Registering and Licensing Your Food Business

As a small business owner, you will have to make some choices about which legal form you
Food Entrepreneurs Series: Starting a Food Business

would like to operate your business.

There are four basic legal forms:

 Sole Proprietorship

 Partnership

 Corporation

 Limited Liability Company

In order to understand the advantages and disadvantages of each business form, and which
would work best for your situation, see the Question and Answer Guide for Starting and Growing
Your Small Business available through Virginia Cooperative Extension at
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/310/310-100/310-100_pdf.pdf.

It is recommended to consult an attorney, accountant, or any other professional that is familiar

with food businesses to help ensure you are in compliance with all local, state, and federal
regulations required of your business. The publication listed above discusses many of the areas
you need to be familiar with in order to be in compliance with local, state, and federal
regulations. Topics that are covered in the publication include: Federal Employer ID Number,
Licensing, Zoning, State Taxes, Virginia Employment Insurance, Workmen’s Comp
Insurance, Labor Regulations, and Trademark Registration, to name a few.

A more complete Business Registration Guide is available at:

http://www.scc.virginia.gov/clk/begin.aspx.

This guide, titled the Commonwealth of Virginia Business Registration Guide, is published by the
Virginia State Corporation Commission, the Virginia Employment Commission, and the Virginia
Department of Taxation. This guide gives not only advice on the registration process, but also
provides many of the forms you will need to register.

Important: This section speaks only to registration and licensing of general businesses. More
specific food-based registration requirements are discussed in the handout titled Food Rules
and Regulations: Registering Your Food Business.

2012 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University FST-52NP

Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and employment are open to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability , political beliefs, sexual orientation, or marital or family status. An
equal opportunity /affirmative action employ er. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Virginia Poly technic Institute and State University , Virginia State University , and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture cooperating. Edwin J. Jones, Director, Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg; Jewel E. Hairston, Administrator, 1890 Extension Program, Virginia State, Petersburg.