Michelle Bahena

Grace, you can accept credit cards with your mobile device and I would recommend Square or PayPal Here.

Hi,
You can opt for mobile payment services. Certain Merchant services provide mobile payment processing app that can accept payments online. The customer also receives an e-receipt. I am using the Virtual terminal for online payments. I think the process is pretty much the same.

As long as you’re using a commercial kitchen, then you should be able to do this with the proper licenses. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

The map links to the law page for NY: http://forrager.com/law/new-york/

That page gives a fairly detailed overview of the law and should answer many of your questions. You cannot start an online business from your home kitchen, and if you wanted to start a CFO, you would need to get registered by the ag dept. To start an online food business,…[Read more]

Correct, it’s almost always illegal for someone to operate a restaurant in their neighborhood, even a small one. When these services get large enough, they have to answer to regulators. One Bay Area service like this (Josephine) recently got shut down by the health dept because they were growing very quickly.

Self-employment tax includes social security tax. That’s the tax you pay in your quarterly estimated tax payments as a business. If you earn under a certain amount, you don’t need to pay quarterly.

Yes, you need a license and you need to use a commercial kitchen. http://forrager.com/faq/#commercial

I don’t know of anyone who has compiled a list of counties, but perhaps some health dept has one. Try calling up Cook County and seeing if they know more. If you can’t find a list, it’s possible that one doesn’t exist. If you spend the time to create one by contacting every county’s health dept, I’d be happy to incorporate it into the law page so…[Read more]

Can anyone tell me which counties we can operate as a home baker to sell baked goods from home? Im new to this and new to Illinois as well and not sure where to find out which counties allow this. Thank you

I’m not sure if that is allowed under the cottage food law. The law recently changed to give health depts the ability to allow other types of nonperishable foods, so I recommend that you ask your health dept. If you want to pop the popcorn at the market, you wouldn’t be able to use the cottage food law.

I’m sure it will depend on your state laws and what the health or ag dept in your area decides. I doubt that you can do this with a cottage food law, but perhaps some states would allow it.