We are quickly approaching the end of the year.  Many will wonder whether its best to file a new Corporation now or wait till 2011.  The answer to your question may not be very clear.  It may come down to taxes and the best person to ask about when to file could be your accountant. 

Filing now may be beneficial if your business will benefit from tax related deductions.  However, many may opt to file at the start of the new year just to make things easier and a more symbolic gesture as to when the company starts.

There are many advantages and disadvantages to go into on whether it is best to start a corporation now or wait till 2011.  It really comes down to a personal choice on the matter.  There may not be a compelling reason to file now vs. later. 

Consult some professionals on when the best time for you to file and then you can contact us at 866-999-8200.

Thats the question many Repbulicans are questioning.  They argue that most of the people that would be affected by extending the tax cuts are small business owners.  They feel that extending cuts would enable business owners to invest more into their company.  However the problem is that a lot of small business owners don't make $250,000 or more per year.  The Democrats contend that giving tax cuts to the rich will not erode the economy. 

Many of the business today are sitting on cash because they are uncertain of the future.  Companies are not willing to hire until a much clearer picture of where the economy is going develops.  Companies that are making money and the owners who run them say they would make different decision based on if the Bush tax cuts are not extended. 

Over the last few decades, changes to the tax code has many companies reporting their income on the individual income.  A S Corp filing with the IRS allows corporations to report their income on personal tax returns.  This means that companies making millions of dollars, those millions of dollars are being reported on individual tax returns.  Corporation are not getting taxed anymore as they did before with C- Corps.  Therefore the argument is that the companies making millions of dollars are not being funneled back into the company because the individuals are getting taxed more.

The response to this is that these rich individuals could in fact pay themselves less and invest the saved money back into the company.  Therfore the impact of the Bush era tax cuts that are expring will probably not effect the company.

We often get calls with the question, "How do I incorporate?" and while most of these questions mean the person would like an explanation on how our process works. While anyone can incorporate their own business (most states do not require an attorney), a lot of clients come to us so they don't have to deal with the fuss of drawing up or preparing their own articles of incorporation. Our process is one of the easiest online, and it also gives you a chance to review what we're filing on your behalf, which not many companies do. How it works is, once you place your order one of our staff members does a name search and if the name appears available, they will prepare the documents for you to sign. You are then able to log in to our website, review the information you either put in online, or gave us over the phone, and download your articles of organization. Most states allow us to accept faxed or emailed copies of your signed articles, though some will require you to mail these documents to us with original signatures. We do one last review prior to sending your documents out to the state. Once the documents are sent to the state we monitor the filing daily to ensure you're notified by email as soon as they're approved. It is a pretty simple process when you have us file your documents, as we take responsibility for making sure the state is paid their fees and you are notified upon approval. If you have any questions regarding forming a corporation, call us at 866-999-8200.

While many of you out there are working from home, especially when just opening up an LLC or forming a corporation, the attire is often pajamas, or comfortable clothing that allows you to feel relaxed. Although it doesn't really matter how you look while in your home, it's important to dress professionally when going to meetings or even having Skype or video chats with clients or employees. If you're meeting up with a client be sure to dress professionally, for men, slacks, dress shirt and dress shoes is often good enough, if you're having a more casual meeting, polo shirts and khaki pants are also acceptable, be sure that your clothes are always clean and pressed, regardless of what they are. For women, there are a little more options, slacks and a dress shirt also work, but you can also wear a skirt or a dress. It's important to make sure that your clothing isn't too flashy, or you don't have too  many accessories, as they can be distracting. When having meetings from home, be sure to find a quiet clean place to have the meeting from, whether it's a video or phone meeting, background noise can cause major distractions.

In this edition of Successful Small Business Tips we're going to discuss the importance of having a set of policies. Obviously every client is different, and we've talked about having an attitude that allows you to sway a bit when it comes to your standard practices, but it's important to set that standard as a foundation of what others will look upon as your company grows. When your company gets bigger, you will have bigger responsibilities, which leaves everyone under you to take care of dealing with clients. There may never be a day that you transition out of the customer service part of your business, but you may be gone one day and your company should have a policy that everyone follows. Having policies in place will ensure that there is no panicking when a problem arises and that you can rely on your staff to carry out tasks just as you would like them to. It's important to set up these policies prior to doing business so that all your policies will be in the same vein as each other.

For example, if you run a book store, most book stores do not allow book exchanges, but they do allow exchanges for other items they may sell, such as book lights. If your general store policy is no exchanges, it may upset someone if they try to return an item that is not a book, like the book light, and they are turned away. If you had a policy set up where there is no book exchanges, but anything else can be exchanged for up to 7 days, that could resolve a problem before it even occurs. Think of problems that could arise, and be sure to write your policies down, have an easy to find area on your website with your policies listed.

If you have any questions about business policies or starting a business, call us at 866-999-8200.

