Some states provide a simple form for converting a partnership to an LLC (often called a "certificate of conversion"). Sole proprietors and partners in states that don't provide a conversion form must file regular articles of organization to create an LLC.

In some states, before a partnership can officially convert to an LLC, it must publish a notice in a local newspaper that the partnership is being terminated. And in all states, you'll have to transfer all identification numbers, licenses, and permits to the name of your new LLC, including:
your federal employer identification number
your state employer identification number
your sales tax permit
your business license (or tax registration), and
any professional licenses or permits.

To start a business, you first need a business plan. This is how you'll get people to invest in your company. It is pretty much a 3-5 year out line. This will include an executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service / product line, marketing and sales, funding request, financial projections, and appendix.

Business plan:



After your business plan, of course you need to get business assistance / training, choose a location, finance your business, determine the legal structure of your business, register a business name, get a tax ID number, register for local and state taxes (gotta love double taxation), and get your business license.

Loans:


Taxes:


Business name:

A business is a complex game and takes time to figure out how and what everything is, and if you're making a profit.

002 wrote To start a business, you first need a business plan. This is how you'll get people to invest in your company. It is pretty much a 3-5 year out line. This will include an executive summary, company description, market analysis, organization and management, service / product line, marketing and sales, funding request, financial projections, and appendix.

Business plan:

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Your executive summary is a snapshot of your business plan as a whole and touches on your company profile and goals. Read these tips about what to include.

Your company description provides information on what you do, what differentiates your business from others, and the markets your business serves.

Before launching your business, it is essential for you to research your business industry, market and competitors.

Every business is structured differently. Find out the best organization and management structure for your business.

What do you sell? How does it benefit your customers? What is the product lifecycle? Get tips on how to tell the story about your product or service.

How do you plan to market your business? What is your sales strategy? Read more about how to include this information in your plan.

If you are seeking funding for your business, find out about the necessary information you should include in your plan.

If you need funding, providing financial projections to back up your request is critical. Find out what information you need to include in your financial projections for your small business.

An appendix is optional, but a useful place to include information such as resumes, permits and leases. Find additional information you should include in your appendix.

After your business plan, of course you need to get business assistance / training, choose a location, finance your business, determine the legal structure of your business, register a business name, get a tax ID number, register for local and state taxes (gotta love double taxation), and get your business license.

Loans:

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General Small Business Loans: 7(a)
The 7(a) Loan Program, SBAs most common loan program, includes financial help for businesses with special requirements.

Microloan Program
SBAs Microloan Program provides small, short-term loans to small business concerns and certain types of not-for-profit child-care centers.

Real Estate & Equipment Loans: CDC/504
The CDC/504 Loan Program provides financing for major fixed assets such as equipment or real estate.

Disaster Loans
SBA provides low-interest disaster loans to businesses of all sizes, private non-profit organizations, homeowners, and renters.

Loan Programs
From starting up or expanding your business to recovering from disasters, SBA loan programs are available to help your business succeed. You can explore various types of loans that may be available...

Taxes:

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Sole proprietorship:
income tax, self employment tax, estimated tax, Social security and Medicare taxes and income tax withholding, Providing information on social security and Medicare taxes and income tax withholding, Federal unemployment (FUTA) tax, Filing information returns for payments to nonemployees and transactions with other persons, and Excise Taxes. You are not subject to all of these, it just depends what you're doing.

Partnership:
Anual return of income, and employment tax.

C corporation:
Income tax, estimated tax, employment tax, and excise taxes.

S corporation:
Income tax, estimated tax, employment tax, and excise taxes.

LLC:
Depending on elections made by the LLC and the number of members, the IRS will treat an LLC as either a corporation, partnership, or as part of the LLCs owners tax return (a disregarded entity). Specifically, a domestic LLC with at least two members is classified as a partnership for federal income tax purposes unless it files Form 8832 and affirmatively elects to be treated as a corporation. And an LLC with only one member is treated as an entity disregarded as separate from its owner for income tax purposes (but as a separate entity for purposes of employment tax and certain excise taxes), unless it files Form 8832 and affirmatively elects to be treated as a corporation.

