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.

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.

Some of our customers ask "how long will it take to file?".  The answer to this question depends on where you wish to file.  All the states don't have the same filing time and they vary greatly.  Some states can take a matter of hours to approve the filing and other states take months. 

The expedited time frames usually come with additional charges.  Most of the additional charges are simply for the state to earn additional revenue with not much more additional work for the state.  It is almost pure profit for these states but people are in a hurry and they need the fast service.  There isn't much getting around that.  However some states are still relatively fast without any expedite services.  States such as Florida, Texas, and New Jersey provides some of the fastest times.  They can have a filing done in about a day.

States that are the slowest are California, Arizona and Maryland.  These states typically take about 8 weeks or so to complete their filing.  Much of the delay is that there simply isn't enough staff to handle the workload.  California has been hard hit due to budget cutbacks and furloughs.  They have seen their filings take from 6-8 weeks to about 3 months. 

Most states take about 2-3 weeks to complete their filings on average.

When someone has a good idea for a business, they should take that idea and run with it. We've all heard the stories of people of all ages, from children to senior citizens, coming up with a great idea and making a good living off of it. Some people have dreams of becoming rich but they fail to realize that becoming financially successful is hard work and it starts with a good business idea. Because there are so many small businesses out there, chances are that there is one that does exactly what you want to do. It's important to set yourself a part in a way that's noticeable to consumers. If decide to open a cupcake shop, what is going to set yours apart from the Frosteds, Crumbs and Dots out there, all fighting for the same clients? It's important to have a clear understanding of what your business will offer that no others can, while it might be your service, most people do not encounter that before visiting your shop. Some may think it's a marketing ploy that should be avoided, but sometimes it's OK to have an odd service or item on your menu. Back to the cupcake example, Crumbs offers giant cupcakes, which in reality is just a regular sized cake, shaped like a cupcake, but it gets people talking, "I went to Crumbs the other day and they had a cupcake as big as a bowling ball!" There are many things to consider when opening up a business, such as paperwork like forming an LLC or doing a DBA filing, drawing up a  business plan and looking for capital. If you're interested in starting a business, give us a call at 866-999-8200.

While everyone is looking to save money, if you're running an office it may be a little more difficult to find places to trim costs. Here are some ways that we think may help:

Paper: If you're an office that uses a lot of paper, be sure to recycle the paper, by recycling we mean in-office recycling. Many times in an offices things are misprinted, too many copies are printed and so on. If the paper you're printing on doesn't contain any sensitive information set it aside for employees to use as scratch paper to take notes on. It's a simple idea that not many offices are in the practice of.

Water: While the water cooler talk culture suffer, having a water filtration system can greatly reduce the cost of having bottled water delivered to your office. Brita is among the big companies that not only offer filtration devices that attach directly to a sink, but they also have jugs with replaceable filters.

Phone service: With landline service slowly making it's way to the grave, many companies are offering Voice Over IP or VOIP services for rates that are lower than you can imagine, when bundled with your already in place internet service, the rates are even lower.

Look around your office and see what can be reduced or see if you can work with your vendors to reduce prices of certain products. It's worth a shot and all it takes is a phone call. If you have any questions about starting a business, please don't hesitate to call us at 866-999-8200.

When you look at photos of international locations, it's easy to see how big US corporations have made their impact all over the world. From McDonald's to Starbucks and one of the originators, Coca-Cola, it's hard to find a country that doesn't have some sort of presence of these big US businesses. While this may be discouraging to some wanting to start their own business, it's important to realize, that these big corporations, were at one time just like you, a few people with a dream to make it. Since they've made it they've also made it difficult to compete with, but it's important to realize that you can make it too, and that the big businesses are just obstacles that can be overcome by hard work and determination.

Although big businesses have the financial advantage, small businesses have the advantage of having personality. When you walk into a mom & pop shop, it's nice to see how your business affects the proprietors in a positive way. When you do business with a small business, for the most part you feel like you're important to the business, which is a feeling you can't get from walking into a big store like Target. Some big businesses do make an effort to train their associates to treat the clientele like gold, but it often doesn't come off as genuine, though there are some exceptions.

Though big business may always have higher profits in the long run, small businesses often have a higher profit margin. So it in many ways small businesses are not a bad idea. If you're interested in starting a business, whether it be filing for a DBA, forming a corporation, or forming an LLC, give us a call at 866-999-8200.

Opening up a small business, forming an LLC or incorporating, chances are you'll need a business credit card, and American Express is one bank that's very visible in the small business community. American Express's small business division, OPEN, has kicked up up their visibility by launching a new campaign showcasing real case studies by real small businesses. The new campaign is a national effort called "Start Booming." If you're interested in reading more about their small business members and their success stories, visit their site. It's great to see big companies like American Express doing what they can to extend their hand out to small businesses, in this economy it's not as common as it should be.

Obviously when owning a small business in a hot area, whether it be a California LLC or a New York Corporation, energy costs are going to go up in the summer. It's important not only to your wallet but also to the environment that you keep energy usage down. There are many ways you can cut your electricity usage and without compromising the comfort of your employees or clients. One big way is to use a swamp cooler instead of an air conditioner, it uses a lot less power and often times people cannot tell the difference between the two. Another way to cut costs is to have your thermostat or air conditioning unit on a timer, lots of people do not like to turn off the air when they go home because they do not want to walk into a hot stuffy office in the morning, if you have a timer set up you can turn your air on 20 minutes prior to arriving at the office and have it shut off when your office or store closes, there's no need to have the air on 24/7. Another way, if you live somewhere where it's not too humid or hot, cut back on the air and just have a fan running, places like San Francisco and other areas along the west coast have more opportunity to take advantage of this type of cooling method. Regardless of where you are, there are ways you can cut back.

The Associated Press is reporting that "Summer Fridays" a trend among small businesses is still alive and well despite the current state of the economy. While many small companies have had to cut back on spending due to the recession, they're not cutting back on some of their small employee perks. Maletzky Media a New York Limited Liability Company knows the importance of employees at a small company, President Kevin Ravin stated of giving employees a few hours off a week, "being a smart business owner. You have to do everything you can to get people who will come to work for a small company." Lot's of companies are also giving employees a couple hours off every week as long as their work is done for the day, and it's not hurting anyone because most employees, especially at a small company have smart phones which give them access to their company email, so if they're off a little early, they're not only happy employees, but they've also got the means to take care of something from wherever they're starting their early weekend. Keeping your employees happy is just as important as keeping your clients happy, it makes everything go by smoother.