New Business Entity Formation

Thinking of owning your own business?

Opening your own business is exciting and thrilling. It’s everything that comes after the excitement and thrill has worn off that dictates whether a small business will make it or not. It’s up to you to maintain and stretch out the “thrill and excitement” period forever.

A methodical plan of action is needed to fulfill your dream or goal of being your own boss and running a successful business. Success lies in the approach you choose to take. We help you avoid the common pitfalls that many new small business owners make when starting their new venture.

We help you…

Prepare an initial business plan to clarify your marketing, management, and financial plans.
Determine your start-up capital needs.
Identify sources of start-up capital and backup sources if needed.

• Evaluate and quantify your borrowing power so you know how much money you can get your hands on if needed.
• Select a business structure that best fits your needs by evaluating tax advantages, legal exposure, ease of operation and portability should you need to relocate.
• Select the right accounting software by evaluating your budget, needs and hardware.
• Prepare a Cash Flow Budget so you know exactly how much money you need to keep the business alive each month for the first few years. Unplanned cash requirements are always emotionally painful.
• Establish billing and collection procedures to maximize your cash flow.
• Establish procedures to monitor and control costs.
• Setup a home office so you can maximize your tax deductions.
• Prepare and file all required state and local licenses and permits.
• Prepare and file your application for your Federal Employer Identification Number.
• Provide payroll and payroll tax filing when you bring on your first employee.
• Comply with employment laws so you don’t get hit with fines and unhappy employees.
• Identify your business insurance needs.
• Develop a solid Partnership Agreement. This is an extremely important document for all new partnerships and will help prevent a tremendous amount of financial and emotional problems down the road.

Let our experts in new business entity formation help you succeed by getting your new business off to a good strong start.

Choosing The Business structure

Before you jump on the entrepreneur’s bandwagon, you are expected to look at the business structure that fits your type of business, the legality of such a structure, tax benefits available, and many others.

Choosing a business structure shouldn’t be seen through a myopic lens. Articulating the dreams you have for your sprouting business and consulting with the right professionals on the best business structure to opt for would help you set your enterprise on the right path.

Never underestimate the importance of a business structure. It will decide how profit is shared, the sort of tax to be paid, and just the amount of documentation required.

While there are several business structures, three of them remain quite popular. They include:

• Limited Liability Company (LLC)

Many business owners prefer the LLC due to the considerably lower amount of stress associated with documentation, the protection it offers the owner’s finances and what a creditor can be taken when the debt profile of the business becomes more than normal.

There is also the added benefit of structuring the LLC to be taxed as an S Corporation saving your business money on tax payment.

• C Corporation

This sort of business structure involves a board of directors with several shareholders to add to the mix. Decisions are made by the board while the shareholders are carried along.

With the C Corporation, the organization of your business will decide if you save more on your taxes or not. For instance, if you report take out profit from the company, it is taxed separately and your earnings from the company are taxed as well. However, if you plow back the profit into the business, the tax on the C Corporation is much lower than the average.

• S Corporation

With this form of business structure, the S Corporation is a passthrough entity, where the income passes to the shareholders and will be taxed once at the shareholder tax bracket level so the S Corporation pays zero taxes. This way, you don’t get taxed multiple times.

To enjoy the gains of this business structure, you will need to abide by relevant clauses of the IRS code.

• Drafting a plan

Anyone serious about business must have a plan on how they intend to take their business from a place of ideas to the realization stage. You don’t just wake up and start a business. You need to have plans which focus specifically on marketing, financial and management to make your work a lot easier.

Your business can’t survive without customers. And they need to be told about your business before their patronage begins to trickle in. To make this happen, you have to prepare a plan on how you intend putting your business in the face of potential clients.

Do you want to prioritize social media and digital marketing over traditional marketing tools? How much would be wise to dedicate to your marketing endeavors? These are questions which could decide how your marketing plan would look like.

With the help of the amazing people at SmartCPA, you don’t have to spend a large chunk of your time brainstorming on the right marketing plan. We will help you to resolve the issues even to the tiniest detail.

In addition to a marketing plan, you need an actionable financial plan to start a business. Every enterprise will deal with numbers along the way and if those figures don’t match, there’s a problem. Also, your cash flow has to be in good shape. A financial plan would help put things in perspective. SmartCPA has capable and dedicated hands enthusiastic about your financial expertise.

A management plan might seem negligible if you intend starting out as a sole proprietorship. But it helps when registering the business and to avoid any altercations in the future.

Usually, a management plan will have its objectives and goals, list of actions to achieve these goals, procedures regarding the acquisition and maintenance of tools and many more.

It is obvious that a management plan isn’t something you would put together from the back of your head. You can’t possibly do this alone when there are professionals eager to assist you on this task. If you are in search of the best management planners, look no further than SmartCPA.

• Funding

To kick start your business, you will need viable funding sources. If you’re looking at getting a loan, establishing the exact amount of money and the nature of the loan are important.

Can you go through these things alone? Having experts do all the research and legwork shouldn’t be alien to you. Starting your business on the right footing should be the target. The professionals at SmartCPA are ever ready to assist you on this journey.

• Cost Monitoring

As your business grows, you get more hands involved to help speed up the process. Sometimes, people attempt to shortchange you for their personal gains. If you are not meticulous about your finances and how every cent is spent, the business will suffer the consequences.

By monitoring the cost of procedures, you could save your company from bankruptcy. The certified public accountants at SmartCPA are ready to assist you in monitoring your finances and the operating costs that come with running a business.

• Payroll filling

When you eventually bring someone on board to assist you in running your business, you will need to fill a payroll for that employee. Obviously, he/she isn’t working for free.

To avoid issues with the relevant tax authorities, you will have to set up a payroll tax filing to ensure he/she pays his due to the government.

The good people at SmartCPA are willing to help you tidy up these loose ends in the shortest time possible.