The wave of technology has hit hard and wise people are taking advantage of it to create business opportunities. This is for the purpose of earning an income and improving their standards of living in any possible way.
With technology, comes great opportunities to earn and save money.
Technological devices and gadgets have been introduced in the quest of making life easier. However, technology’s greatest gift that seems to have changed the world is the internet. It definitely has opened doors of opportunities that people hadn’t even realized there were.
With the emergence of the internet, people; Buyers, sellers, the government, churches and even schools have found great use for it. Research shows that businesses have recorded massive growth after positively utilizing online platforms. This might explain why it is encouraged that people venture into online businesses in the quest of earning an income.
Since creating websites and creating business pages on social platforms is easy and takes only a few minutes of your time, people assume that that’s all it takes. Quite on the contrary, there still are some legal obligations that you have to adhere to. Remember, your taxes help keep the economy afloat and subsequently improve the country and its citizen’s statuses.
If you have an existing business, taking it online will expand its boundaries hence earn you even more profit. You stand a chance of winning even more customers and that comes with even more responsibilities. Setting an online business takes more than just creating a website and making sales.
Even if you just sell a few Lokai Bracelet online every month you’ll still need to make sure you are properly filing all state and federal business documents for businesses.
It is also very important to create a good first impression. This means to dress professional and ensure you are well groomed. Having a professional look will help build trust and rapport with your potential clients. Check out our skin care tips here.
Just like any other money making venture, online businesses should be taken seriously. You need to apply tact in setting it up and even determining the kind of merchandise to trade in. Some of the questions that you should ask yourself is;
- What am I good at? Art, music, culinary arts, web designing, fashion, writing. Doing what you love is more likely to lead to success
- Who are my target clients/audience? If they are the young, establish ways to grab their attention.
- What marketing platforms should I use? If your target audience is the young, advertising through the social media may yield result.
Sometimes online workshops require clients to disclose personal information in the ordering and payment processes. If disclosed to careless online business owners, the client may be at risk of identity theft and account hacking. Sensitive factors such as security, copyright, privacy and taxation are your responsibility. Your clients’ information needs to be protected at all times which makes it a legal issue.
When opening a business bank account you’ll be required to obtain an EIN (Employer Identification Number) and file your Articles of Incorporation, this is how they track your business separately from your personal SSN (Social Security Number)
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is a primary federal agency that regulates e-commerce activities. This includes the use of commercial emails, consumer privacy and online advertising. The rules and regulations stated by the FTC are available on hard copy and online hence accessible to all.
Sales tax is a means for the government to earn money for the state through business owners. If you decide to set up an online business, you may be required to pay taxes. This depends on whether you have a physical store in any of the states. If you have a physical location, you are allowed to charge taxation on the prices of your goods. However, if your business does not have a physical presence then charging a sales tax is not necessary.
In 1992, a supreme court ruling was passed in regards to grounds of taxation. It was ruled that sales tax should not be pursued on mail order businesses and, by extension, online businesses by the state. It was reasoned by the court that exerting the over 7,500 rule on business people would strain their businesses as well as the interstate commerce.
If you intend to charge a sales tax, you need to familiarize yourself with the laws that govern it. It is important to note that not all states have the sales tax rule, for instance, Delaware, Alaska, Montana, Hawaii, New Hampshire and Oregon. Some states are also exempted on sales tax especially on particular products such as clothes and food. In this case, charging a sales tax in Alaska would be illegal.
It is noted that most online business owners use the cart service to handle their transactions. Such a service is programmed to calculate the sales tax rates for you. It makes the stress of determining which sales tax to charge less cumbersome.
Copyright and Digital Rights
With an online business, personal data is not the only thing that you have to protect. Digital works which include text, movies, art and music are copyrighted and protected by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). It protects the information released on the internet as well as other types of electronic information. This keeps both yours and your client’s information safe from intruders.
This also prevents internet service providers from copyright infringement liability. However, it is advisable that you, as an online service provider, remove material that seems to invoke copyright infringement from your website.
The Copyright and Digital Rights measure also makes it illegal to circumvent anti piracy measures that are built in most commercial software. It also makes it illegal to produce, sell and distribute devices that are used to copy software illegally. It also requires web-casters to pay up licensing fees to record companies.
These legal requirements are mandatory and only prove that broadening your business boundaries to the online platform takes more than setting shop and making money. However, sellers who do not have a physical store experience less financial obligation to the government as opposed to those who do.
With the high level of unemployment, citizens, both young and old are encouraged to take advantage of the online trading in the hopes of making sales hence earning a living. The advantage of online businesses is that one does not require special skills on how to go about it. Starting an online business is fast and easy and doesn’t require much of your manual input.
Most importantly, one can conduct their business wherever and whenever. As long as you have your laptop with you, and of course internet connection, you can possibly do business at your convenience.
Often times internet business owners rent homes instead of buy and they move often to keep the scenery changing due to often times working at home. We always suggest freeing as much of your time as possible by hiring specialist to help with parts of your life. When moving we always suggest a complete Change of Address service to take some of the work load off.
Due to high requests we also wrote this article to answer any questions you may have USPS Change of Address Forwarding Online.