How I set up my own business officially today I've decided that I can't set up a business according to what I saw on the government’s website. Information there is out of date. So this morning I went to the commercial bureau for guidelines. To my surprise, the clerk there told me that in order to have a privately-owned business I did not need to have a commercial property or rent one. A residential property can also work. That was really great news for me, since what I had had was a residential apartment and I didn’t want to rent anything before my business could make money. Our apartment is under the name of my wife instead of me. So my wife and I went together to the city hall at 11:00, to grab a certified copy of ownership certificate of our apartment. The apartment was still in mortgage. As a result, we couldn't get the ownership certificate it self, but only a copy of it. When it was done it had been 12:00. The commercial bureau doesn’t work until 15:00 in the afternoon. So I had lunch and wait until 15:00. I then went back to the commercial bureau with my ID card, the copy of the property certificate and the marriage certificate, which was used to show that I was the co-owner of my wife’s apartment. I talked to the same clerk there and everything works out fine. I got everything done in one hour and I got the business license right away! A business license was not enough for me to work as an Internet service seller. I needed to have an business bank account. Instead of doing a google for information, which I used to, I directly went to a bank and found out that I needed a tax account, an official seal and a personal seal. So I did what I was told to do. In one hour I had got a local tax account. I applied for seals in a licensed seal shop, and put them on record in the police office. I would have to wait 2 more days for the seals to be done. To sum up, you need to do the following to set up a privately-owned business and run it in your own residential property: 1. Go to the city hall to get a copy of your ownership certificate of your property. Get your marriage certificate if the property is under your partner’s name. No fees here. 2. Go to the commercial bureau in your town to submit your application for setting up a privately-owned business and receive the business license right away. No fees here. 3. Go to the local or national tax bureau in your town to set up a tax account with your business license. No fees here. 4. Have a licensed seal shop make an official seal