Well, I am for entrepenurship (sp?) but I would say you should pass on this one. Before you start any kind of buisness, you need to ask yourself why would it be successful? What can you do that no one else can? Are you cheaper than competition, move faster with trends of market, better customer service, the only one of its kind, etc... Next you will have to file for a liscense to do buisness in your county/city. Next you will need to set up something with your tax board if you have one in your state (in cali we do) and finally you need to set up a feder tax id. Your city hall will have most of the codes you will need to comply with and what kind of permits you need. They should be the first people you shuld talk to. Then when you make the big bucks, you will shuld go to a corporate lawyer to assess your options in the legal area so that you canprotect your own ASSests and keep them seperate from your buisness's assests. IE say you open a shop, if you are sole proprietor, and someone slips and falls and sues. They can get everything you own, house, cars, cash in accounts... everything. However, if you seperate and go corporate, the store's assets are it's own. So same person sues, they can get the cash value of store, but that is it. You could be sitting on millions and your store's worth is 5 bucks and all the loser will get is 5 bucks. But good luck... It is a tough life...