Here at IncorporateFast we get a lot of calls with questions regarding how to make sure that the state shows the business as a woman-owned or minority-owned business. In most cases the state does not ask for the ownership percentage, and minority & woman owned businesses are for the most part, required to be 51% owned by minority or women. With LLCs, members are the owners of the LLC, and with corporations, ownership is shown by who holds shares of stock in the corporation. While the state might not request this information, in order for you business to be registered as a minority owned or woman owned business, you must apply with the Small Business Administration. There are a lot of benefits to having your business registered as minority or woman owned, a big advantage is that there are special loans and grants that your business can apply for. If you have questions about forming your own business, please don't hesitate to call us at 866-999-8200.

Citi  is a the top bank world-wide when it comes to big business banking. As of now, Citi bank has a corporate client list of 2,500 out of the 3,000 top corporations globally. While it's clear that Citi has dominated the big corporate market, their CEO, Vikram Pandit, just announced that the company will be hiring 200 bankers to target the small business market. Small business to Citi means any business with less than 20 million in annual sales. The bankers should all be in place by the end of 2011. If you have questions about starting your own small business, we can help in all aspects, from incorporating to creating a website, give us a call at 866-999-8200.

When you start your own business, most people are not used to interviewing potential employees, because not too long ago you were just an employee yourself.

You have to remember that the person being interviewed is probably nervous, so try and write your own set of questions, rather than only going the general what-are-your-strengths-and-weaknesses route. Ask the interviewee questions that would actually pertain to your business, if you work in an office that always has people walking in and out or loud music, ask your interviewee if they can concentrate in that type of environment, many people cannot, and although you may do  your best to accommodate someone who you think is good for the position, if that someone doesn't adjust well, they may leave, or be unhappy.

Also when interviewing, make sure you try your best to make the interviewee feel comfortable, the environment for an interview doesn't have to be uptight and by the book. I've had interviews where the interviewer asked what type of music I preferred or what my favorite movie is, questions such as these allow you to gauge the interviewees personality better to see if they are a good fit for your company, it opens up the invitation for chat, which can put the interviewee at ease.

I myself don't have much experience being the interviewee, and very little being the interviewer. I've only had a few jobs, and I didn't interview many times before I found somewhere I fit in, but there is one interview that will always stick out in my mind, and it's basically what not to do when conducting an interview. It could have been the uncomfortably quiet office that I walked into that didn't help put me at ease, but the company owner who was interviewing me also was cold and inviting. Part of the interview required me to do a basic math quiz, after the test, the owner came in to score it, I had got all problems but one correct, and the owner's comment was, "Well, you're not dumb." I pretty much wanted to leave right then, but I stuck around for the remainder of the interview, basically being given the rundown on how operations work. I left knowing that if I had got offered the position (even though the pay was higher than I was expecting), I would not take it. I was offered the position within the next week, I declined.

If you ever watch NBC's The Office, you've noticed that the Dunder Mifflin employees generally seem to be happy, regardless of office hijinx or their boss's unconventional way of running the office. We all want to work at an office that is exciting and always has something going on, but that's not the reality for most work environments. In a professional office there are lines you have to draw, but just as important as employees keeping their boss happy, the boss should also be keeping his employees happy. There are a few tips you can use in order to increase happiness in the office, and in turn, increase productivity:

Music, if an office is too quiet time seems to drag, allow employees to wear their iPods or play their music at their desk at a low volume, just be sure that they have a quick mute button in case they need to take a call, or if someone comes to speak to them.

Potlucks, a good idea to bring up office cheerfulness is to have a potluck, maybe every month or every other week. This gives employees something to look forward to when they come in for the day, other than the probably stressful tasks they have at hand. A potluck is also good because it's one less thing the employee has to think about doing for the day, lunch.

Award gift cards, if someone is excelling in their position, they should be rewarded. People love recognition and who doesn't love gift cards, they don't have to be expensive gift cards, but a $25 gift card out to one employee at least a once a month can boost performance as well as employee happiness, because the employees will actually feel like you notice them.

Host a softball game with a vendor you work with, if you have enough employees, ask them to participate in a softball game for your company against one of your vendors. This will not only lead to happiness but it will also show the sense of pride your employees have for being a part of your company.

If you have any questions about starting your own business, please don't hesitate to call us at 866-999-8200.

So many people out there have hobbies that they enjoy doing, on weekends or time off from work, and some of them even dream about doing their hobby full time. We've worked with several clients who have turned their hobby into a business, and sometimes it might not be a full time business at first, but who wouldn't like being paid for what you love to do anyway. Look at businesses like fishing guides or skydiving businesses, the people who run those businesses aren't your everyday business people, they are people who loved something so much, they decided to make it their business, and since work takes a big chunk of your time, why not do something you love.

The first step in making your hobby your business is to write a business plan. It might not be a detailed business plan, but you need an outline of what needs to be done and how you plan to accomplish these tasks.

Including in that plan should be whether you're going to form an LLC, form a corporation or simply file for a DBA; your marketing plan, which these days has a lot to do with your online presence. Once your business plan is in place, you can hire a company, such as ours, to take care of a lot of the parts of getting the business up and running, or do it yourself. If you're going to be doing any of the tasks yourself, be sure to set up deadlines for every task. Too many times people will start something, only to leave it sitting forever, unfinished, where if they just gave themselves some sort of deadline, they could make it work. If you have any questions about making your personal hobby a business, give us a call at 866-999-8200.