Online Incorporation MaxBlog

If you aren’t already using SEO marketing in your business, you have probably at least heard of the term. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, and successful SEO marketing makes sure that your business shows up on the first few pages of search results when an individual types in certain keywords or phrases.

In addition to taking care of online marketing so you can focus on other important things like incorporating your business, SEO marketing firms handle many aspects of business’s online presence, including:

• Amplified online traffic and sales
• Website design
• Fresh and updated web content
• Sitemapping and indexing
• Constant website monitoring
• Linking and off-site optimization

The Fishing Analogy

A helpful analogy of why SEO is important is to think of a potential customer as a fisherman on a small boat in a vast ocean. Businesses are the fish, and keywords, or key phrases, are the net the fisherman uses to get the right catch.

Unfortunately, when a customer casts out a search they capture not just one hit, but thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. The odds that the customer will find your business out of the mountains of other options is small, like finding a needle in a haystack—or to stick with our analogy, like catching one particular fish in an ocean full of them.

One of the things SEO marketing does is to increase the odds that the customer will pick your business out of a sea of options by making sure it is one of the first options they find.

Not even a couple decades ago, passing out fliers, increasing signage, or listing your business in a phonebook were some of the best ways to increase your public visibility. Nowadays, in this digital age, that’s about as effective as casting out a fishing line with no bait. It’s virtually invisible to a passersby.

Search engines are the new phonebooks, which has its advantages and disadvantages. The good side is that search sites make it easier for a customer to find exactly what they’re looking for in just a matter of seconds. The bad side is that there can be hundreds of thousands of results from one search, making it challenging for one business to stand apart.

SEO in Small Businesses Today

If you doubt that high search engine rankings can really bring in more business to your company, consider these stats:

• Nearly 250 million searches are performed per day on Google alone, and the explosive growth of laptops, web browsing smartphones, and tablets is increasing this number even higher
• 85% of web browser clicks come from organic search engine results, as opposed to only 15% for sponsored Pay Per Click (PPC) ads
• 8-10 people use the internet to find a product or service

SEO is a new industry, but a rapidly expanding one as business owners realize that without a solid online presence, visibility is severely limited in this digital sea of search results.

Learn more about how SEO can grow your business by visiting Search Engine Optimization eBlog.

Taking the next step by incorporating your business can be about as tedious, tricky, and tiresome as solving a difficult puzzle (not to mention just as unexciting). But if you put in the hard work and long hours, the final result can make all the effort worth the hassle.

Unfortunately, mistakes and errors can delay the progression of forming your own LLC, and increase the duration of time that you are unable to begin making profit—time that you may not have.

To make the process easier, here are ten items you will need to have in order to successfully incorporate your small business.

1. Business Name

The legal name of your business is required to fill out the necessary government documents, such as the Articles of Organization. Make sure there is not already a business with the name of your choice in your state before deciding on a name. (Check your state government’s website.) Your final legal business name must also include a corporate identifier—LLC, inc., corporation, incorporated, etc.—when you fill out the necessary documents.

2. Address

State laws vary on whether or not an address for your business is required, so review your own state’s regulation on this issue, or ask your incorporator (the agent or company helping you incorporate).

3. List of Directors

You must include a list of people who are involved in forming your business. Their names, addresses, and contact information will all be necessary for your company to be registered by the state.

4. List of Officers

Other officials involved in incorporating your small business may also need to be documented. However, laws on this list vary around the country, so check your own state’s rules.

5. Incorporator

The person or incorporation company who is responsible for helping you form your business by preparing documents and acting as an adviser must also be included in state registration. You will need their legal name, address, phone number, email, signature, and any other contact information.

6. Business Purpose Statement

The state must have an accurate description of what services or goods your business will sell. Write a purpose statement by asking yourself what your business will offer consumers. This description will need to be either general or specific, depending on your state’s requirements.

7. Registered Agent

A registered or statutory agent is responsible for receiving all letters, packages, and official correspondence related to the business. The agent must have a physical address in the state where your business is to be incorporated.

8. Authorized Shares of Stock

In order to register your business, you will need to authorize a specific amount of shares that can be potentially held by your owners or stake holders, if you should choose to award them in the future. Not all shares have to be authorized, but you are required to set a limit, even if you aren’t offering public stock trading.

9. Par Value of Shares

You must also specify the par value of the shares authorized for reward. Par value can be different than actual value.

10. Preferred Shares

Most small business don’t offer preferred shares, but if you chose to do so you must determine the number of shares available, as well as the voting rights for different levels of ownership. Consult your incorporator if you have questions about shares.

Making certain that you have completed these 10 steps will get you well on your way to completing the arduous puzzle of business incorporation. And if you are feeling weary from the hassles of starting your own business, just keep the final picture in mind.

Visit the U.S. Small Business Administrations website to learn more about incorporating your small business.

You’re partners in life, and you think you’d be great as partners in business, as well. It’s entirely possible that you’re right. Unfortunately, it’s also entirely possible that the stress of business ownership will cause its own set of problems.

Don’t take that as discouragement, of course. Successful companies all over the country are joint ventures between spouses. You just need to make sure that your relationship and business goals fit together in the right way.

