Re: Small Business - Where to start
It's amazing to start your own company, and you'll love it, but before deciding what you want to do, you will probably want to give prospective companies a reality check.
Unfortunately, since there's a lot of competition, T-Shirts are a very poor idea, which will keep the profit margin down to where you really can't make much money. Notice that maybe this might not be the case everywhere. If you're the only place for a T-shirt 200 miles away, you may be able to do it. But before you go and spend a lot of money, it's worth investigating.
You'll find a lot of creditors trying to unload t-shirts from their t-shirt companies that didn't make it, if you do a little googling.
You can do really well if you can come up with a product or service that's under-served or badly done or totally absent in your region.
You'll be better off consulting with the Chamber of Commerce in your region for particular legal specifications. It's a smart idea they should have. It differs according to country/state/country/town/etc. You would need to pay sales tax at the very least, which typically means registering with the sales tax office, but certain places have extra requirements.