I have some questions...was thinking of vending bbq at a couple of festivals this summer and fall...What does one need...do you collect sales tax? In kansas I do not need a licence according to the health dept. unless i do more than 10 per year. What other things does one need to do or think of?
We have served at festivals for 5 years in western KS. Ad you stated, regarding not needing a food license for festivals, we have limited our "bizz" to that venue only. A few other things to be aware of when doing festivals in KS are as follows.
1) Find out if the festival has a blanket insurance policy that covers vendors for liability (i.e. food born illness, etc) If not I would suggest you buy a policy for each event you attend. There are insurance companies that specialize in this for vendors specifically. The policies that we have bought averaged $150 for $1M in coverage.
2) You are responsible for sales tax on your product sales. Check with your festival to find out how they handle this. The festivals we attend do not report or collect sales data. We are responsible to report/pay our sales tax due ourselves.
3) Check to see what ALL of the fees are for attending as a vendor. Ours have a "space" fee, fee for electricity supply (if needed), etc. Be sure to ask up front as these will affect your bottom line.
4) This is just a suggestion borne of experience. Accept CASH only for payment. Unless you are doing this as a regular business the CC charges (using the Square or other tech means) will eat into your profits. Accepting checks is just asking for a loss.
5) Check with your HD to ensure that you are aware of all requirements for the event you are attending.
These are the basic items that we have come across.
