How to get started....

[David D]

Hello, This is my first post and I'd appreciate if you could help me....

- I would like to create a online business selling merchandise

I am a teen, I live in Canada and I have decided to start my own online business. I have all the necessary goods and merchandise to sell (mostly electronics, and other related products). However, I realize that in Canada it is really easy to start a small business yet I still can't find where to start. Everything is accessible to me yet I don't exactly know where to begin, how should I create a website, what legal procedures should I go through etc.

What worries me the most are the legal procedures since I have no clue exactly what or where I should go to in order to make my online shop legal.


If you could please point me to the right direction or give me some helpful advice, I would be very grateful.

Thankyou very much

[jdoc]

Hi David,

Welcome and congratulations on your start in business! It can be overwhelming with all the little details you need to consider, but once you get started things start to snowball.

The Business Development Bank of Canada has a good website on some of the things you need to consider when starting your business in a nice step by step format:

http://www.bdc.ca/en/my_project/Proj...ess.htm?iNoC=1

I would read through Step 3 in detail it will address some of the technical issues you were talking about.

There are three main types of legal business structures you can create: sole proprietorship, partnership, or incorporated company. Since you're just starting out (presumably by yourself), forming a sole proprietorship is a reasonable way to get started. You can always roll your assets into an incorporated company if so needed.

The Canada Revenue Agency's website can also help you get started:

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/busines...st/menu-e.html

This will have information on what you need to do to register with them so they know you exist and tax you accordingly :-)

I would recommend finding a good (but inexpensive) accountant or corporate lawyer to give you a bit of advice too. It always helps to hear from professionals who have done it many times and they can help you decide the best corporate structure for your situation.

As for setting up a website, if you are looking to outsource the development of the site (ie. you're not going to design/maintain it yourself), then I'd suggest typing in 'web design' in the SuperPages for your city:

http://business.superpages.ca/yp.cbS...bdt=Web+Design

This will give you a listing of people in your area whom with you can work on creating your site. You can also search the internet (or just ask the people on this forum) to find people to work with remotely. This is sometimes a cheaper alternative, although in my experience communication over the web just isn't as effective as in person.

Hope some of this helps, and good luck!

[David D]

Thank you very much for you helpful advice.

Do you know financially how much it would roughly cost in order to have my online shop up and ready.

[jdoc]

You're welcome. The cost can really vary widely: web developers can be really cheap or expensive - you really need to shop around and look at their previous work to find a right match. The amount of customization your online shop needs will also determine the cost.

On the corporate structure side, setting up a sole proprietorship costs very little. In Alberta, you can register for about $50. If you're looking at doing incorporation, it typically costs between $300-1000 depending on the lawyer, most of whom will spend an hour or two helping you decide the best structure before going ahead. With incorporated companies, there are recurring annual filing fees to whatever jurisdiction you're incorporated in (provincial or federal) of around $200-900 (depending on if you do it yourself or have a lawyer do it for you).

[David D]

Yesterday I was looking over some good packages to start my website with and I came across this package at www.register.com, it's called the Quick and Easy site solution and comes with 1 year domain registration, 50 MB Email and 5pg do-it-yourself hosted Web site (no FTP) for $9.50 a month.
Considering the other packages I've seen this seems like a good deal but I don't know much so i'm probably wrong because I still need to legally register my business, get a shopping cart for my site and design it my site.