How hard is it set up an online tackle business?

How hard is it up an online handtied crappie jig business? I'm looking to possibly start one and want some advice on the process of filing sales tax forms, etc. What all do I need to do? Need this information to know if its all worth it or not. Thanks

A lot of it depends on your computer knowledge. There is more expense to designing a website than people realize

I don't know much about the tackle business, but my wife runs a small online business. The way most people do a small web business is to set up a website, set up a paypal account to receive payments, and utilize a shopping cart service to handle the transactions (paypal gets a cut off of your sales, shopping cart and website don't have to cost much). Another way would be to create an ebay business, but you are giving a bigger cut to them.

You have to file with the tax office and keep some records. If all of your transactions are handled through paypal that is one easy way to keep track of things. Another helpful thing is to get set up to print your own postage. You can mail domestic orders under a certain weight straight from your mailbox which is a great time saver. Hope this helps.

Setting up an onlne business is not easy like txbazzman says. For that matter being a successful businessman is even harder. There are so many skills involved. The good thing is that the internet has been a revolution for the small business. It has been the 'great equalizer' that has allowed small businesses to compete with companies 100 times their size. I know because when I started mine we were on the back end of a very crowded market. I studied the competition ahead of me and built the site to capitalize on their weaknesses. Today (3 yrs later) we lead the field (or at least in the top 3) and have put two of them out of business. We now get 850K hits a month and about 28K unique visitors.

There are some basic things that need to be considered.

1) There are a berzillion websites out there. You can't build a site and hope that customers will come. If you build it right they will eventually, over a long time but that may not be fast enough to deal with webhosting, merchant card fees, internet access and other misc overheads.

2) For a website to attract visitors, you need the search engines to find you. To do that, content is everything. Relevant content with as many fishing keywords as possible. Pretend you are looking for crappie fishing information and do an online search for things like 'crappie jigs', crappie fishing lures' etc and see what you find. Write your articles with as many of those keywords as possible. In a nut shell, 'search engine optimization' (SEO) will make or break you. You need to research this well.

3) Keep good records of your expenses. Everyone should have a small business for tax purposes. Almost everything can be written off. Keep in mind that you can't declare a loss for too long or the IRS will audit you.

First thing you should do is find a name. Register a DBA with your county. Make sure that name can be translated into a domain name that is available. Set up a bank account for that business with it's own checks. To sell and accept payments, Paypal or one of the other online merchant services providers are good for small businesses but the fees are pretty high per transaction. Not so important for small volumes but they really add up when you get bigger. Online shopping carts that are attached to your website is another nightmare.

I would concentrate on building a good website with as much info as possible about the target subject. Keep adding information until Google finds you. Watch the statistics reporting that your website service provider gives you as part of the hosting package and track your traffic. If you are non-commercial, many forums and discussion boards will not prohibit you from posting links to your articles. This is a good way for Google to find you and for you to promote your site. When your traffic is good, that is when you add your articles about your products and then add shopping.

So many things to be consider. But the most important is to get it going once these basic things are considered.

Is there a big demand for hand tied crappie jigs?

If you want to go cheap set up an ebay store and send word of mouth to it.

Before you invest a lot of time & money, estimate what your expenses will be for website, paypal, material to make the jigs and what your time is worth per hour making the jigs and handling the BS that comes with any business. Make a best guess at how many jigs you would have to make AND sell to offset your expenses. Now do you have the time & desire to devote to it?

rbadley - Go for it man. Dont worry about all the drama. Websites are a dime a dozen. I would suggest spending your time on your jigs and fine someone to build the website and optimize it for the seach engines for you. Do what you do, build jigs, and let someone that knows SEO work onthe site for you. The startup cost is somewhat small depending how intricate you want to get. Depending on where you live I can point you inthe right direction when you get ready to start.

Quoted for emphasis, been there and doing that. That is the best advice given, besides what Cudakilla said.

