I’m Legal! But it’s not all it’s cracked up to be!

By claycath on 12th June, 2009

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking "She’s legal? Heck I bet she was ‘legal eons ago."

Well, yes I was drinking age legal almost 30 years ago. I’m not talking about that kind of legal. I’m talking about my business being legal in my city.

Now you are probably thinking I should have been legal many years ago when I first started my business but, well, things just kept me from doing it. Did I ever tell you I was a procrastinator?

When I started my craft business in 1992, it just never occured to me to get a business license ….or a sales tax ID. We crafters are ARTISTS. We don’t think about such mundane things. At least we didn’t in 1992.

About 1994, someone told me I needed to get a State sales tax ID and a business license to be legal so I did get my sales tax ID. When I called my city though, they told me I didn’t need a business license if I was just a crafter and didn’t have people buying out of my home.

I got my first website in 1996. I didn’t even own my own domain name then. My webmaster who specialized in craft sites owned it. In 1999, he dissapeared with my money but I was able to get my domain name put in my name.

Even, once I went online, it didn’t occur to me that I should check again to see if I need a business license now. At least for awhile. Once I did think about it, it seemed like something always got it the way. I know over the years, people would tell me horror stories of how they got caught by the city without a business license and had to pay for all the prior years + a bunch of fees. So I was a little scared.

Last month, when I was down at the city treasurer’s office, I saw the Business License sign and decided to man up and see if I needed one. The bad news is I did. The good news, it was only $50 and I didn’t have to pay for any prior years or anything.

I left the office with a sigh of relief and a weight lifted off my shoulders. Why do I procrastinate? If I’d just face these things instead of pushing it to the back of my mind, I’d save myself so much hassle.

Anyway, I forgot all about it until the calls started coming in. Sometimes 3-4 a day. All telemarketers offering me their business banking services for my new business. Or offering to build me a website for my new business. It goes on and on, but you get the picture. Twice now the same guy has called me 2 days in a row offering the same exact thing, even though I told him the first day I was not a new business and I had already built my own website, thank you very much.

Oh, and I’m getting plenty of junk mail of the same sort of genre but that’s alot easier to deal with.

This is something that never occured to me when I got my business license. So frankly, although I’m glad I’m legal now, it sure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.