual property due diligence may need to be performed and documented for (including acquisition of associated IP licenses).

Website legal assessment will be a must since you will be regularly selling goods; including user agreements, privacy policy, terms of use, etc. IP clearance is also probably a good bet.

Lastly but not least, you will need uniform commercial code article 2 (sales) contractual instruments to be designed specifically for your business's needs; you would then be able to copy and fill in the blanks of such a contract to suit each order and have a solid sales agreement in place in case anything goes wrong in a given sale.

I would strongly advise against using legalzoom for the formation and/or conducting of any real business, as they only provide the most basic forms and they are very generic in nature and not specific to any one business... This creates ambiguities now, which can cost much more later.

[LSnyder]

Global wealth is correct in his statement that there is no legal age to start your own business. There are many young entrepreneurs under the age of 18 who are very successful. I do believe the founder of Facebook is one of them.
Our office can assist you in the start up of your online business and advise you as to what is necessary for your website.
Our initial consultation is $50.
Please take a look at our website located in my signature below.

Best wishes!

Lisa

[e-roc]

Take it from someone who runs an internet retail site and who doesn't have anything to try to sell you....

i suggest your first step is to land that URL. Godaddydotcom is probably the easiest URL registrar to deal with. And you can be in and out of there in under $12.00 for the first yr. They will host it as well. From there, you have to look at content for your page. I suggest you familiarize yourself with HTML or PHP language charecteristics and then find Open Source software to design your page. Open Source = Free. learn more: oscommmercedotcom this stuff is what makes your site ecommerce (shopping carts, accounts, etc..) Whenever you add, remove, or modify an item listing, you will have to be versed enough to do this yourself obviously, because outsourcing all of the IT work will kill your margins, and keep you from making crucial "realtime: changes. Once you have this in line, your best bet is to start with a Paypal account to link the site with. from there, you can apply for a Paypal merchant account which will accept and process credit cards for you.

Understand that there will be many along the way with their hands out... Yet your research will pay you back. No one goes into business to loose money, so if you are an individual, without employees, then wait until you are ready to make your initial money investments before setting up your business. LLCs are more critical for liability and banking purposes in the beginning. Read up on Sole Proprietorships. You will see that for tax filing purposes, your SS# is acceptable as your Tax id#. For the time being, you can establish your business name locally using a DBA which you can get from your local county clerk.

When you are ready for actual filing. you can register online for your Federal ID# at the irs.gov website. then go to your states SOS site to learn and file your Articles of Organization and state filing fee.

These are the cheapest most straightforward ways of setting all of this up. Once you reach the point where your website is doing some legitimate business, then you look into a more aggressive merchant services option for your credit card processing, as well as new ways to enhance your website visuals.

Based on your inquiry about age restrictions, i am going to guess that you are young and therefore dont have a bunch of cash to throw around to other companies to do all this stuff for you. So dont! As i said, do the research that it takes to become self sufficient in all of these things, and it will pay for itself over and over.

Keep the questions coming, and best of luck!