Legal Question in Business Law in California

Setting up multi e-commerce sites, DBA's, Permits, Corp...

Hi,

My wife and I are in the process of setting up 2 or more e-commerce sites. I need advice on how to structure the business and what permits, licenses, DBAs' we need. We would like to first set it up as a Sole Propriarity with a struture which would allow an easy move to a corporation or LLC in the affordable future.

Our thoughts were to have a Primay Company name such as J&T Enterprises and have each website under the primary name.

To set up our web business our wholesalers/Drop Shippers and Banks need DBA's, Resale Permits, Federal Tax ID's etc.

Is one DBA sufficent for the Primary Company or do we have to apply for seperate DBA's for each website as well?

Or do we need to incorporate up front and make the web sites as sub-divisions of the corporation ?

What do you recommend and what items do we need to apply for at each level ? DBA's, Tax-id's, Resale Permits, Etc.

Thanks,


Asked on 3/09/06, 6:09 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys
Terry A. Nelson Nelson & Lawless

Re: Setting up multi e-commerce sites, DBA's, Permits, Corp...

What you need is to get counsel that knows what to do and how to do it properly. You can achieve your objective, but there are a lot of details that go into the decisions you must make. Free anonymous advice from the internet is not going to be cost effective, but you won't find that out until a problem arises downstream. You haven't even asked many of the questions that need to be addressed and resolved. Contact me if interested in doing it right.

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Answered on 3/10/06, 2:04 pm
Daniel Harrison Berger Harrison, APC

Re: Setting up multi e-commerce sites, DBA's, Permits, Corp...

You have more questions than you can imagine. As an initial matter, a DBA is not a business entity. It's just a fictitious business name. Nor is a "sole proprietorship." With these, you have personal liability, unlike a corp. or LLC.

Licenses will depend on your specific business transactions.

A tax ID is just a way for the taxing authorities to identify you. If you're a sole proprietorship, it's generally your social security number.

We provide business counseling and structure formation. Let us know if you need help in this regard.

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Answered on 3/10/06, 2:13 pm
Amy Ghosh Law Offices of Amy Ghosh

Re: Setting up multi e-commerce sites, DBA's, Permits, Corp...

Please e-mail me directly. To answer your questions I need to know specifically your business objectives, etc. BBS is not the right place to discuss such matter with specificity.

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Answered on 3/09/06, 9:13 pm


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