[Noisebridge-discuss] Starting a business questions...

[Patrick Lake]

Hey hackers,

I'll have to talk to a professional about this, but first, can I pick your brains about entrepreneurial stuff…

For many moons, I've been in business for myself.  It's internet book-selling business.  I do my own bookkeeping, get help from a CPA to file once a year (probably the pro I'd want to talk to), have a seller's permit, collect sales tax,  and do quarterly tax payments (fed, state, sales). I'm pretty narrow-focus on what I do vs. what everyone else does. 

At the present, I and my partner are pitching in together under a general partnership, to put out an app.  To my understanding this isn't a complicated arrangement at all, once we put terms on paper. (Aside from potential liability for each other's business debts, like if I use the company card on a shopping spree for more furry porn and lacy underwear that I can't talk about and deny the existence of.)  It shouldn't need LLC or other such structure for a small internet business, and it's a transparent "pass through" to our personal finances that we'll handle ourselves like usual.  

So, come time to file a fictitious business name.  It sounds easy as hell, just a form and a small fee.  But then I noticed some other stuff I'd never heard of for self employed business.  

"Business Licenses
If you are conducting business in Alameda, you will need a business license and a zoning clearance form. If you are working out of your home, you will also need a home occupation permit."

Home occupation permit? Triple forms... it makes me hiss like a vampire at a crucifix (even if it's run of the mill shit). I even noticed this troublesome fine print:

"Garages provide required parking and may not be converted into home offices. If your business involves the use of a garage or accessory building, a separate Use Permit application and public hearing will be required. "

So like, I imagine some inspector walking in and seeing the stack of cardboard book mailers I have stuck out in the garage and the janky little photo shooting area, and going like this:

"The Tax Man: Where's your sea craft? 
Popeye: It ain't no sea craft, it's me dinghy and it's under the wharf. 
The Tax Man: You're new in town right? 
Popeye: If you call this a town, yes.
The Tax Man: Well, first of all, there's 17¢ new-in-town tax, and there's 45¢ rowboat-under-the-wharf tax, and one dollar leaving-your-junk-lying-around-the-wharf tax, so all together, you owe the Commodore $1.87. 
Popeye: Uh, who's this Commodore? 
The Tax Man: Is that the nature of question? There's a nickel question tax." 

First of all, I'm unsure if "In Alameda" refers to actually physically selling stuff to people inside the city (which I won't do 99.9% of the time) or just being based there and selling it on the internet (everywhere else.)  Isn't that the kind of brouhaha going on right now about Amazon refusing to collect sales tax for out-of-state sales, if they're not physically "in the state"?

Well, if you can answer that, and it does mean "where my place is that I work from", not "who I sell to", OK.  I've got an address in Alameda, and an address in San Francisco.  I could do this paperwork for either location if one is better than the other.  But could I do it even elsewhere still?  I've heard people say "file in Delaware…"  Where else, why, and how?

Am I over-thinking this and is it really just a few forms and that's it?  What's your experience been?  Is there anything you wish you did when you started?

Can you recommend me a good book?  (Most of what I know was gleaned from forums and one great "accounting for self-employed people" book I read.  Some start-a-business books I've seen are worse than useless, they're like a collection of forms that grows longer the more you read.)  

And would my CPA be the best place to start, or should I think about someone else like a CFO for this financial BDSM??

Thanks! :)
Pat



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