Before you can start dreaming of dot com riches, you need to lay the foundation for doing business online. Without properly taking care of these details, you run the risk of failing in ecommerce or, even worse, jeopardizing your success. Putting the time and effort into the preliminary work will afford you a greater chance of making money once your business gets up and running. If your start-up site is home-based, your first inquiry should be to your local town hall. The town officials will be able to tell you if there are any special zoning, licensing or registration requirements of which you need to be aware. The rules that apply to mail order businesses are usually the same ones that cover e-businesses so you should be okay. Also, unless your business creates excessive noise or traffic you probably won''t be affected by zoning laws either. It would be a good idea to rent a post office box to use as your official business address but it probably won''t be required.
Whether you use home space or commercial space, you''ll have to investigate names for your business and have some alternate choices in case the one you want is taken. Make sure you are not infringing on any brands, trademarks, patents or copyrights or all your hard work will benefit someone else. Since laws vary from state-to-state, you should check with a lawyer and accountant before fully getting under way.
To get started, check out the following links or do some research on "cyber law."
Internet Law
Protect Your Trademark or Service Mark
IE 7
Firefox 2.0
