So you are ready to take your idea and turn it into a business. Congratulations! Taking that step requires real courage so well done for being so brave and ambitious. You are now on the pathway to financial freedom. You now have the means to generate the money you want and deserve. That’s fantastic!
But how do you actually set up your business?
The process varies from country to country and state to state but it usually isn’t that hard to do. That said, by registering a business you are taking on legal and fiscal responsibilities so you have to take the time to ensure you understand the process and are not leaving yourself open to problems down the line. The challenge that faces many people is ensuring that they have done everything correctly, ticked all the right boxes and filled in all the right forms. What state do you register your business in? Why does that matter? Have you protected your personal assets? What tax forms do you need? Do you need an attorney? It can be really overwhelming if you are not sure what you are doing.
But don’t be put off. Once you know what you need to do and how to do it, you will find that you can set up your business as a legitimate company fairly quickly and easily. This gives you the ability to trade, adds real credibility to your business when attracting new customers or applying for finance and allows you to apply for the business licenses you might need. If this still feels a bit too scary then don’t worry. There are many services such as incorporate.com who specialize in incorporation and LLC formation services for small businesses and they can take care of all this for you.
We like incorporate.com because they use a really useful business formation wizard which takes you through the process of setting up your business so you can ensure you are selecting the correct options for your business structure, protecting your personal assets and looking after your taxes. You can complete your part of the process in about 10 minutes and then they deal with filing the paperwork for you which, depending on the state, normally takes 24-48 hours. And that’s it..
They are really inexpensive. When you are registering your company you will need to complete state forms, get them signed and then submit to the Secretary of State. An attorney would happily charge you a sizable fee to complete this process and you would have to do all the running about or wait for them to do it for you, but using an online service such as incorporate.com avoids all of that. You pay a small fee and they do all the legwork. So if you feel a bit unsure about how to go about setting up your business, just let them do it for you and then you can rest knowing everything has been done correctly and all you need to worry about is running your new business.
Not only that you get a free compliance management tool that informs you of everything you need to do to remain compliant, online document storage, payment and order tracking. But our favorite thing is if you form an LLC with them, go through their compliance checklist and your corporate veil is pierced, they will reimburse legal defense fees up to $50,000!
When it comes to legalities you really don’t want to cut corners. Having your own business is great but it also comes with responsibilities for things like taxes and insurance. You will make mistakes as an entrepreneur and sometime that means your profits will take a hit but if you make a mistake with your legal responsibilities and really mess up then you could be facing fines, law suits or even jail! Using a service like incorporate.com will give you the peace of mind that everything has been done correctly and even if something goes wrong, you have some protection.
Protecting Your Brand
If you have your own product or idea then protecting that is crucial. How awful would it be to have someone else to steal you dream because you didn’t file the proper legal documents? It happens every single day to inventors and entrepreneurs all over the world. So what do you do? Do you need to trademark, copyright or patent anything in your business? What’s the difference? What paperwork do you need? This can be a total minefield and if you get it wrong and someone else patents your product it could mean the end of your business. If you are worried about doing this yourself then you can go to companies like Legal Zoom who are perfect for small businesses who need legal help but are on limited budget.
Legal Zoom can also help you with reviewing contracts, filing corporate documents, compliance checks, tax advice or just general legal advice. What we really like about them is their Business Advisory Plan. For a really affordable monthly fee (about $30 per month) you can get access to a whole range of legal services. As part of your membership you will get access to an attorney and a tax professional, contracts and legal documents reviewed, legal consultations, access to their legal library and an annual business evaluation. It’s a really great value and if you think you may need access to legal services, especially in the early days of your company, it will save you a fortune compared to a traditional attorney.
Getting Legal Documents
Now that you are set up, know what you need to do to remain compliant and you know exactly what your responsibilities are, you may find that new legal needs arise and you need to source the proper paperwork for your business. Whether it’s the correct forms for your accounts, employment contracts or asset purchase agreements, you want to make sure you are getting it right and avoiding unnecessary problems. For this we recommend Find Legal Forms. This service is ideal for small business as it is really affordable. You will receive compliant forms that have been approved by attorneys and they come with money back guarantees so if you get the wrong form then you can simple get your money back – no big deal.
They have combo packs which group together forms you may require to complete a particular task so you have everything you need and also all the information you need to complete the paperwork. One of our favorites is the Internet Forms Combo Package that contains things like Website Maintenance Agreements, Privacy Policies and Terms of Use Forms. You get everything you need for your website at a massive discount making it the ideal solution for new businesses on a limited budget.
You Can Do It!
The purpose of this blog is not to scare you but to make sure you avoid the mistakes that many other entrepreneurs make when they are setting up their companies. You cannot avoid expenses when running a business. You have to make decisions where to spend money and when to cut costs. Ensuring you are legally compliant is NOT the place to corners! The consequences of messing up can be catastrophic for not only your business but for you personally. Do what you need to do and if you don’t know what you should be doing or how to do it – GET HELP! It’s there, it’s not that expensive and it will save you a whole lot of grief down the line. These are just examples of some of the products and services that we like to help get you started, but there are many services out there to help you. You don’t need to do it all yourself. Have a look at what’s available and you will see how cheap and easy it is to set up a legally compliant business. You can do it so get started today!