Q&A #1

Still without a new laptop so starting with the shorter questions first.

 Hi there!

I follow your handmade business blog and saw you post about questions.  I would love it if you could pass on information about the confusing legal stuff regarding starting a handmade business.  Permits, clearances...who knows.  Also taxes this time of year.  Personally I am a freelancer trying to start a creative business and also living abroad...yup, pretty confusing when it comes to legal stuff!

Thanks!

linda

I'm not a lawyer nor do I have any legal training whatsoever so I'm not very comfortable answering questions like this. However I am a good google researcher and put together this list of websites, most of these are from government agencies or other well known sources so I'm comfortable with the reliability. For regulations in your community or county you need to visit or call the town/city hall if they don't have a website. These are all US resources since that's where I'm based and my area of knowledge, if you are in another country do some looking and you'll probably find your country's equivalent office online or a phone number to call.

• IRS Small Business and Self-Employed Tax Center
• US Consumer Product Safety Commission - Rules on product safety, labeling, etc.
• US Food and Drug Administration - Information for food producers
• US Patent and Trademark Office - Information on how to obtain a trademark or patent
• US Copyright Office - Information on copyright and infringement
• Creative Commons - A flexible system of copyright licenses gaining wide acceptance online.
• Small Business Administration
• SCORE Small business mentoring
• List of State Government Websites - Links to the official websites of each state and US territories