Starting a Company – The Essential CheckList

When starting a company to run a business, there are a lot of issues to deal with and often not enough time and resources to handle everything in the perfect way. This conflict almost always exists when starting a small business. However, there are some administrative and legal matters that are a must do. Here is a quick checklist of the most important ones Come Up with a Name for Your Company and Product/Service. It is important to come up with a name for your business that is not already being used by anyone else in the areas where you will conduct your business activity. You can check with your state corporation agency and your local county or city’s business licensing office to confirm.

Equally important is that if your company is being created to sell a product or a branded service, you also need to decide on a product or service name and check to make sure it is not already being used in the industry in which you are going to be participating in 成立公司. This too can be a violation of law- called trademark laws. For some businesses, a branded name is more important than others. And, if you are planning on distributing your product and service to more than just the local area, then you need to really make sure your trademark is available for your use. You can run a search at the US Patent and Trademark website or pay for a search to determine whether there are any issues.

Create a Legal Entity for the Company. Before conducting any business activity, you need to create either a corporation or a limited liability company to operate the business. The biggest reason for this is to protect you and your personal assets from being lost due to business obligations and problems that may arise in the future. Given the statistics in this country where small business disputes and lawsuits are rising significantly, the small expense to incorporate or form an LLC is well worth the protection.

Complete Governance Organization of New Company. Do not make the mistake of forming a legal entity at the state level and then not doing anything with it. A new entity is just a shell. First it needs to have owners. For a corporation, these are shareholders and for limited liability companies, these are members. There must be an official legal document establishing the owners and their rights and obligations. Further, it needs to adopt a personality. That means that it needs to be attached to a set of rules, procedures, and other guiding principles that determine how it will act to conduct business. Certain roles such as directors, officers and managers need to be established. All of the major governance requirements are typically set forth in Bylaws or an LLC Operating Agreement.

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