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Originally Posted by Mr V
Regarding licensing it can vary significantly by the state and the specific local municipality, especially with regards to a home based business. Zoning laws are laws and do vary by municipality. Many will not allow anything that resembles manufacturing to take place in a residential zone. Violations can bring fines and failure to comply with an order to correct can result in potential jail time in some municipalities.
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I've dealt with enforcement attempts before:
If you can bake there, fix your cars there, clean your cars and laundry there: sure they can file charges but best of luck arguing that no manufacturing at all is allowed. Obviously there are practical limits - but seriously it is far more likely a local authority can nail you for running a service business (hair salon, restaurant, bar, landscape contracting) than stop you from running a small milling machine and even PCB milling systems (what's next: hot glue guns, drills, staplers, 3D printers, optical disc writers?).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr V
Another thing that hasn't been mentioned is any Home Owner's Association rules on home based businesses. They can be very strict in some cases.
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True if you live in a condo association or controlled community:
1. I pity your situation: these situations are ripe with crazy enforcement possibilities that you can inadvertently consent to and would not otherwise be enforceable by local zoning officers.
2. Usually you can move the manufacturing part out of the area and they can't stop you. In the past I have been known to accumulate work areas in towns nearby. Such that if someone raises a fuss - they are completely unable to halt my operations because I simply move them overnight to a new jurisdiction in which they have not got authority to act. Kind of bizarre when you are doing something perfectly legal but can't do it somewhere because of a broken legal system and people's agendas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr V
The time to get a license issued can vary as well. I know in the city where I used to run a home based business it took about 2 weeks from the time I turned in my application and money until it was approved and issued. In that case it had to be approved by a number of different departments. For example I had to talk to the fire chief and answer a number of questions before he decided to approve it and send it off to the next person on the list.
But yes in many cases getting a business legally operating is not that hard, expensive or take that long to make happen.
Other things to think about are taxes that again can vary. In my state there are B&O taxes based on the amount of sales. The city I operated in had their own version of wage taxes where there was a per hour, per employee tax rate that applied to anyone working in the city and to people working for businesses based in the city even if they are doing work outside of the city.
TLDR: Things vary depending on locality and anyone that wants to start a business needs to carefully research the specifics that apply to their location and type of business
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Good points. There are often exceptions. Ultimately though, even after you face the challenges in creating a business that would naturally exist. FIRST rules may still complicate things further. It is always wise to ask, and even, sometimes wise to progressively challenge the common knowledge because this is complex enough that sometimes what people think they know is FIRST regulation is not what the people that control FIRST actually think about the matter. Obviously the ability to challenge the status quo should be done with respect. It is not a license to be rude.