How to start a research peptide business: the operating checklist

First decide who you sell to

The same product can be sold three ways, and each one changes the paperwork, the pricing and how much checking you do on buyers. Decide before you set anything else up.

Many new companies start wholesale-only because it needs no storefront on day one. If that is you, read how to become a peptide distributor next.

Step 1: Form the company and open its bank account

Card processors, banks and wholesale suppliers all underwrite a business, not a person. Do this before anything else, because every later step asks for these documents.

1. Form the company. Most sellers use an LLC. Your attorney or accountant can tell you whether another structure suits your situation better.
2. Get an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. It is free when you apply directly on irs.gov; be wary of sites that charge for it.
3. Write an operating agreement, even for a single-owner LLC. Banks and processors often ask for it.
4. Open a business bank account in the company's name and run every sale and expense through it. A clean account is one of the first things an underwriter reads.
5. Set up a business address and phone number that you can keep for years. Changing them later means updating every account and every label.

Step 2: Register for sales tax where you sell

If you sell physical goods to buyers in a state that taxes them, you usually need a sales tax permit there, starting with your home state. Ask an accountant which states you need to register in as your sales grow, and whether any of your buyers can give you a resale certificate so a sale is not taxed.

Keep the permit number handy. Wholesale suppliers and some processors ask for it.

Starting in Texas

These are the Texas-specific pieces we could confirm on the state's own sites as of September 2026. Check the linked agency pages before you file, because fees change.

This is operations guidance, not legal or tax advice. Whether and how research compounds are taxed, and anything about what you may sell, is a question for your accountant and attorney.

Step 3: Vet suppliers before you buy volume

Your supplier decides whether your business survives its first year. A low price per vial means nothing if the vial holds less compound than the label says. Ask every candidate the same questions, and decide how you will score the answers before they arrive, so the criteria cannot bend toward the supplier you already like.

• Net peptide content, not just gross fill. A vial filled with 10 mg of powder can contain noticeably less of the compound once salts and fillers are counted. Ask which figure their price and label use.
• Lab reports per batch, from a named lab, with the batch number matching the vial.
• Minimum order, lead time and shipping method, including how they pack for transit.
• What happens when a batch fails an independent test: refund, replacement or nothing.
• Who you will actually talk to, and their working hours in your time zone.

Paperwork gets a supplier onto a shortlist. What earns them real volume is your own independent test of a vial they did not know would be tested. Budget for it on the first order from every new supplier.

Keep every supplier's price sheets on file with the date received, so you can compare cost per milligram across suppliers instead of cost per vial. The cost per mg calculator does the arithmetic.

Step 4: Set up testing and a lab report library

Buyers in this market check lab reports more than anything else on your site. Decide your release rule once (minimum purity, identity confirmed, named lab, how long a report stays current) and hold every batch off sale until it passes. The guide to building a lab report library covers the structure, and peptide testing labs compared covers choosing a lab.

• One report per batch, not one report per product.
• Every batch gets a public page buyers can open without asking you. See how buyers verify a COA.
• Put the report's expiry date on your calendar before the batch sells out. The COA expiry calculator works it out.

Step 5: Labels that match your records

Every vial label needs the compound name, the amount per vial, the batch number, a storage line and the research-use-only statement. The batch number is what ties a vial in a buyer's hand to its lab report, so it must match your records exactly. A QR code that opens the batch's public report saves you most report requests. The vial label guide has a template and printer setup.

Step 6: Website wording, policies and the buyer agreement

What you say decides how a processor, a regulator or a buyer reads your business. Product pages describe the compound: amount per vial, purity, form, storage, batch. They never describe what a compound does in a person, how much to take or what someone should expect.

1. Write product pages from the research-use-only product page guide and run the copy through the wording checker.
2. Publish terms, a privacy policy, and refund and shipping policies with real timelines.
3. Require buyers to accept a research-use agreement before checkout, and keep a record of every acceptance.
4. Check old pages, reviews and affiliate posts too. They count as much as the product pages.

Before you build or buy a site, read what a research peptide website needs before it takes an order.

Step 7: Get paid two ways from day one

Mainstream online checkout services generally do not accept this category, so card payments come through a high-risk processor that reviews your file first. That approval can take a while and can be paused later, so set up a second method before you need it.

• Bank transfers and person-to-person bank payments, matched to orders with a short code in the memo. See matching Zelle payments to orders.
• Crypto, usually one stablecoin on one network. See accepting crypto and bank payments.
• Card processing, once your file is ready. See getting approved by a peptide payment processor.

Step 8: Shipping and packing

Ship fast and send tracking every time. Slow or silent shipping causes more disputes than anything else a new seller does. Record which batch filled each order line as you pack, so you can answer "which batch did I get?" and, if a batch ever fails a retest, find exactly who received it.

• Pack lyophilized vials to stay dry and upright, with enough padding that a dropped box does not crack glass.
• Include a packing slip that repeats the research-use-only statement.
• Keep ship-from address, box sizes and carrier accounts set up before launch so the first busy week is not your setup week.

Step 9: The records you will be asked for

Someone will eventually ask you to prove how you run the business: an underwriter, a wholesale buyer, your accountant. Keep these from the first order and each request takes minutes instead of a weekend.

The order it all happens in

Several steps can run at the same time. The ones on the left block the ones on the right.

Doing it in Purity

Purity is the back office for this whole checklist. The setup guide walks a new company through it in order: your brand and team, products and batches, the lab report library with release rules, research-use agreement and policies, payment methods with automatic matching, suppliers and price sheets, and shipping. Every product page, email and text runs through the same wording check before it goes out, batch labels print with a QR code to the public report, and the approval pack a processor asks for is one download. Create an account or look around the demo first.