incorporating – Page 2 – President of Outskirts Press

Which online service should you use to incorporate a small business?

Over the past couple posts I’ve discussed the advantages of incorporating and a brief outline of the steps involved in incorporating a small business. Now let’s do some research to determine the online service to use. I’m going to incorporate a new company, so I’m going to research online services to help me. But how to choose the “best” one?

It’s not unlike the process I recommend to authors or professionals when they are researching a self publishing company: Locate a number of comparison or review sites and allocate a point system to come up with a combined value for all the firms you are researching. This prevents any one opinion from carrying undue weight. Do enough research on any large company on the internet and you will find unhappy campers and ecstatic customers. Who do you believe? You believe yourself, but conducting research and common sense. So when you look at a number of sources and take a combined average score from all of them, you usually come away with a good, fair idea of the service or company.

I performed this process for self-publishing firms to demonstrate what I mean. You can see the results of that effort by clicking here.

So now we get to compare online incorporation services. I’m going to use two comparison sites: CompareLegalForms.com and TopConsumerReviews.com. Stay tuned tomorrow to see what happens next…

ceo, start-up

How to incorporate a small business

Yesterday we discussed the reasons someone might want to incorporate a small business. Today, we’ll outline the process.

How to incorporate a small business in 5 easy steps:

1. Determine the state of incorporation. Usually this is the state in which you reside and in which you plan to conduct your business. Sure, there are some long-term tax advantages to incorporating in states that have more advantageous tax laws, but unless you live in those states (Delaware is a favorite) then you have to qualify to conduct business in your state of residence anyway, which is kind of like incorporating twice. Should it ever become valuable to consider the tax benefits, you can always incorporate in another state later, so right out of the gate, it’s easiest to incorporate in the state you live in.

2. Determine who will own stock. It’s easiest if that answer is “Me and my immediate family.”

3. Check with your Secretary of State or Corporations Commissioner and the federal and state trademark registers to settle upon an available business name. You can find these sources via a Google search.

3. Prepare your Articles of Incorporation – These forms are state specific, but fortunately, the Internet has made it easier than ever to find the correct form. Here’s a handy-dandy map that allows you to click on your state and be taken to the appropriate form.

4. Complete your Corporate Bylaws – This online form service can help.

5. Files these documents with your state and pay the registration fee.

Not easy enough yet? No problem. There are incorporating services available on-line that promise to make the process of incorporating a business a snap (and affordable, to boot!) Do they work? Stay tuned tomorrow as I compare some of the major players in Online Incorporations side-by-side and pick the one I’ll use to incorporate an actual business.

Certainly there is a correlation between this series of posts and our services at Outskirts Press. Yes, I could incorporate my business by going to each government website individually and finding the proper forms and filling them out and doing everything manually. But, instead, I’m going to opt to use an online service to make all that work faster and easier for me. Am I going to have to pay for that convenience? Of course, but given the amount of time it would take me to learn how to do it all on my own, the convenience and knowledge that it is being done correctly is worth the cost to me. The same can be said for self-publishing a book…

start-up

Benefits of incorporating a business

Whether you are an author, run a small mom-and-pop shop, or act as an independent contractor for a larger company, there are many benefits to incorporating as a business entity yourself. Here are some of the main benefits:

TOP 10 BENEFITS OF INCORPORATING

1 – You decrease your personal liability
2 – You can separate and protect your personal assets
3 – You limit your liability on business debts and obligations
4 – It’s easier to raise money for your business
5 – Creates “stock” which can be issued to investors for cash, which is more advantageous to you than seeking a loan from a bank
6 – Corporations are taxed at a lower rate than individuals
7- You can deduct normal business expenses from your taxes
8 – Corporations can deduct 100% of medical insurance premiums
9 – Helps you establish equity in a “brand name” since corporate names must be different in the same industry
10 – Helps establish credibility. Having an “Inc” after your name establishes you as an instant authority

Over the next several days, I am going to incorporate a business and I’ll walk you through the steps of doing it along with me… stay tuned…