Where to start/what to plan to open a small side business?

You may be able to find a 'small business development center' in a local government agency that can offer guidance and information about potential sources of funding, but especially since you have identified IP and business formation issues, it sounds like it could help to http://mefiwiki.com/wiki/Get_a_lawyer (MeFi Wiki), at minimum for a consultation, but also for assistance with drafting legal instruments.

You should look up your local Chamber of Commerce. They may offer free classes and other forms of free information to help you get oriented. I have taken free business classes in the past offered through a Chamber of Commerce. I learned enough from them to register my business name with the county and set up a business bank account. If you are selling online and doing this very part-time, you may not initially need to register it as a business. You need to find out what local laws are with regards to working from home and any other relevant stuff like that, but a lot of online stuff exists in a kind of unregulated gray zone. Generally speaking, you need to register a home business and comply with local zoning in cases where your activities will generate commercial traffic in a residential neighborhood. In other words, if you have clients or employees coming to your house, you need to be very concerned about local regulations about such things. If you are engaging in what amounts to a hobby and making some things part-time at home and selling them online, those regulations may not apply. It would help to familiarize yourself with the laws about where the cut off is between stuff you can do part-time for a few bucks from home and small business that needs to registered and comply with this, that and the other law. Also, this will generally be a bigger issue if your residence is within city limits. People living in "the county" and not within the limits of an incorporated city are generally going to have a lot fewer restrictions on their activities. But, really, a lot of that is sort of extraneous at this point. I have done all that administrative stuff and ended up not actually having a business because the one and only thing you MUST have in order to have a business is paying customers of some sort (that is simplifying it, because some businesses are monetized in a complex fashion, like via ads more than sales, but that is it in a nutshell). So if you aren't already making money this way, this question is kind of jumping the gun. It presumes a level of success you may never achieve. I registered multiple business names with grand plans, none of which went anywhere. Because I registered the names and set up a bank account, I got a free trial on some postal meter thing that I never once used and ultimately returned to the company. I am far from the only ninny to do something like that. Lots and lots of people register small business names and set up business bank accounts and then "fold" in short order. The fact that so many people register business names without having figured how to actually make money at anything is part of why small business statistics look so dire. A lot of those "failed" small businesses didn't actually die. They were never really born to begin with. The administrative aspects, like taxes and business name registration, aren't insignificant, but knowing how to handle them does not give you a business. What gives you a business is figuring out how to 1) do something other people value and 2) somehow get money back for it. If you can accomplish both of those pieces, THEN you have a business and that's when you need to worry a lot more about things like registering it and bookkeeping and so on. So while this is worthwhile to begin researching in case you become actually successful, it is probably a case of putting the cart before the horse. If you are anything like most humans, you need to be doing a lot more work on figuring out how this thing will lead to income. If you actually start making money, then, hey, it will be nice to know what hoops to jump through to register it, etc. To me, this piece right here is probably the most important part of the question currently because it is directly relevant to business process: Though I am very tech savvy, I don't want to go down the rabbit hole and custom-roll my whole online shop. I'd much rather leverage options that make it easy to set up and run a shop. I'm fine paying reasonable surcharges for services and community-building. I dearly wish I had some suggestions for you, but I don't. I very much hope others will chime in on that. Best of luck.

Thanks for putting it all to words, Michele. For what it's worth, I will keep an LLC and other business arrangements in mind and will mention these activities to my lawyer (I already have one for personal and familial complexities) but don't plan to actually do anything more than personal research until/unless I start making profits of at least $5,000 to $10,000 per year. At that point, an LLC (which taxes at $800/year or 8.84% in California, minimum, whichever is greater), makes more sense to me. I suppose if I got in a situation where I needed to and wanted to acquire business supplies or materials to the point where having a business license and being able to do so wholesale would be financially worth it, I might also look into getting a business license. But for now, no, I don't think so. Thank you though for the idea to check in with the local Chamber of Commerce. That sounds like an excellent starting point, especially since I am indeed located in an urban area.

there are (at least) two different types of business license. One is related to sales tax - if you sell anything in California you are supposed to have registered for a sales tax id number and collect and pay the sales tax. On the upside, you can avoid paying sales tax on business purchases since they will be paid later when you sell the final item. But legally this is not your option - it is a legal requirement. How I know this - I used to help run a craft fair for a local nonprofit. We were required to get a sales tax id from every single vendor at our fair - even if was just a kid selling once a year at our event and the local sales tax people would call me up to get to the list of vendors and then follow up to make sure they paid. Small is not a legal excuse for not doing this. the second type of license is a city business license that anyone with a business needs to get - the first time, you have to do a zoning check to make sure the business complies with local zoning ordnances. If you don't have customers coming to your door and you don't use any toxic chemicals etc. it is probably not a problem. There is an annual fee/tax - the one I pay is based on number of employees so it isn't bad if it is just you. Again this is a legal requirement You will also need to be prepared for both state and federal taxes. It is a very good idea to meet with an accountant just to make sure you know what you need to know, even if you do your own bookkeeping/taxes. I had some small personal services businesses over the years. If you are OK with people paying you personally (make check payable to John Doe), you don't need to do a dba (doing business as - registers your business name with the state), if you want payments to go to a business name "Amazing Charms" you will need dba unless incorporate/LLC. You will want a separate bank account for your business - mine is officially a personal account (I don't use the business features and there are zero fees) but if you need business services or have a dba, you will need a business account. With all that said, I agree that you want to be spending more energy on the actual business plan than on these logistical things.

A couple of things to look into: If you make under a certain amount per year from a given source of revenue, you don't need to file taxes on it. IIRC, it is $600. So once you start making enough to claim it on your taxes, you have more to worry about. Talk to your local Chamber of Commerce about the difference between a real business name and a fictitious business name and the implications of them. IIRC, using a real business name gives you a little more wiggle room for when you need to file certain papers, like registering the business name with the county. A real name would be (your real name) Trinkets (or your last name Plumbing or Smith and Sons or Smith Brothers). A fictitious name would be La Dee Da Trinkets. If you use a fictitious name, you need to file paperwork sooner rather than later so they know who is making money under that name. This was an inexpensive formality when I did it in a California county. I filled out some papers and there was probably some small fee, but I also was able to list several business names on the same paperwork, so I didn't need pay the fee several times. It was just once for like a period of a few years for up to however many names the limit was. You don't need to lose a lot of sleep over the name. Businesses, even Fortune 500 companies, sometimes change their name. But while you are in the research stage and not making serious money yet is a real good time to familiarize yourself with both the legal/administrative implications of how you name it and also read up a bit on using your name to position yourself and so on.