David Crabill
@david
active 2 days, 22 hours agoForum Replies Created
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Chris, I don’t think this forum is active enough for you to get many responses. You could try finding Facebook groups and messaging those, but might I suggest that you share your motives before asking? If I were a CFO, I’d probably be more inclined to answer a survey if I knew what I would be contributing towards. What are you trying to do with this survey? Why?
I understand that $20K doesn’t sound like much (I had a similar feeling when starting my CFO), but actually, most CFOs are doing very well to do $20K of sales in the first, second, or even third year. When thinking about a business, it’s easy to think about all the potential it has, and the last thing you’d want is for the law to limit you when you’re growing. But I’d say that a greater barrier is letting the law prevent you from starting.
Just start, and see where you go. Most CFOs find it really hard to get people to buy their goods, especially if they’re priced such that they can make a profit. If your business does take off and you’re approaching the $20K limit, that’s a great problem to have, and you’ll be in a nice position to consider other options at that point.
As far as not being able to advertise online, that really can be a big problem. Even still, this law makes it really easy to start nearly immediately, and you can use farmers markets and events to prove your business concept. Once you’ve proven that there is consumer demand for your products, then you can move to the commercial sector so that you can sell online.
I don’t think that’s allowed, but you could call the health dept to see if the exemption for donated baked goods extends to online sales.
There aren’t typically a ton of requirements to start a fruit stand, but San Francisco is a complicated place. I don’t know all of the requirements, but you will have to ask about zoning rules, as well as speak with the ag dept and probably a few other depts. I wouldn’t be surprised it it’s fairly complex to start one there.
It depends on the frosting. Basic frostings without dairy products should be allowed at farmers markets. To sell at specialty stores, I believe you need to produce the frostings in a commercial kitchen. For anything other than basic frosting, you need to call the ag dept at 800-282-1955 ext 4366 for more info about what’s allowed. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial
I think you’ll be fine, as long as your kitchen doesn’t open up to a bedroom or sleeping space. Assuming you’re going with a Class B permit, just move ahead with the inspection and I highly doubt they’ll say anything about it.
There probably isn’t a written rule about that. I’d say a contractor would be fine. The important point is that it’s only one person.
You need to pay annual taxes on all income you make, even if your business is operating at a loss. There is no limit — technically, your first order should have been reported. If you want to bypass income tax requirements, you would need to give away your products (not collect money). Once you start making a certain amount of money, you need to pay estimated taxes every quarter.
It should be okay, but you still need to check with your county’s environmental health dept. If they choose to disallow it, there’s not much you can do about it.
Unlike Etsy, GrubMarket allows CFOs to fulfill their orders via personal delivery, rather than shipping. CFOs can also choose to use the shipping functionality on GrubMarket, but it’s optional. The majority of sellers on GrubMarket are not CFOs.
