Q: My incarcerated friend wants for me to start an online store for him. What legal procedures would I have to follow?
A: I suggest that you are better served to speak directly with a lawyer in your area so that you can get into the specific desires and goals of the business, and thereby set up the corporation correctly from the start. The Justia system is a great tool, but I suggest that your case really needs one on one advice with specific details about the business.
A:
First step: you'll need an EIN. When obtaining an EIN, the legal procedures you would have to follow aren't that much different from if you were setting up an ecommerce site for yourself except that you would identify yourself as an "authorized third party designee". The process of doing that is just about as simple as creating a new email address and is 100% FREE if you do it yourself.
The next steps would be to register the business with the state of FL, open a business bank account, build the site and manage the business.
In addition to the legal steps, it appears that you might need some business advice too so that you can avoid being like the 9 out of 10 people who start businesses that end up failing. My firm and many others can do both. Therefore I suggest reaching out to an attorney/consultant so you can get the complete help that you need.
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