Business Formation

Starting a new business? Or is your established business looking to ensure it is on a solid legal foundation? Florida law provides many legal and tax advantages for companies that every established or beginning business needs to take advantage of.

Business Planning

At the start of a business, it is important that the business dedicate time, thought and energy to effectively mapping out a plan and strategy to ensure key business relationships are properly structured. How the business will interact with customers, employees, and suppliers are all important, as are policies to deal with cash flow, accounts receivable, and debt structuring. Startup finance can often be problematic for smaller businesses starting up, and establishing business credit can be tricky. The Byrne Law Group can assist businesses of any size with these issues and act as a trusted advisor, allowing the business owners to focus on their core business, confident that these other issues will be handled properly by experienced and licensed professionals versed in complex legal, financial and management arrangements.

New businesses often find themselves quickly overwhelmed with the "day to day" issues of running their business and often lack the time, resources and know how to deal with and implement strategies to help ensure their business succeeds. And many business owners - who often are very smart and understand their business - do not always understand the legal, accounting and tax issues that surround a business. Identifying strategic objectives to achieve goals, limiting liability without negatively impacting business, and managing smart growth often take a back seat and can be ignored, despite these being crucial aspects to a successful business.

What Business Is Right For You?

Numerous business options exist under Florida and other states’ laws, ranging from a sole proprietor to a corporation traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Which entity is right for your new business depends on a number of different factors:

Are you the sole owner and employee of your business?
How do you plan to finance your business?
Will your business incur risk?
What is the goal of your business? What is your exit strategy?
Do you have a strategy to deal with tax issues?

Types Of Business Entities

What form your business should take - both now and for future growth - is an essential aspect of ensuring your new business is built on a proper legal, tax and liability protecting foundation. Many starting a business, or looking to expand their business to the next level, pay scant attention to this important area - instead just assuming that they "need a company" set up - and may even attempt to do this themselves or pay a "document prep" service to file corporation documents on their behalf.

There are many different types of entities for businesses, and many states to choose to incorporate in. Depending on the unique needs of your business, certain strategies may make much more sense than others - in business, one size rarely, if ever, fits all. Below are some common business entities:

Sole Proprietor - this is the most basic of businesses. Typically a sole proprietor is the only employee of a business, and often the business is a part-time endeavor or hobby. A sole proprietor may operate under the individual owner’s own name, or under a "doing business as" or trade name. From a legal point of view, there is almost no difference between the "business" and the "person" running the business. If the business incurs legal liability, the individual owner is personally liable. If the business earns money, it is reported on the individual owner’s taxes. If a business takes on debt, the individual owner may be personally liable for repaying the debt and his or her own credit rating may be in jeopardy. A sole proprietorship is the easiest of business to form - you don’t have to do anything! But it also carries significant disadvantages, such as liability protection, difficulty raising capital or investors, and generally being taken seriously. Few serious businesses operate as a sole proprietorship any more.
Partnership - a partnership is when two or more individuals engage in a business relationship. A partnership, like a sole proprietorship, is a very basic business entity that requires no filing with a governmental agency to commence the partnership. In fact, a partnership can sometimes be created without an overt act. Partnerships often operate under variations of a trade name ("Smith and Smith" or "Smith Brothers Painting") and are very easy to create. Unfortunately partnerships offer almost no liability protections, like sole proprietorships, making them unattractive to most businesses - if a partnership runs into legal trouble or incurs debt, each of the partners is potentially liable for everything.
LLC or Limited Liability Company - an LLC is an actual "company." It is created by filing a registration with a state’s division of corporations. An LLC is different than a corporation, as a corporation has "shareholders" while an LLC has "members." Shareholders own shares of stock in a corporation, while LLC members own an interest in an LLC but do not own shares. LLCs are easy to create and can often be done online. LLCs are considered to be "entities" from a legal perspective - that is, an LLC is fairly similar to an actual person. An LLC can enter into contracts, have bank accounts, incur liability, own assets, and take on debt among other things. The LLC does these things, but not the owners or members of the LLC - they are protected. For instance, if the LLC was sued and a judgment obtained against the LLC, the members of the LLC would likely not be personally liable for the debt. LLCs are considered to be "pass through" tax entities - which means that any monies and deductions regarding an LLC are reported on the individual members’ tax returns.
LLP or Limited Liability Partnership - a partnership, but with serious liability protection benefits. While a normal partnership offers little if any liability protections, an LLP can provide a shield to protect the partners from personal liability that the LLP may incur. If the LLP is sued, for instance, a creditor cannot easily "pierce the veil" of the LLP and attempt to seize the personal assets of the LLP members.
Corporation - corporations offer shares of stock, which can be bought or sold. All publically traded companies are corporations, but very few corporations are publically traded. Like LLCs, corporations offer many liability protection benefits. Unlike LLCs, corporations can be treated as its own entity for tax purposes and may need to pay corporate income tax on its profits (a C-Corporation), or tax may be passed through to the shareholders like an LLC or LLP (an S-Corporation). Often times a corporate entity is necessary in order to receive venture capital or startup financing.

Call Today For More Information

Call John Byrne today for further information about this unique program - and join the numerous other businesses who successfully utilize the business planning and formation services of the Byrne Law Group. Call 813-413-6565 today to schedule a time to discuss your specific needs and learn more about this unique program.

We can provide an excellent and cost effective alternative to "big law firm" representation. As a small boutique firm, we can develop a custom fee arrangement that makes sense for you. We can tailor a fee arrangement that suits your needs based upon competitive contingency fees, hourly rates, or blended hourly and contingency fee arrangements. If you are an institutional client, please ask us about our competitive rates for volume-portfolios.