If I actually owned a brick and mortar store, the fees would be peanuts. They want to revitalise the downtown area. So they hiked the home based business fees right through the roof and getting a business license if you own a store is super cheap.

I can't afford a store. I can't open a brick and mortar business and sell to the tourists and become a solid fixture in the downtown economy. Heck, like I said, just to get a one day permit to sell things to passersby, just to sit at one of the bistro tables down at the plaza and sell trinkets and shinies to the foot traffic that goes by would be 375 dollars between the hours of 9 am and 3 pm. Past 3 pm evening hours apply and the fee goes up an additional 25 dollars PER HOUR PAST 3 O' CLOCK.

They don't want small home based business stealing sales away from the regular fixtures downtown.

I am not sure what this might do for my metal working business, but I reckon most of it will be online. Probably eBay, if I can get away with operating a business there with out a license. So much for being a law abiding tax paying citizen. This is robbery.

What's really scary, is there is no mention at all what the actual license cost is. Only the fees and the paperwork costs. Not one mention of the actual license cost. Which honestly frightens me. It's probably an astronomical figure. I never bothered to ask.

Oh. And it seems that according to the back of this piece of paper, it is illegal in the city limits to operate a business out of a rented residence. Home based business must be run out of an actual home it seems, not a rented apartment.

You know, this just, erm, well, I don't want to offend our kind and gracious hosts of this forum, but this just inhales sharply.