i assume you re in the US. so my answered are based upon that.you need the following things to legally do business in the US.1. a DBA.. that is easily obtained by your local county clerk s office.. don t pay someone online to do it. you can get it yourself a lot cheaper. 2. a P.O. Box or some sort of business address for crap to be sent to besides your home address.3. a Bank account in the business s name.. i suggest getting the PO box first... in YOUR name... then go to the county clerk and get a DBA (that way you can put that address on it).. then go BACK to the post office, and put the business name ON the post office box AFTER you ve gotten the paperwork for your DBA... that way you can get mail for john s web design as well.. then you take the DBA to the bank and open a business account. find a FREE account. any bank account that charges you is bad... there are hundreds of free ones. all major banks have them. once you get that, you set up a business paypal account with the business info on it. You can probably convert your existing one since you ve established that you are real with the existing one by verifying info etc.. stuff that takes time. once those things are done, you re all set... here s another word of advice. your business name and web URL may not match... so be careful. lots of counties have a website that you can look for existing DBA names. in fact when you go to get one, they MAKE you search for the name you want to see if it s taken. if it is you can t use it. if you can find that ahead of time and buy a domain name based upon that, then you re ok. DBA s work on a county basis. in regards to DBA, you should start as a sole proprietor. it s the cheapest and most reasonable solution for you at the moment. given that, if you are a DBA, / sole proprietor, you will be using your social security number for 1099 forms etc.... you are a contractor.... so, most businesses you work with will send you a 1099... if you don t want to give them your SSN (which you shouldn t) then you need to get an EIN from the IRS... those are -free- from their web site.. if you look up EIN number and you find some PAY site.. don t do it. it s a scam because they -are - free- .. in fact you can do that without having a dba.. but you do need an address to ship info to so its smart to have the po box. OK......... so, once all of that s done, something amazing will happen. you ll start getting ALL SORTS of credit card offers in the mail. you may not be able to get them yet since you re 17. once you go down the line of credit, you need to exercise extreme caution. everyone says that, but most people don t understand what it means to do so, and .... most people that tell you to use caution are themselves over spending. it s really easy to get into big debt. if you can t afford something, don t buy it.. end of story. anyway............ here s the thing though............ you are not 18, therefore you are not legally allowed to sign legal documents. all of the things i mentioned above ARE legal documents, therefore, you probably need one of your parents to go with you for all of this crap.. if you re SERIOUS about doing business, then you will have no problem researching that for yourself to see if you can do it. i ve given you all of the keywords to search for to make it happen.. now it s up to YOU to do it....as for the website business itself, building a website to advertise building websites is pretty much a waste of time. you will get no traffic for that. but you can build a website that displays your work, and advertise THAT yourself on places like craigslist. another thing.. DO NOT undercut people. html is worth about $25 per hour.... PHP is worth 25-50 depending upon who you are and how good you are.DESIGN is worth 30-50 per hour depending upon who you are and how good you are. DO NOT do websites for $10 per hour....Even the smallest website should be around 1000-3000.... here s your first business tip................... If you undercut the competition, all you re doing is HURTING the ability for YOU to make more once you become a professional in the field... You re setting a NEW low standard that everyone else has to compete with, thus killing your growth potential. thats why people like me technically hate people like you... well not YOU personally... but people who don t know any better... I watched that exact same thing happen to photography.. i made 100k per year in photography. then digital cameras got popular and i was literally out of a job because of this. same happened with web design. Anyway, on the other side of that coin, charge FAIRLY... if you are doing a crappy job and you KNOW you re doing a crappy job, and it s not worth 5000 don t charge 5000... as for counting hours, you DONT count every minute you re sitting there behind t
Although the answer varies somewhat based on where you and your clients are located, for most jurisdictions some type of local business license will be required.Also, in most states, you cannot sign a legally binding contract until you are 18. This may be a concern for your clients.
That s a good idea and all, but why not not make a website that is full of interesting info that YOU like. And ANYONE that goes to it, you get paid for it... without their paypal info. It s definitely doable, however it s not gonna happen overnight! Check out this blog, and it will give you some great tips! www.mytimemattersblog.comhope that helps =)
The legal requirements will depend upon which legal jurisdictions you and your clients are in.
