A limited liability company (LLC) combines attributes from both corporations and partnerships (or for one-person LLCs, sole proprietorships): the corporation’s protection from personal liability for business debts and the simpler tax structure of partnerships. And while setting up an LLC is more difficult than creating a partnership or sole proprietorship, running one is significantly easier […]

Most people have heard that forming a corporation provides “limited liability” — that is, it limits your personal liability for business debts. What you may not know is that there’s more to creating and running a corporation than filing a few papers. You’ll need to keep excellent records to handle the more complicated corporate tax […]

By definition, a partnership is a business with more than one owner that has not filed papers with the state to become a corporation or LLC (limited liability company). There are two basic types of partnerships — general partnerships and limited partnerships. This article discusses only general partnerships — those in which every partner has […]

A sole proprietorship is a business that is owned by one person (and sometimes his or her spouse) and that isn’t registered with the state as a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC).
Sole proprietorships are so easy to set up and maintain that you may already own one without knowing it. For instance, if […]

For most contracts, legalese is not essential nor helpful; contractual agreements are best expressed in simple, everyday English. Although lots of contracts are filled with mind-bending legal gibberish, there’s no reason why this has to be true. For most contracts, legalese is not essential or even helpful. On the contrary, the agreements you’ll want to […]

Laws protect inventions with patents, creative works with copyright, and trade names with trademarks, however protecting an idea is a different matter. I don’t think you really can protect a business idea in any practical way. If it is a good idea it will be copied. That’s in the nature of business. Your only hope […]

When going into business for yourself start out simple. In most states, the first step to starting your business is simply to register in your county for a fictitious business name, also called a “dba” (for “doing business as”) registration. This is very common. If you want to be “Dawn’s Design” or “Acme Furniture” or […]

When starting a new business you may need start-up funds but lack the money to invest yourself. What are your options, can it be done without losing equity in the company?
Start off by thinking about it from the other side. If you had $500,000, what would make you want to give it to you and […]

People often ask if they can sell an idea of a new product or service to a company that will implement it. But ideas that can’t be protected are worth relatively little. I don’t mean necessarily legally protected, but at the very least, protected with marketing momentum, image, and awareness.
Relatively few of the well-known successful […]

The list below is meant to remind you of the tasks you may have to perform to start your business.
Not every business will have to complete each step. For instance, you may decide not to register your trademark with state or federal officials. Or, you may not be required to publish a notice of intent […]