The benefit to some of these is that sole proprietorship, partnerships, LLCs and S corporations are pass-through entities for federal income tax purposes. This means these entities are not subject to income tax. Rather, the owners are directly taxed individually on the income, taking into account their share of the profits and losses.

Business name:

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This can be just your name (John Smith Xbox repair), but if it's not, you'll need a DBA (doing business as) name. Sole Proprietors or Partnerships If you wish to start a business under anything other than your real name, youll need to register a DBA so that you can do business as another name. Existing Corporations or LLCs If your business is already set up and you want to do business under a name other than your existing corporation or LLC name, you will need to register a DBA.

Thank you, I appreciate you going out of your way to help me out.

Well, considering you're still in school, I wouldn't dive balls deep right into the complex stuff, but you should start reselling things in order to gain some profit for the product or service you have in mind.

I feel that a lot of these guys are going way too deep into things. There are steps that you can take when still in highschool

Read some books on business/management/startups and get half an idea of what you're doing (They say that 200-500 books = one good mentor)

You can also do some research and get to know your industry. Hell, you could even try to reach out/contact some people working in your industry that have found success and establish a relationship

You can also start coming up with ideas for the future about many things (i.e. How to fund the organization, what are your marketing avenues etc.)

There's also this

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Which is a must read for any wannabe entrepreneur. Actually just read this guys entire blog he's amazing.

Take Commerce courses in college in university. I can't tell you everything you need to know to start a business in one post because people write books on this stuff, but I will give you some research I have on my computer from the past that I have found myself.

Starting an Online Business

Online Business Basics:

North america represents only a small portion of potential online customers. The international market is growing with Europe and Asia customers accounting for more than 67%.

The secret to e-commerce success is to create a business that will stand the test of time.

Getting Started:

Set Clear goals
Create an action Timeline


Creating a Usable Business Plan:

A traditional business plan is sectioned into seven or eight major parts. These parts consist of:

Executive Summary: Executive summary highlights the major points from each of the other parts of the plan. This page is usually the first one that investors and other advisors read, and how well its written can determine whether they turn the page or show you the door.

Business or Product Description: This section provides a detailed description of your overall business and your product or service. You should include a vision statement (or mission statement), which summarizes your goals for the business. When describing your products, dont forget to mention what makes them unique and a viable contender in the market.

Market Analysis: Provide a thorough description of your target market. In this case, discuss both the overall industry in which youre competing and the specific customers to whom youre marketing. Dont forget to include a description of any market research you have included.

Competitive Analysis: In this section you provide an in depth view of your competitors in that market. The more detail you can provide, the better, to show exactly how well you understand (and are prepared for dealing with) your competition. Address your competitors weaknesses and also state how you can counter their strengths.

Dont double up on your work

Management Team: Highlight the expertise that you and your executives bring to the table. Include summaries of your key professional experience, educational and military background, additional certifications and completed training programs, and all other relevant accomplishments. Remember to include a copy of your full resume.


Operations: Use this section to describe your marketing and operations strategies. Then detail how you plan to implement these strategies in your business. Think of the operations section as your chance to prove that you know how to convert innovative ideas into a successful business plan.


Financials: Start talking money. In this section, you include projections (or estimates) of how much money the business will earn and your expenses, or costs of doing business. This combination is typically referred to as a profit-and-loss statement. For the first year, break down this information for each month. (This listing demonstrates how far you must proceed into your first year before you start making money and indicates where seasonal slow points might occur, with smaller amounts of income coming in.) After the first year, show your projections annually.


Appendix: Consider this area as a catchall for important documents that support portions of your business plan. Place copies of your loan terms, patent or copyright documentation, employee agreements, and any other contracts or legal documents pertaining to your business.


