I have a legal question in regards to starting an online business. If I plan to sell a few dropship items from my website and hopefully make some profit what do I need if anything. Should I be looking at an actual business license, or maybe just a tax ID #? I honestly don't know too much in this area. Any help or advice would be great. Thank you, Ryan
If you can even think of one possibility of a law suit against you, filing an LLC or similar would be for good measure. This way your personal assets will be protected in the case of a suit.
I'm not sure where you live, but a business license is usually a good thing to have. Most suppliers require it and so do banks when applying for a business account. Maybe try to find a local chapter of the SBA (assuming you're in the US) and talk with them. They may even have a good list of mentors with successful internet businesses to help guide you and help you network.
I can help. I cab help. Depends on the volume you will be offering. Most dropship companies has their own guidelines.
Because it's a droppshipper, and say it is a food item, do they cover the liability for there items, or could a lawsuit still come back to me? I really don't want to invest too much getting an LLC license, when I'm just starting off this website. I have now idea how much profit it will even return.
I usually tell people to jump in and get there feet wet first. By that I mean that most people spend too much time and money on getting ready for business and then they never pull the trigger and never really launch or they run out and fall flat on their faces. I say go for it and get some success going and then when you see that you are really going to be "in this business" then you get the the licenses and LLC's etc. Get some success and then worry about the other stuff. Like I say most people never get a real business going so why waste your time and money on the preliminaries? Best of luck to you.