If you plan to transact business under a fictitious name, you must file a Fictitious Business Name Statement at least 40 days before beginning operation. A name is considered fictitious if it doesn’t contain the business owner’s surname, or if it contains words other than those in the owner’s full name. For example, if the owner’s name is Marge Jones, the names “Marge Roberts,” and “Marge Jones and Company” are fictitious.

1. Go to the office of the Humboldt County Clerk, 825 Fifth St., Room 108, for a Fictitious Business Name Statement form, and fill it out. (Or you may call for a form: 445-7593.)

2. Return the completed form to the County Clerk, along with a .00 Filing Fee for the first Business Name and one Registrant, and .00 for each additional registrant.

3. Publish your Fictitious Business Name Statement in a court-approved newspaper of general circulation once a week for four consecutive weeks. This must be done within 30 days of filing your statement.

Then what happens?

The newspaper will publish your statement once a week for four weeks in its legal advertising section. After publication, the newspaper will send you a Proof of Publication that includes tearsheets of your published statement and the signature of the newspaper’s legals clerk. Within 30 days of receipt, you must then bring or mail the Proof of Publication to the County Clerk to complete the filing of your Fictitious Business Name Statement.

A Fictitious Business Name statement expires five years from the date it was last filed with the County Clerk. You must refile and publish your statement every five years.

This is a tough one as the key ingredients for business success are YOUR expertise, knowledge and energy. While we cannot recommend ANY particular business, the following are some ideas we've heard from the business community;

• Rock climbing gym.
• Someone to operate a shuttle bus to help access Center Arts events on campus.
• Someone to create audio tours.
• Tourist related guided tours.
• Products using recycled materials.
• Sales reps and distributors to sell products outside the county.
• A modern facility dedicated to refinishing pianos.

We have city specific checklists here.

Also check out Cal-Gold for an exhaustive list.

Cooking is only one small element in choosing and starting a business. This belief is usually started from family and friend comments like “Geez your lasagna rocks!!  You should start a restaurant!”  There is more to running a restaurant than having good recipes and being able to cook well.  You will also be involved in buying, budgeting, payroll, managing employees, and taxes, just to name a few.  Do you enjoy cooking or do you enjoy running a business?  As owner you probably won’t get to cook much and when you do you will be under pressure and distracted by employee difficulties. Maybe you'd make a great cook in someone else's business. The important thing to remember is cooking is only a small piece of owning a restaurant. This is true for all types of businesses. Enjoying babysitting does not prepare you to open a daycare center.

It is really important that prospective employers educate themselves about labor law and their particular industries wage order rules. This keeps you out of legal trouble and also protects your employees.

This is an awesome labor law research site

Download a copy of your Industry Work Order-IWC

Between 5th and 6th streets at 520 E Street in Eureka and 225 H Street in Crescent City.