Start with a Connecticut sales and use tax permit. A thrift and consignment shop sells taxable goods to the public, so you must collect sales tax, and consigned items count as your sales too.

• Trade name: a DBA if you operate under a shop name as a sole proprietor, though an LLC would separate the shop's debts from your own.

• EIN: useful for banking and required once you hire anyone.

• Local business license and zoning approval for the Bridgeport storefront, plus any certificate of occupancy for the space.

• Written consignment agreements with each seller, spelling out the split and the holding period.

• Employer accounts for unemployment and withholding if you add staff.

Secondhand dealer rules sometimes apply to jewelry or electronics, so ask us before stocking those.

In Mississippi you would register for a sales tax permit. That registration is what lets you hand wholesalers a resale certificate, so you buy inventory without paying sales tax on it, and it also obliges you to collect tax on sales to Mississippi customers.

As a sole proprietor you can run under your own name, or file a DBA if you want a brand name on your website and invoices. Many wholesalers also ask for an EIN, which keeps your Social Security number off paperwork. Check whether your town wants a local privilege or business license even for a home-based online shop. If you will sell into other states in volume, you may owe sales tax registration there too. An LLC is optional but worth considering once sales grow, and we can file every piece of this for you.

Your cosmetology license covers the services you perform, but selling products is a separate matter. In Ohio you need a vendor's license, since you will be collecting sales tax on every bottle and tool sold to a client.

That same vendor's license lets you buy product from distributors using a resale certificate, so you stop paying tax at the wholesale counter. If you work from a salon booth, ask the owner whether sales run through their register or yours, because that decides whose license is used. Add an EIN, and an LLC or DBA if you want a brand name on your invoices. Your contractor license does not figure into retail, so unless you sell in a store you lease, a local business license is the only other piece. We can file the vendor's license and EIN for you.

Michigan treats a regular resale operation as a business, so you need a sales tax license. Selling used furniture and appliances from a rented space is taxable retail, and the license is what lets you collect and report that tax.

• Your lease should allow retail use, and your town may require a local business license or occupancy approval.

• Buying from private owners means no resale certificate applies to those purchases, so keep a bill of sale for each item you take in.

• Electronics and appliances can raise secondhand-dealer or recall-check questions, so keep records of what you buy and from whom.

• Choose a DBA for a shop name, or an LLC to protect your personal assets from customer injuries and lease problems.

An EIN is also smart for banking.

Bartering counts as a sale for sales tax purposes, because the fair value of what you receive is treated like money. So swapping fish for goods is not a loophole.

Whether Florida expects a sales tax certificate of registration from you depends on how often you sell. A one-off sale of a few baby fish from a home aquarium is very different from an ongoing hobby that turns into regular income. Once you sell regularly or advertise ongoing, you are in business, and a sales tax certificate of registration would be the first thing to get. Live animal sales can also carry their own rules on health, species and shipping, so be careful with anything non-native or regulated. A DBA for a fishkeeping brand, plus an EIN, would be the usual next steps, and we can handle both.