Starting a Business Together in a New Marriage

Don’t. This may seem a bit harsh, but seriously, don’t. Wait it out a while, until you’re sure you’ve learned how the two of you work together in stressful situations. This is especially true if marriage is your first time living together. You need to know if you can survive the little challenges like arguments over the position of the toilet paper before you can be ready to survive all that starting a business can entail.

Establish Your Roles

Before you even file that first piece of paperwork for incorporating your business, make sure you each know – and are comfortable with – your assigned roles and duties. Put it in writing and make sure you each sign off on it.

Keep it Separate

This is easy if you have a brick and mortar, but if your business runs from your home it might create a bit more of a challenge. Regardless, to safeguard both your marriage and your business, you need to establish a clear separation between when work is going on and when it’s time for home life.

Incorporate Your Business

If you don’t incorporate, then as a married couple your business automatically becomes a partnership in the eyes of the government and the IRS. If you do incorporate, however, your married status could help you.

If you qualify under the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007, you can have your business considered a sole proprietorship in the eyes of the IRS. You’ll each have to report a portion of your business income separately, but the benefit of that is that by doing so, you each contribute to and receive credit for Medicare and Social Security.

On the other hand, not incorporating and allowing the automatic partnership means that only one of you will be able to contribute to government retirement programs. That fact alone makes incorporating a safer and better option.

When it Works, it Works

If you have the right communication and the right temperaments, starting a business could end up being the best possible choice for your marriage, your future and your financial outlook. Just be ready to jump those hurdles together.

You have a concept, fresh ideas and a fantastic product or service to share with the world, and you’re getting ready to incorporate your business, but one obstacle remains: you need a great name.

Deciding what to name your business is an important decision. Words carry weight, and your business’s name is likely to be a customer’s first impression.  So how do you make it a great one?

Make your business name memorable

A short name always packs a punch, as does a great acronym if your chosen business name is longer. Ever heard of International Business Machines Corporation? No? Sure you have. Most people know them as IBM.

To get started creating a unique and memorable name for your business, let yourself brainstorm. With a pen and paper handy, think about the products or services you’ll be offering and the community you’ll be serving. Write down any name that comes to mind, even if it seems completely wrong. Once you have at least five possible names, walk away from your list for a while and clear your head.

Later, come back to your list. Read over each name and see if any more ideas for naming your business come to mind. Create variations of the names you’ve already written down. Expand and cut names from the list as many times as you need until you have chosen a favorite and at least one backup.

Verify that your chosen business name is viable

The name you choose for your business may be a perfect fit, but there are still a few details to work out. First, you’ll want to conduct a name check to verify that someone else hasn’t already registered your name in your state.

While you are waiting for your name check service, you can do a bit more legwork on your own. Search online to see if an acceptable website address is available and, if you plan to incorporate social networking in your marketing strategy (something that’s just about mandatory these days), you’ll want to go ahead and reserve appropriate names on the applicable networks.

Once your name passes the check, make sure to have it reserved so that you can be sure it will still be available when you are ready to formalize your business.

Finally, as you formally incorporate your business, consider having your name trademarked. This provides you protection and a means for legal recourse should someone else neglect to take the naming precautions listed here and run a business under the name you have chosen.

Image is everything

Prospective clients and customers will make their very earliest assumptions about your business based on the name you choose, so make sure it’s memorable and fits the personality of your company. When you have a great name, you are already one step closer to starting a business with a successful future.

If you’ve been considering incorporating a business but the economy has you feeling insecure about your financial future, a recent Capital One survey has some encouraging news. It seems that prospects for small business success are improving.

The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch is reporting that the most recent quarter’s small business profit numbers are holding steady, and even on the rise in some cases. Even better for the country as a whole, it looks like more jobs may be coming available soon. 37% of small businesses surveyed reported that they plan to hire more employees within the next six months.

The survey also shows a 2-year high in the number of small business that plan to keep spending at the same levels instead of decreasing expenditures. A full 70% will continue the same level of spending, while another 15% expect to be able to increase spending in the upcoming quarter.

This is great news for those who have been putting off starting a business until the economy bounced back. From these numbers, it would appear that the financial prospects for small businesses are not nearly as bleak as they once were. In fact, this could indicate an overall upswing, meaning now is the perfect time to get that startup going!

It seems like many entrepreneurs have already realized that now is the right time to start or grow a business. The survey also found that ¼ of responding businesses have attempted to obtain some sort of financing in the last fiscal quarter, which is a 9 quarter high.

While on the surface this statistic may seem to say that small businesses have more financial need, these are the same companies that reported stability and growth. What the numbers may indicate, then, is the fact that the newfound confidence among small business owners has led to optimism, prompting larger and new endeavors for existing companies.

Incorporating a business . . . now is the time!

We’ve waited years to see numbers in these categories go up, and now it is happening. As small businesses start to again grow and flourish, investor confidence will rise, making starting a small business a viable option for even more people than before.

Of course, if you want to take advantage of this new upward trend, you need to strike while the iron is hot, as they say. Start shoring up your business plan, and research different business entity types to determine which is right for your endeavor.

Then, when you’re ready, start the process of incorporating your small business, and get ready to be an entrepreneur.