New Business Formation

Starting a business is one of the most powerful, exciting, and quite frankly… daunting things you can do. You’ve got a great idea, unique products and/ or valuable services that you know the world needs – there’s just one small problem – where do you begin?

First, pull up your britches – you’re starting a business – Act as If. Put on LL Cool J’s “Mamma Said Knock You Out” as you get dressed for the day and be ready to crush it.

While in some regards it is as simple as borrowing your parents snow shovel and walking around the neighborhood – most of the time it is a tad more complicated than that. We’ve got you covered – our checklist (grab it below) will aid in keeping you on track, getting your business going, and getting money in the bank. We can cover the MBA style business plan a little later, first the nuts and bolts.

Most important step – consultant an Accountant, seriously, more than just being a wealth of knowledge and extremely good looking with dinner party winning conversational skills – we’ve seen it all, the good, the bad and the ugly and we work with businesses from start to finish so we understand the pain points around each corner.

What can an accountant help with? Ahh, a ton… just check out this list, we can help with all that.

Most aspiring business owners have a ton of questions – and even more that they probably don’t know they should ask. Que, the Donald, no not that one, the other one:

“There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.”
Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense (1975-1977 & 2001-2006)

Going into business for oneself is full of all of these and it’s the Owner’s job to figure it all out, have an answer for everything and guide their business to immense success without breaking a sweat – hey, Jeff Bezos doesn’t even go into work until 10 am and doesn’t make decisions after 5pm and he runs the largest company in the world, call it a megacorporation if you will (Have you seen RoboCop? Then you know what’s coming).

The first questions that come to our minds (whether or not you’re in a dystopian society) surround money! Money makes the world go round – and for a business, lack of capital is the number one cause of failure. As we like to say, fortune favors the prepared – so plan for and ask questions surrounding:

• Funding and start-up capital;
  • What are the sources? What are the back-up sources? What are the backup to the back-up sources? (It’s that important)
• Your plan – you have one right?
  • Refine your sales and marketing plan – without sales cash is sure to dry up.
  • Review your cost structure – variable and fixed – what do we need to do to ensure that cash flow is sufficient to cover (and maybe even make a profit).
• Discuss and select a business structure that best fits your needs by evaluating tax advantages, legal exposure, ease of operation, portability should you need to relocate, and the ability to add fellow owners/ partners. Entity selection punches above it’s weight-class in regards to the business ability to source, keep and utilize funds and cash flow. No big deal, not much to consider – you just need to be able to predict the future. Our Entity Comparison Chart can help you begin synthesizing all of this.
  • The business structure that you choose will directly impact:
    • Funding options;
    • The size of your business and operations;
    • How you’re taxed;
    • Your share of profits;
    • Retirement funding options and other fringe benefit considerations;
    • Your degree of ownership and accountability; and
    • Your legal liability.
• Selecting the right accounting software by evaluating the needs of your business, its customers and vendors, as well as your budget, needs and hardware/ software.
• Developing a solid Partnership/ or Shareholder Agreement. This is an extremely important document for all new multi-owner businesses and will help prevent a tremendous amount of financial and emotional problems down the road (not to worry, accountants are also therapists (no formal licensing and can’t write prescriptions though).

Your positive affirmation is now “Like a Boss”!

Let us help you succeed by getting your new business off to a strong start.

Fill out our new business formation questionnaire

New Business Formation Packages

^ A la Carte fee ranges are approximates. 90+% of our clients fit into these fee ranges, but there are outliers.

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