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.

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.

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.

American Express is giving away free Facebook advertising for small businesses as part of their Small Business Saturday promotion. If there was ever a time to start a corporation of form an LLC, the time could be now, this isn't the first time American Express has decided to help out the small business community and it seems to be a growing trend among banks and credit companies. For this campaign, American Express is providing the first 10,000 business who sign up for the program, $100 in Facebook advertising. The promotion also is giving $25 to American Express users who vow to use their cards towards small businesses on November 27th, Small Business Saturday. Being tied in with the Facebook portion of the promotion, Amex is also giving away $1, (up to half a million dollars) for every "Like" they get on their Small Business Saturday page, to Girls, Inc., a charity that helps teach young women to succeed in business.

Times are tough and many businesses out there are struggling to survive.  Many unfortunately are going out of business simply because there isn't enough customers to keep their business going.  In this case, if you're running a corporation or a LLC, it is important that you file for a dissolution with the state.  A dissolution, is the opposite of forming your corporation by submitting articles of incorporation or oganization.  Articles of dissolution must be submitted to the state to terminate the existence of your business.

With the filing of the Articles of Dissolution, fees may be involved to submit these forms to the state.  Failure to submit these forms to the state may result in you paying fees for having a company that is still active.  In most state, failure to pay these fees may result in an automatic dissolution with the state.  In California, failure to submit the articles of dissolution, may require you to pay the minimum franchise tax of $800.  Therefore it is important that you file these documents.

Once business gets better,  most states may reactivate dissolved companies however you will most likely need to refile articles of incorporation to reinstate the company.  One thing to note about this is that some states require a corporate name to be dissolved for a certain period of time, usually a year to five years for the same name to be used again.  So you may need to change the name of the corporation if this happens.

We can help you with your dissolution filing. Please contact us today.

When starting a business, filing for an LLC or forming a corporation, it's important to know who's going to be a part of the business at hand. Because some states require you to list the members or the directors, choosing your partners in business can be an important task that is a hassle to update should you wish to do so after the creation of the entity. It's important to choose savvy business people who you can trust to become business partners with. Many times people form businesses with their families, and while it may be a good idea in some ways, if there is ever a dispute it is likely to spill over into the personal relationships of the partners. When forming an LLC or corporation it's important to have guidelines in place, an operating agreement and bylaws are required in every state to ensure that the business is being run rather fairly. Take a good amount of time to consider who will be the best person or people who will fit well with your business, be sure they have the same goals, values and ethics as yourself. If you have any questions about starting a business, contact us at 866-999-8200.

We've touched on the subject before, but now we want to stress the importance of creating a website for your small business, regardless of your business type. As this generation gets older and the new generations are more tech savvy, ways of marketing your business are going almost completely digital. It's probably been quite a while since you opened up a big yellow phone book to look up any type of business, are they even in production anymore? These days everyone takes to the internet to search for what they're finding, and if your business doesn't have a presence on the internet, chances are your business will not be found other than by means of word of mouth. Because we're expanding our services to include all aspects of small business, along with our regular LLC and corporation filings as well as DBA filings, we're also now providing design services through our sister company, LogoBang. Should you need a website built, a logo design or questions about any type of design services, we're here to help, contact us at 866-999-8200.

When you first get the idea to start your own business, it's important to set aside time to work on your new start up. There are so many people out there who take the first step in starting an LLC or forming a corporation and never continue with their dream because they don't set aside time to push the business forward. While it's great to see people starting things, you should make it an important part of your day to push things forward, if you need help doing this, set up a calendar and write small tasks down each day. Because so many people are starting their own business on the side of their regular job, it's often an afterthought. In this day, it's important to work for what you want, and if you want to be your own boss eventually, you're going to  have to work for it.

Imagine if businesses like Starbucks or McDonald's opened at different times everyday, it would be a little annoying to know that some days you were able to get your coffee or breakfast and some days you aren't because they decided that their businesses will open when they're going to open whenever they feel like it. Many people who start a small business feel that they can do that, because you are a small business and may not have anyone to answer to about being inconsistent. The truth is, if you don't have employees and are working by yourself, your boss is the clients. If you work in a coffee shop or somewhere where you depend on word of mouth marketing or repeat clients, it's extremely important to set yourself a schedule, so that loyal clients will become familiar with it. If there's a day you will not be open for any reason, or will be opening late and if you're aware in advance, let you customers know in advance, they will be appreciative if they see a note on the door that states you will be closed on a certain date. This also gets rid of the confusion on potential new clients if they happen to stumble upon your business on that day you happen to be closed, if they see a sign "We will be closed on 10/28/2010" they know that they can come back on the 29th and you will be open. Whatever your schedule might be, be sure to stick to it, and only stray from it when absolutely necessary.

When some people are eager to start their own business they often have focus on one part of the business, they seem to forget paper work such as forming an LLC or incorporating, business licenses, city permits, bank accounts etc. The reason I bring this up is because many people tend to jump on business trends prematurely because they have a great idea that will be great if it's correctly executed. With so many business trends popping up these days, a lot of people jump head first into starting a business without doing the proper research and development. For someone doing this, they should avoid jumping on the bandwagons for business trends and crazes. For example, in bigger cities, food trucks are all the rave, and though they are on top of the world right now, most of the food trucks just getting into the game will not succeed, because they are prematurely opening up shop to join the pioneers at the top.

If you have a good idea it should still be a good idea in a few months, so take the time to develop a detailed business plan which includes all aspects of your business including all costs to the business. If you have questions about forming your own business please don't hesitate to call us at 866-999-8200.