First and foremost how much money can you make off the jigs. Then figure out how many you have to make and sell per month just to cover expenses. It may not be worth it, once you figure out that number

Unless the plan is to have a bunch of write offs for a few years.

Ebay all the way

Check out www.ftn-webs.com

Mike sets up some awesome small business websites at great prices.

JR

Before you sink money into this make sure this is what you want to do, because it will cost you early. You need to start with the cost of your product (What it cost you to make your jigs) plus website domain and hosting plus someone to build your site. My store is not open and money is flying out of my pocket and I have not paid a dime yet for the website hosting, I do web design so that cost is free for that service but the more I look the more people tie jigs and sell them, what will make your jigs stand out in the crowd is the first thing you will have to figure out... Good luck...

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/smal...re-of-fishing-and-archery-products#whois

Don’t forget the 10% federal excise tax due to the IRS on every thing you make and sell that has anything to do with fishing.

One thing to consider in your start-up costs is possibly forming a limited liability entity - corporation, LLC or such. You can find the costs on the Secretary of State website - typically $300 to $600 in filing fees.

https://www.sos.texas.gov/corp/filingandothergeneralfaqs.shtml

You can start selling online as a hobby. You don't have to set up as a formal business. Until you start making good money, the government doesn't consider you a real business anyway.

I learned this the hard way. I started a business making and selling gun cleaning kits. I did everything the guys above mentioned, and only made a few grand a year. I got into tax trouble while trying to close my business, and was told that I should have never started it in the first place. They considered it a hobby and not a legit business.

If I were to do it over again, I'd set up a PayPal account, a simple commerce website, and advertise on forums, YouTube, Instagram, etc. Once it began making real money and taking a lot of my time and energy, I'd start the process of formalizing the business.

selling even on ebay has become a hassel as now you have to collect Tax from every state you sale in .thanks to the wal marts and big companies. competition is something else out there to so bring your best stuff to even stay alive not to mention that shipping has gone thru the roof

First try pedaling some at the local lakes, and see what the market is.

I'd just sell them on facebook bass bait pages. Several are set up to where you sell off lots in an auction format. Seems the cheapest, easiest way to do it. Informal and non-committal. Build what you want, sell as you like. No marketing nor business expenses. Just cost of product and billing (PayPal).

Do you have a source for this information? I would really like to know if I missed a new law.

I do not believe that is the case. It is my understanding that you must collect sales tax for states in which you have a physical presence. Amazon was the test case on that, and they have distribution centers everywhere, like many large companies. When small sellers ship out of state, It is up to the buyer to report/pay a use tax in their own state.

The idea of nationwide sales tax collection has been approached several times, but I do not think that it is law.

Marc

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/21/heres-what-that-supreme-court-sales-tax-decision-means-for-you.html


Each state is developing it's own rules on when out-of-state merchants must collect and pay sales tax. I've found that Ebay is automatically charging & collecting sales tax for Washington residents on my sales. Some states are effectively saying "don't bother" to merchants whose gross sales in their state falls below a certain level.

Still means you have 45 different states to deal with on sales tax (five don't have a state sales tax).

I do appreciate the info!

Even with the ruling, it appears that implementation is still a work in progress in many areas.

Thanks again,
Marc

It's tough. Before you do anything, research these things:
1. How much can you sell a jig for?
2. What's your cost to make the jig?
3. What's your cost to ship the jig? (This is WAY more than most folks think.) Hint, the cheapest way is usually USPS from your house through paypal. You can google how to do that. Shipping could easily be as much as your jig unless you are selling a bunch at a time.
4. See what it would cost to have amazon hold the inventory and take care of the shipping for you. Then all you have to do is direct traffic to your product sold through them. The downside here of course is they take a heck of a cut.

I've done this math a bunch of times before. I don't ever want to kill anyone's dream, but it's pretty hard to figure out how to make the numbers work out in any sort of a meaningful way.