Company policies:

Privacy Policies: A privacy policy should detail how you collect, treat, and use the information you receive from customers and from other people whom visit your website. A privacy policy is a requirement for your online business if youre based in the US. The privacy policy must be properly labeled and easily accessible from your company website.

The privacy policy should include:
A description of how you collect information from your site visitors and customers.
Details of what information you collect.
An explanation of what you do with the information and how and where you store it.
A disclosure of with whom you might share customer information with.
Instructions for how visitors or customers can change their information or remove it from your records.

Your policy on how you handle a customers credit card data should be in line with the requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security standard (PCI DSS).

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User Agreement or terms and conditions

When creating your terms and conditions, you should include this information:

How visitors or customers can or cannot use your site: Rules that apply to not only your customers but also your employees, such as posting personal information (Phone numbers or physical addresses) for an example, on a discussion forum.
Who is allowed to view your site: Whether visitors meet age or U.S. citizenship requirements, for example.
Which other policies are in place: Shipping, returns, or complaint procedures for example.
Legal and Liability Issues: For example, details of responsibility by you and third parties for providing information and taking actions, and for specifying geographic locations where legal disputes will be settled.


Shipping Policy

Should clearly explain the details of how and when you ship your merchandise. The shipping policy must also comply with the FTCs Mail or telephone-order merchandise rule.

According to the FTC Our site must:

Ship an order within the timeframe you promised at the time of ordering or as stated in your advertising or on your website.
Ship a product within 30 days after its received, unless you specify an earlier timeframe.
Most online retailers ship products within seven business days at the longest. Exception when the product is on back order, out of stock, or available for pre-order

Return Policy

Conditions on which customers can return products, or decline a service. A good policy should protect both you and the customer. Be specific in the return policy. The policy should include these elements:

Time Limit: Maximum number of days a customer can return a product within which a return will be accepted.
Conditions of use: Maintain the right to reject a return if there are obvious signs of use.
Restock Fee: Explain any fees incurred by restocking a returned item.
Shipping Responsibility: Determine who is responsible for covering the cost of shipping on returned items.
Refunds issued as cash or credit: Determine method of returning funds, whether through cash, credit or debit.
Delivering on Your Promises:

If you fail to deliver on your promises to the customer, be sure to follow these steps:

Notify the customer immediately.
Apologize for the mistake that was made.
Correct the problem
Offer a partial or full refund, a free gift, or a discount on future purchases.

Federal Tax identification number:

If you have employees or your business is a corporation or a partnership, your business needs a federal tax identification number.

You can apply for a federal tax ID online.

Look into resale certificate laws for the province

READ PAGE 78!!

Protecting Customer Data

Failure to comply with the standard can result in outrageous fines of up to $500,000 per incident. Among requirements of the standard, companies must:

Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect all data.
Not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security passwords.
Protect stored data
Encrypt the transmission of cardholder data and sensitive information across public networks.
Use and regularly update antivirus.
Develop and maintain secure systems and applications
Restrict business access to data based on job description and needs.
Assign a unique ID to each person who accesses the computer for financial data
Track and monitor all access to network resources and processes
Maintain a policy that addresses information security.

Consider opening two bank accounts. One for all your everyday expenses and transactions, and the other for dealing with sales tax, employee withholding, and other regular tax payments.

Obtaining a Business Licence

A business licence in ontario is going to cost us approximately 175$ for a partnership business.

Copyright:

A form of intellectual property law that protects original works of authorship, including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and architecture. The library of congress registers copyright, which last for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years.

Patent:

A property right granted by the government to an inventor that excludes others from making, using, offering for sale,or selling the invention throughout the united states or importing the invention to the united states, in exchange for public disclosure of the invention when the patent is granted.

Trademark:

Protects words, names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services from those manufactured or sold by others and that indicate the source of the goods. Trademarks can be renewed forever, or as long as theyre being used in commerce.