Online Incorporation MaxBlog

In addition to the important details and legalities handled by your business incorporation service, your business plan is crucial, especially if you’re starting a business that requires outside funding.

As you begin to create your business plan, be sure to include the following essential elements.

1.            Executive Summary

This section should include a general overview of the services or products your business will provide, as well as a brief statement of the projected return on investment. It should also include subsections detailing the company’s objectives, mission statement and advantages.

Objectives are best presented as a numbered list. Keep the list short, and make sure items are displayed in priority order.

Your mission statement should be no more than two sentences, and convey your company’s mission accurately, but without flowery speech. Make sure this statement is brief, versatile and timeless.

The advantages subsection works best as a short, bulleted list of three to five points you feel will set you apart or give you an advantage over the competition.

2.            Company Summary

The introductory portion of your company summary should be a short statement of the products and services you will provide, and the method in which you will provide them. Be sure to provide the name of the city and state where your business’s operations will primarily be located.

The subsections of your company summary include some of the most important information in your business plan. In subsection one, you will need to state your company’s ownership, including whether you will be a sole proprietorship, LLC or other type of corporation, as well as the names of all official owners.

Subsection two is where much of the research comes in. It is commonly labeled as the start-up summary, and should include a bulleted list of planned equipment purchases, a budget — commonly in graphic table form — detailing other startup expenses, and another table that details your expected financing sources and total amount of financing you expect to receive. If you are using a business incorporation service, be sure to list all associated costs here.

3.            Products and/or Services

This section of your business plan is generally text-based and outlines the specifics of the products or services you intend to provide. Be very detailed here, describing not only products and services, but also the methods you will use to offer convenience or added value to your customers.

If you have any specific innovations that you feel really set your business apart, be sure to explain in detail. This section is your opportunity to show your investors that you are starting a business with positive long-term prospects.

4.            Market Analysis

Another research-intensive section, the market analysis will be useful for your investors, but also offers you an opportunity to research and outline your business’s potential.

Use the introduction to summarize your market analysis, and provide extended detail in the subsections. Discuss market segments in the first subsection — organized by age group, area or whatever other details are appropriate to the type of small business you are opening. Then, in the second subsection, discuss specific strategies targeted toward each market segment.

Finally, include a third subsection where you analyze your competition and provide information on the behavior patterns of your target market segments. Charts and other graphical representations are very helpful to your market analysis, and also give it a professional look that will appeal to prospective investors.

5.            Strategy Summary

The strategy summary details your approach to sales and marketing. This is where you can establish a marketing budget that will make the process of starting a business much easier once your business incorporation service has completed their work and you have acquired funding.

Be sure to include well-researched forecasts here for how quickly your business will grow and how effective you expect your marketing strategy to be.

6.            Management and Personnel

This section should detail the management structure, number of employees and your projected budget for operations and salaries.

7.            Financial Planning

Profit and loss and cash flow projections should be detailed here. Most importantly to investors, be sure to include a break-even analysis that offers a projected timeline for getting your business in the black. Any other financial information you have not yet included in your business plan will fit well in this section.

Putting it All Together

Put the finishing touches on your business plan by printing it on high-quality paper and binding it in an attractive, professional-looking folder. If you have a logo created, use the image as the centerpiece of an attractive cover page.

Starting a business carries its fair share of challenges, but with a thorough and well-prepared business plan and the assistance of a business incorporation service, the road to owning your own small business may be just a bit easier to travel.

Naming your new business is probably the biggest decision you will make about your budding enterprise…it’s what the world will know and remember you as so you want it to be practical and memorable too.

And you will want to spend some time thinking about this too – don’t simply go with the first thing that pops into your head or your gut instinct. Chat it over with friends, do some research and come up with several ideas before making a decision.

Before doing any of this though you may want to do a trademark/name search to find if there are any other businesses out there using that name. You would hate to go through this arduous process just to find out that someone already has that name and has trademarked it.

Incorporating a business with a trademarked can be a costly mistake – at minimum you will be forced to change names and incur all expenses with doing that.  Next, you could be sued by the trademark owner and if you use a federally registered trademark improperly, you could really be in trouble. In this instance, a court will assume you knew the name was federally registered and consider you a “willful infringer,” meaning you could be put on the hook for large damages and the owner’s attorney fees.

