Starting a business begins with an idea, but it certainly does not does not end there. between the concept and the commencement of operations there are several legal matters that you must decide upon. This post touches on some of them.
To begin with, you will need to decide on the form that your business will take. It can be as simple as a sole proprietorship or as formal as a “C” corporation, depending on how much protection you believe you will need based on the legal entity status of the business as well as certain accounting considerations. Related to the decision about the business form decision are the questions of whether you will have any employees or shareholders; depending on the answers you give, some business types will be either impractical or desirable.
Other things to think about in advance include:
- Is your business name available?
- Will you require any types of licenses for your business?
- Will your business activity require you to comply with any local zoning requirements?
- Will your business need to observe any environmental regulations in its operations?
- What kinds of business insurance might you need?
- What consumer protection laws will you need to be aware of?
As you can see, several of these preliminary questions may require legal input before you draw your final conclusions, and that in turn raises an additional question: what kind of attorney will you need to help you? Not all law firms practice in business and commercial legal matters, so your first consideration will be to make sure that the attorney you work with has the business-related knowledge and experience to provide you with the best possible answers to your business formation concerns.
