Having your state & federal tax number is the biggest step in making soft baits in order to make any money at it. Your biggest cost comes from the molds in which the tax numbers really don't help much. Where they help is in supplies. Your biggest cost after molds is plastic. Having your tax numbers, you can go factory direct on your plastic & glitters and cut costs in half.
As for colors, we sell lots of baits on our web site but most of our sales come local from custom orders. The most base colors ordered are green pumpkin, watermelon, junebug, black, blue, red, white, & silver. The two other requested colors are orange & chartreuse for colored claw tips etc. It's always good to have some white pearl powder on hand just in case someone wants pearled baits. For glitters you can start off with the normal red, green, black, gold, silver, & blue in large & small sizes. One of the most popular glitters for us here lately has been the small holographic silver.