If you choose to incorporate a business online with MaxFilings, we do a preliminary name check as part of our online incorporation process.

However, save yourself the trouble before hand when you’re deciding on what to call your new venture and do a quick trademark/name search (U.S. Patent and Trade Office) for your new business or products and also do some general searches on the Internet to see how the name is being used. You can also use a fee-based service like Thomson’s SAEGIS database.

Whatever you do, look into it…it will save you in the long run.

One question that may come to mind for businesses wanting to incorporate is how many “founders” they should have. By “founders”, we mean individuals who have collaborated together to establish a new company.

It really depends on how you structure it as to whether there should be one or two founders or five or more as expressed in the video below.

Simply having several people who come together and say – “We want to start a company that will be successful in the future” – isn’t enough. In this case, having more than one or two founders could be huge mistake. Progress will be elusive and chances are, the venture won’t succeed.

On the other hand though, if each person has their own area of responsibility like one in charge of marketing, another in charge of development and another in charge of fundraising for example, several founders for a company could be a plus.

Watch this quick interview of venture capitalist David Hornik for more. And if you’re ready to incorporate a business, turn to the online incorporation experts at MaxFilings to quick and reliable service.

Once you easily form a LLC online with MaxFilings.com, you need to develop a formal written operating agreement between each of the partners in the company. Even if you’re a one man show, an operating agreement helps codify your limited liability.

But especially in multi-partner firms, the operating agreement can help reduce or eliminate future misunderstandings and disputes by pre-addressing management and money issues.

Corporations have specific rules from the state of incorporation – limited liability companies on the other hand have much more flexibility in their management, etc. This is why an operating agreement is important, even if your state doesn’t require you have one.

So what should I include in my LLC operating agreement? Some of the issues an operating agreement should address include:

• Ownership percentages
• Management
• Voting
• Allocation of profits and losses
• Distributions
• Rights and responsibilities of LLC members
• Ownership changes
• Amendments and dissolution

These are just a few of the general things your LLC operating agreement needs to address. We invite you to read the article LLC Operating Agreement – What Should Be Included in MaxFilings’ online incorporation knowledge center to learn more.

Starting a business in the current economic climate may defy logic. Why would I be crazy enough to give up my secure job to take the entrepreneurial plunge right now?

Experts will tell you that a recession is one of the best times to start a business – several well-known successful companies today got their start during major economic turmoil in the U.S.  These companies succeeded because they found a niche market that wasn’t being filled by anyone else. Identifying a market need is vital for any business startup, regardless of the economic climate.

But risks of failure are greater in a recession so you need to keep expenses as low as possible. Businesses that start and survive a recession though are in a unique position to profit and benefit from the inevitable economic upturn. But if you wait to form a corporation until after the recession, you will be that much more behind.

Keep startup costs low by:

1.    Keeping you day job – If you’re fortunate enough to still be employed, start your business during your free time. You will still have steady income from your day job which allows you to focus on making your business profitable with less risk.

2.    Not buying, leasing or renting office space – Launch your business from a simple home office to save on this expense. Many ventures can be easily managed from the home, eliminating the need to spend money on office space.

3.    Not hiring employees – If you need help from others, consider hiring them as contractors rather than  employees.

4.    Advertising by word-of-mouth – There are many ways to advertise your products and services without spending money. If you can’t sell it yourself, no one can.

There are many recession proof industries you can launch a successful business in. These include:

•    Food
•    Healthcare (including psychology and substance abuse)
•    Computers and IT – people tend to fix broken machines rather than buying new ones during a recession
•    Security
•    Education services (many people go back to school in hard economic times)
•    International business – the economy in other countries may be better

One challenge to starting a business is finding your niche – something that distinguishes you from other related things currently available. One of the best ways to find your niche is to create a business that offers something you needed but couldn’t find.

Read this article from Entrepreneur.com for more insights. And when you’re ready to launch your business, turn to the online incorporation experts at MaxFIlings.com to form a corporation online easily in just minutes.