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TO LLC OR NOT TO LLC? Part 1



4 Factors To Consider When Choosing a Business Entity—Part 1


When starting a business, you have to make a lot of decisions such as: what to name your company, hiring employees, what kind of products or services you should sell, and how to fund your operation. Being a business owner comes with endless decisions.


Of all these decisions, perhaps none is more important or has a more significant impact on your success (or failure) than your choice of business entity structure. The entity you choose for your business will affect everything from the amount of taxes you pay and what kind of records you are required to keep, to how vulnerable your assets are to lawsuits incurred by your company.


Among the different business entities, all companies should be one of the following legal structures: a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or limited liability company (LLC). While you should consult with us, your Ambitious Legacy Attorneys before making your final decision, here are four of the leading factors to consider when selecting the entity that’s best suited for your particular business venture.


1. Number of Owners


The number of owners your business has will factor into the types of entity forms that are available to you to choose from. For example, if you own the business yourself, you can operate as a sole proprietorship, an LLC, or a corporation without any other partners. If you choose an LLC, the owners are called “members,” so you would operate as a single-member LLC. If you choose a corporation, the owners are “shareholders,” and you can be the sole shareholder of your corporation.


If your business has more than one owner, your choices of an entity include a partnership, an LLC, or a corporation. If you have multiple owners as an LLC, your company would be considered a multi-member LLC. Note: if your business has multiple owners, you MUST have a lawyer prepare your operating agreement or bylaws. Do NOT use a document service. Navigating ownership terms, transfer rights, what happens when a partner or shareholder wants out, and what happens at death all require consideration and custom decisions that cannot be addressed with a one-size fits all solution. If you do not have your multi-person business agreements documented by a lawyer, you risk massively expensive surprises down the road when you go to sell the business, when one of your owners dies/wants to get out of the business, or when the business needs additional capital.


Whichever entity type you choose, please get in touch with us so to get your agreements in place.


2. Asset Protection


The second factor in deciding which entity to choose, is protecting yourself from legal liability. In today’s highly litigious society, all businesses should prepare for legal conflict at some point. At minimum, that conflict could be as simple as a refund request, or as complex as an employee or team member lawsuit, or worse. If you don’t have the proper entity in place, you could lose your home, your vehicle, and even your life savings to satisfy a judgment. The same thing could happen if your company ever suffers a significant financial loss or goes out of business. Your company’s creditors could seize your personal assets to satisfy your business debt. This risk arises because unless you have the correct entity in place, there’s no separation between your business and personal assets, so your personal assets would be up for grabs in the event your company ever gets sued or goes into serious debt. For example, suppose your company is a sole proprietorship or a partnership. In that case, you and the other owners are legally inseparable from your business—your business and its owners are the same in the eyes of the law. Therefore, you and the other owners would be personally liable for any debt or court judgment incurred by your company. However, if you set up our business as either an LLC or a corporation, you can shield your personal assets from your company’s legal liabilities, including lawsuits and debt. When correctly set up and maintained, these two structures establish your company as a separate legal entity that’s distinct from you and the other owners as individuals, preventing you from being held personally liable for the company’s debt or legal disputes. As your Ambitious Legacy Attorneys, we can not only help you choose the correct entity for your business, but we can also support you in setting up and maintaining your entity to ensure you have maximum personal liability protection.

Make you’re subscribed to our email list! In part two, we’ll discuss the final factors to consider when choosing your business entity.


 

We are here for you to help you decide on the right entity, form your business, obtain your EIN, draft your corporate documents, and much more. If would like more information on how to get started, send us an email at business@franco-lawfirm.com, or use the link below to schedule a consultation.



Copyright (C) 2021 Franco Law Firm, P.C.. All rights reserved.

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