I plan to do web hosting and web design services. Do I have to register a business to do that? Please reply.

Contact your local chamber of commerce and ask them. They'll tell you exactly what you need, for your particular location.

Basically, you can't just buy a server or put up a site and start accepting money for hosting or design. You're going to want to check into LLCs, incorporation, various business forms, and all that.

Start at your local chamber of commerce.

Legally speaking, it would be best that you do. You might not need to incorpate an INC but probably register yourself as a sole proprietor or partnership to begin with.

If you are doing web design as a hobby, you could pass off as a freelancer but if you do web hosting, it would be better if you have a business name. It would add a sense of professionalism to the business.

Depends how serious you are.

A lot of people DONT, but they dont plan to make a living out of it either. My advice would be to do things properly from the start and build a good reputation as being a "company" not a "bedroom outfit".

If you are planning something for long run then you should register.

There isnt anything wrong with running it from your bedroom though... it isnt allways necessary to have an office when you are running a webhosting company. How ever for web design it would be better to have one.

Alright, if I do web hosting, is it a MUST for me to be registered?

It depends. Do you want to run the risk of having to pay huge amounts of back- and penalty-assessed taxes? Do you not want to get a business bank account, or a merchant account? Do you want to risk having your personal assets seized because you never legally separated your business assets from them? If you don't care about those things, then no, it's not necessary.

There is nothing wrong is running off the bedroom especially in today's context with the availability of internet connectivity. As long as you and your partners (anywhere in the world) with internet connections can remain connected and operate as a business unless of course, you are running your own datacenter.

If you are just offering web design services, your contractual agreement with your clients end at the time the client accepts your work and full payment is made. Of course, if you place any guarantees to modify or upgrade the design within a said period of time, you are bounded until that period expires. After the client takes over the design, you can pack up, sell your home and move over to Bahamas for a permanent vacation. No problem there.

But for web hosting, the contractual agreement between you and your client would last from the time they sign the contract and you being to host them to the time which they terminate the contract. This could last between one month to an unforseeable future. Within that term of contracts, you would be bounded by your guarantees and term of services contracts. Of course, the client would be bounded by their end of the contract. I would supposed that you would be planning to host multiple clients on one server, in doing so, your responsibility would be to ensure acceptable level of uptime and service during their stay and to manage the entire server.

Yes, you would be exposing yourself to countless levels of liabilities if you do fail to keep up to your side of the contract. Of course, you might be in the right but if anything goes into the legal hands, you might want to operate legally.

It also depends on the type of clients you want to attract, if it is just hobbyist or any other individuals, operating without a business license may not be an issue. But if you intend to target business of any size, it helps to have a license in which case, it would definitely look a lot more professional to begin with.