from an item in coop

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furs and I were thinking that it might be fun to have a business 
conference where we could talk about corporations, business, labor 
issues, economics, and other things related to business in the world. 
We would like to be the fw's of such a conference. 

I know that grex already has a finance conference and while we would 
like to talk about finance sometimes, our scope would be broader than 
that. Ditto the small business conference. We might want to talk about 
small businesses sometimes but would prefer a larger scope. 
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Anyhoooo. cmmcgee thought it would be ok if furs and I were made fw's 
of *this* conference and then expanded the conversation here from just 
small business to all business. We could call it the business.cf! 

Does anyone have any objections?

25 responses total.

One time in the mid 90's, I was CIO of a major headhunting firm.  I had been
out late partying one night and went straight to the restroom the next
morning.  A few minutes later in came our VP of marketing, former Lions
linebacker Dexter Bussey, and he commmented "Somebody's takin care of
BIZ-NISSS!" from the horrible Killian's ambience I was emanating.
I'm glad we'll have a new BIZ-NESSS conference!

No, no.  It's BIDness.

Dexter was much more articulate than that.  He was the one that talked me into
money market CDs and 401k.  I can honestly say he was a very humble and kind
man for having been a huge sports celebrity(we often had people coming in to
ask him to sign a football or poster.)

Cool.  

Now, how can we drum up participants here?
Would lurkers who have us on their cf list please check in?

/me raises a hand.

Roger Roger.

So which one of you FWs owns a small business?

I own a small business. It is called "Lynne" and I sell skilled labor. 
Unfortunately, I currently only have one customer which means they have 
a lot of control over me. 

I do.  McGee & Associates was my only income for over 15 years.  Now it is
my consulting cover when I take assignments in addition to my job.

Do either of you advertise or have business cards? Business license? Etc?

Nah. You dont need to have a license to have a business. You just have 
to make sure you pay your taxes. Luckily for me, my customer pays some 
of my taxes for me. 

I was all set to "hang out the shingle" until I found out
that the 'village' that I live in refuses to license home-
based businesses.  I would like to live somewhere where that
kind of license was a non-issue.

I am sure there must be a loophole around that ordinance somewhere.
Perhaps you could officially base your business at a relative's house
outside of the village (i.e. use it for a mailing address). I am
thinking that if you were to do that, even if you did most of your work
from home it should be ok. I mean, in my business where I sell my
skilled labor to Big Corporation, I occasionally have to work from my
home and I am sure that would be ok even if I lived someplace that
refused to license home-based businesses. 

I had thought of using a PO Box in some other, more agreeable
community.  I don't know if that would hamper the formation of a
company though.

ball, do they refuse to license, or is it illegal?

I work at home without any license or shingle.

Re #15: I'm not a lawyer, so I have no idea what the difference is. If
   I were to consult a lawyer, my business would be in debt before it
   even started.

Re #16: I get the impression that you live somewhere more sane.

You need to pay the city for permission to put out a sign.  Some businesses
have to provide offstreet parking.

I don't need a sign, or parking.  Nobody will be coming to
the office-at-home.

ball, if you don't have a sign, and don't have anyone coming to the building,
I suspect you can legally conduct business from your home.

You used the word "license", so I assume you applied for a license and were
turned down.

In most states, the standards for licensing are clearly spelled out, with
educational, tests, or apprenticeship requirements written into the law.  

If you were refused a license, there will be clear steps for you to take to
get one.

The other issue you might be refering to is zoning.  zoning laws control where
manufacturing, commercial, and residential uses can be placed within a city
(or county, or township, etc).

Most residential zones forbid "businesses", but then list exceptions.  I don't
know of any residential zoning law that totally forbids office uses in your
home.  Especially if you don't need a sign, parking, or lots of pickups and
delivery vehicles, you probably fall under these exceptions.  

You can go read the zoning laws at the clerk's office of your jurisdiction
during business hours.  Just ask the clerk 1) what zoning applies to your
house, and 2) where in the zoning code that is defined.  You'll probably get
something like R-1, or R-1a, or some other code that has an R (for
residential)_ in it.  

I didn't apply for a license.  It didn't occur to me that
such a thing might exist until the local newspaper published
an item on the ban.  I suppose I could visit the clerk, but
the village (and the clerk in particular) is a client of my
former employer, so I try to minimise my contact with them.
Perhaps I'll just wait until we move somewhere else and save
up for tools and equipment in the mean time.  Thanks for the
tip though, I'll check the clerk's office at the new place
to make sure they're not similarly restrictive.

I'm curious!  What exactly have they banned?  
I'd love to check this out myself, since I don't think it's legal to ban all
business activity, even in a residential zone.
What village are you living in?

Replied via email.

Got it.

It's now August 30, a full 15 days since the suggestion was made to enlarge
the scope of this conference and add furs and slynne as co fws with me.

No one has objected, so let's do it!

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