E-Commerce Journal Part 2 Page 4

The Business License

In order to conduct business in the state of Louisiana, we would need a business license, a state tax ID and a parish (county) ID. Tammy and I took a Thursday off and headed out. The process went pretty darn fast, believe it or not.

First, we went to the town hall and filled out the application. That would be $25. Next, we took the application over to Building and Zoning, but no one was in at the time. We left the paperwork and headed out to Baton Rouge to get our state tax ID. An hour’s drive and three forms later we had the ID and were back on the road home. No charge.

The paperwork was waiting for us at the Building and Zoning Commission. They zoned us as a home business that used phone lines. I guess that would be like a telemarketer. That was the closest category we fit into. $50.

We took the paperwork back to town hall and cut a check for $75. We have a license.

Next, we took that license up to the parish (county) seat, a town called Amite – they have a live alligator in front of the fire hall – to get the parish tax ID. One form later, we had our ID and it was time for dinner.

No one can believe we got the entire process done in one day. OK!

Back to Verisign

I got on the phone to Dun and Bradstreet and my wife faxed in the license to Verisign. I answered a few questions and got my DUNS number.

We got back on line with Verisign, and the process went quick as a wink. Except…we now had to wait three to five days for authorization.
We are just over a week before the site goes live.

I called Verisign and asked if there was any way they could speed things up a bit. They were very nice about it and agreed to help. The next day, they called, verified who we were, and the certificate and installation items arrived. I sent them to California to the people who know what they’re doing, and they took over.

Whew! Eight days until we go live.

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