If you are interested in starting your own corporate business, you will need to decide whether you are willing and able to focus the necessary energies it takes to create one. Certainly, an attorney experienced in business and commercial law can help to ensure that you fill out required paperwork and that your business is adequately protected under the law. However, many of the steps one needs to take in order to effectively start a business cannot be farmed out to legal or financial professionals.
When beginning the process of business formation, you must embrace the art of decision making. You will be making many pivotal decisions early in the process, so it is important to mentally prepare for this reality. First, you will need to decide on what kind of legal entity you would like to create. If you will be forming a business as a partnership, the process will look differently than it will if you are creating the business on your own, for example.
You will also need a legal name for the legal corporation you are creating. An attorney can help to ensure that your name meets all legal requirements. After you choose your corporation’s name and work through some other logistical requirements, your attorney will be able to aid you in registering that name and incorporating it in the jurisdiction that makes the most sense under the circumstances.
If you are indeed creating a corporation, as opposed to a simple business, you will then need to work with your attorney in order to choose directors, create shareholder agreements and write your by-laws.
Source: Findlaw, “Checklist: Starting a Corporation,” Accessed Dec. 3, 2014
