Monday, January 13, 2014

Thinking about getting a business license

I did a bit of research today about getting a business license so I can start quilting for others.  I don't have time to quilt much for others just now, but once summer comes around and I'm not teaching full time, I think I will have some time and enough practice to be able to quilt for hire.  I wanted to see how much it would cost to get a license to start a quilting business.  My husband's funny because he worries about our taxes and how it would make more work for him.  I figure if I made any money, we could pay someone else to do the taxes.  One less thing for him to worry about.  Of course, I have no idea how much that would cost either, so maybe I should look into that first too.  I might end up paying to quilt for others :)  Sort of like I do now.

When I got the long arm machine, I figured one day I could get my investment back by quilting for others.  I just have a real hard time with money and would rather just give away everything for free.  Of course, when it comes time to pay the bills, most companies don't feel the same way.  Especially the colleges, mortgage, heating, gas, grocery, post office, fabric stores...

So, I checked online and it is a $91 one time fee to start a home based business.  There are lots of rules about how many people you can have coming to your house at a time and you can't sell fire arms out of your house and you can only have 20% of your floor space devoted to your business.  Yikes.  I wonder if they inspect and measure how much fabric I have stored in the kitchen, dining room, living room, shed, family room, daughter's bedroom.  Maybe they wouldn't give me a permit!  Then, there is the $65 a year permit fee based on having only one employee.  That would be me.  If I wanted to hire anyone to work for me, the fee goes up.  I guess it would be a one person business for a while.  No hiring my kids to help me clean or organize the above rooms.  I would have to do all the work myself.  Another reason not to start up a business.  I'm tired of thinking about all the work already :)

I guess I'm just not an entrepreneur.  I better keep my day job.  Good thing they balanced the California budget and plan to put some more money back into education again.  Looks like we are getting 4 more days added back to our school year next year.  No promise of a raise yet, but at least they are heading in the right direction.  If only I could figure out a way to quilt and teach at the same time.  I have to get my credential in home economics!

3 comments:

DeAnna said...

Hmmm. Thanks for the info. I'm thinking of doing the same.

Calicojoan said...

I just gave up my license because all the paperwork and tax stuff was just too much. I had to laught that it cost me $25 to get out of business. They get you coming and going! :-)

Farm Quilter said...

I must live in the right place because my business license cost me $10 and it is good forever. Once a year I pay the sales taxes I have collected from my customers. Easy!!