OK heres the deal, I am now 17, I started my hosting/design business when I was 16. I have an excellent market, have plenty of opportunity, and really want to step it up and expand my operations this summer. This includes getting some new equipment, and agressive advertising campaigns locally. (I need to get help on how to market toward investors, start up money you can call it) I have been made about double what I have put into it, and now I am worried about getting nailed for tax issues, should I be, as a minor? What do I need to do to make it legal? I know I need to go to the comptrollers and stuff but I haven't found a step by step....Another thing is I copied a generic TOS and AUP and modified it to suit my needs...Its this acceptable?

Anyway, as you can see, there are many things I would like answered, and I would really like to strike up a relationship with someone who can answer my questions and give me some advice, so I guess, is anyone up for it?

Not volunteering to be your mentor. Just wanted to say that if you are serious, then you should spend some time to find someone locally (perhaps even a family member or friend with business experience) that can help you. Tell them about what you are doing. Every family usually has a lawyer or accountant somewhere and they probably wouldn't mind taking a few minutes to help you out.

I am neither a lawyer nor an accountant so take the rest of this with a grain of salt:

Incidentally, I am pretty sure that minors can not enter into legally binding contracts (depends on where you are), so you may want to have those done in your legal gaurdians name. The best thing to do with the TOS and AUP is to make sure that you have a lawyer look over it now or find one that is freely available and tweak it (get a lawyer to look at it later though, better safe than sorry). Keep in mind that they are, as written documents, copyrighted so unless they are made available for copying, you may get into some trouble doing so.

Get an accountant to take care of the taxes or bury yourself in reading and research and do it yourself. Always keep good records and never try to cheat the taxman. You may want to look into creating a legal entity for your company, oftentimes this can help with the taxes.

Investors, unless you need them, are usually more trouble than they are worth. There is always a better way. The best investors are the so-called "angel" investors (friends, family, etc) but you still have to be careful. Better to start small and grow slowly than to load up with investors, grow like a sponge in the Atlantic, and get in all kinds of hot water.

If you fail to find a lawyer or accountant within arms reach, then there are still some possibilities. Head to your nearest library and read up on doing your own taxes and making business contracts. Even if you do have someone do this for you it never hurts to know something about what they are doing (two heads are better than one, three is a crowd though). If you can't find anyone to give you advice on advertising and such, then you can also find lots of information about that in the library as well. Train yourself to think like a salesman and make personal appeals to your customers. There are a ton of good books available about selling and pricing. Read, read, read, read, read and think carefully before you do anything but when the time comes to do something then don't hesitate.

Have fun & good luck!

I would advise against registering anything in a parent's name, especially if you are underage. You're 17 now. Why don't you just give it another year untill you can register your business? It will be a hastle to transfer everything to your name, especially if you set up a corporation. The best piece of advice I can give you is as follows:

Invest in a lawyer and accountant when you decide to begin.

If you live in the US, find your local SBA and have them refer you to your local SCORE chapter. SCORE is a bunch of retired business people that voluteer to help people just like you. You can go and see them as often as you want and never costs you a dime. They can really be a great help. You can probably find a local SCORE online, their site is http://www.score.org/
Best of luck.

I second the SBA and SCORE. I had a meeting with a SCORE. I had a meeting with a SCORE advisor yesterday.

Justin

As already said, a lot of people have had good luck with SCORE and SBA. Some have not, but of course (just like anything else), it is an organization and you will always run into some issues with some things.

As far as a TOS - check out www.hostlegal.com. And since you are making money, consider getting an accountant of some type to help you - in case you do need help with taxes etc

Sadly enough, there really isn't a "step by step" for businessses. There's a number of books out there, but they don't give you the whole picture or they give it to you at a very high level. A lot of the work that needs to be done is that of people who have done it, read the books, and/or have taken classes on them.

In terms of being a minor, I'd agree with what most of the posts have said. Wait a year and then do it. The only other way that may be feasable is work with another company as a subcontractor (which can be done at 17) and just make sure that the contract you enter into with them allows you to split on your own after one year -- you won't make as much money for the first year since you'll have to split income with your partners, but you may be able to learn some things and gain a marketshare that you didn't have before.

-- Philippe