(no subject)

[camwyn]

These past few days I've been looking to register as a business with the state of Massachusetts so I can sell the jewelry I've made online. I'm aware that lots of people don't actually go through with this before selling things online, and I'm also aware that I'm doing this as a hobby so registering may be overkill, but I'd like to be able to offer stuff aboveboard and pay sales taxes properly and all of that. Most of the process is pretty simple, but there's an issue: I don't own my home. I rent an apartment. And today I spoke to my landlord; he doesn't like the idea of me operating a business out of the apartment. He's offered to look at the papers involved but I don't know whether he's likely to give the okay. For the moment I'm assuming the answer is no.

Can't register a business with a PO box or with a UPS Mailbox With Real Street Address(tm)!. I already checked.

Not sure how to proceed from here.

Comments

[derien]

That is absolutely ridiculous! I thought the whole purpose of the UPS mailboxes 'with real street address' was FOR that purpose. You can't block out all people who live in apartments and can't afford separate office space from running businesses, that's completely quashing to the entrepreneurial spirit. I say A) go higher up in the food chain above whoever you checked with B) seek advice from a legal expert who's versed in business (maybe one of those local business clubs has someone who does that, or C) simply get one of those UPS mailboxes and use it, and probably they won't know the difference.

[camwyn]

Nah, as far as I can tell the purpose of the UPS boxes with 'real street address' is for businesses without real estate of their own to look more respectable and give the impression of having a footprint. They're not usable for registering a business in either small-town Massachusetts or Boston- I called the town clerk in the town where I live and the city clerk's office at Boston City Hall and both of them said the same thing.

I left a message at the Boston office of the state's women-owning-their-own-businesses group to ask about the issue but haven't heard back from the person there yet.

And yesterday I brought my papers to the landlord and explained to him what I was doing and how little change that would make to anything on the premises. Told him the town clerk even said that since I was operating entirely online I could put 0 or N/A in the blanks on the business property tax assessment form, because I'd made sure to ask about that when I was on the phone with her. He didn't seem to have known about sites like Etsy or that people buy crafts or jewelry online; in his defense he's something like 84 years old and doesn't really computer much. Once I explained to him that yes, people would buy jewelry online (I told him I didn't plan on my own web site so much as using another service, 'like Amazon, but with things instead of books'), he seemed a little more amenable to the idea. He still has to talk to his lawyer, though. Can't really blame him, there are rules about taxation in this state that I can't pretend to understand.