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Popular Articles
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Tips For Your Startup Company Incorporation
View all 3 articles » Explore visionwiz.net (Feb 14 2012)
The official start date for your startup is the date you incorporate the business. This is obviously important for tax purposes, but may also dramatically influence how potential investors, customers, and competitors look at you. My rule of thumb expectation is that it should take two months to set up the legal entity, six months to finalize the business plan, and by the end of the first year have a prototype product ready for customers. At this point every potential investor will listen. Timeli
The Startup Clock Starts When You Incorporate - Startup Professionals Musings
How to Structure Your Startup to Avoid Double Taxation - mashable.com
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Lower Your Start-up Legal Costs: 3 Tips
You’ve got a killer idea, a well-researched business plan, and enough capital (you think) to at least get it off the ground. Before you get too far, however, have you factored in legal expenses? It's a cost that optimistic entrepreneurs sometimes forget about or downplay.
Consider this: The average legal bill prior to Series A financing is $23,000, and the average legal bill for Series A is around $52,000. That’s according to Richard Komaiko, cofounder of AttorneyFee, a website that compares the prices charged by more than 25,000 lawyers. The company, which gleans its ...
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8 Legal Steps for Starting Your Business
Explore mashable.com (Feb 8 2012)
With each new year, budding entrepreneurs look to turn their vision into a business. These startups are often overflowing with tremendous ideas, energy and optimism — but don’t always have a roadmap for the legal aspects involved in starting a business. In the flurry of drumming up new customers, getting ready for a website launch and building the first prototype, it’s all too easy to put off some of the less glamorous, more administrative aspects of running a company. Yes, company filings and r
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4 Tips for Protecting Your Trademark
Little icons have big implications. Trademarks, those little ™ and ® symbols hanging over the end of a name, are a result of time, effort, and investment in a product, aimed to provide an extra edge over competitors. Trademarks reflect a company's overall identity and reputation—yet businesses around the world lose millions of dollars every year from easily preventable trademark infringements. By not actively policing trademarks for unauthorized use, companies risk confusing customers and diluti
Comment Mentions: Washington New York Mexico
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5 Tax Tips for Brand New Startups
Explore BusinessReel (Jan 30 2012)
Did the allure of launching a startup make its way to your 2012 “this year I am going to finally do it” plan? Have you been putting together your business plan and feel the pulse of your entrepreneurial spirit quicken as you get closer to Day One of launching? Unfortunately along with the excitement of starting your own business comes the reality of the tax code and making sure that you establish a strong financial foundation. John Stanfield of Stanfield & Associates, a Chicago-based CPA firm th
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Startups in stealth mode need one piece of advice
Explore humbledmba.com (Jan 10 2012)
As in stop being in stealth mode. Stop asking for advice. Stop doing your start-up. You're not ready. You're a naive-bullshiter. I would know. Been there... I started my first internet company while getting my MBA. I remember calling up my best friend to tell her I was starting a company but refused to tell her how the product would work. I had taken classes on IP, first-mover advantage, etc. I knew that I needed to protect my ideas from people that could steal them. And while I knew she wouldn't steal it, I needed to be ...
Comment Mentions: Apple Paul Graham Google
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5 Things You Should Have Done Yesterday
It's the end of the year. It's an important time to take stock of your legal and tax considerations as a start-up. There are several important items you on which you should take action before you take off for the mountains. (Hey, who are we kidding? You're working in a start-up, and you'll probably be at your desk while everyone else is on "break.") If your business is a corporation or an LLC, you must make sure to file your annual report (also known as a "Statement of Information") with your s
Comment Mentions: IRS California Nellie Akalp
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10 Tips for Growing Your Business The Organized Way
Explore businessknowhow.com (Dec 13 2011)
Home >Startup > 10 Tips for Growing Your Business The Organized Way Compliance and HR Labor Law Posters Safety Posters Employee Handbook Employment Forms Payroll Software Restaurant Posters HR Training & Tools Legal and Financial Incorporate Online Merchant Accounts Business Loans Productivity & News Do-It-Yourself Email Free Magazines Templates & Productivity Tools Find Jobs, Find Employees Small business and home business ideas and advice on marketing, employees, financing, and start-up.
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How to Save Money on Your Legal Bills
Explore The Neighborhood Entrepreneur (Dec 6 2011)
Many startups pay very close attention to their “burn rate,” the rate at which they spend money. A startup’s burn rate is indicative of how much runway a company will need once it starts looking for outside financing. One component of the burn rate is legal spending. Many, many founders lament how quickly and easily they can burn through funds spent on required legal services, such as key customer or partner contract reviews, preparation of funding paperwork and general corporate governance d
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5 tips for entrepreneurs building a patent portfolio
Explore gigaom.com (Dec 4 2011)
Spending a lot of late nights with your startup colleagues developing a product with cutting-edge features can prove frustrating when those features end up in a competitor’s offering. At some point, once your startup begins to gain momentum, protecting your IP becomes yet one more thing to worry about. But it doesn’t have to be a nightmare — here’s a high-level overview of how to identify and protect new, potentially patentable inventions. Look at your employment agreements — and agreements with
Comment Mentions: California Menlo Park
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Venture Deals: Chapter 13: Legal Things Every Entrepreneur Should Know
Explore Ask The VC (Aug 10 2011)
There are a few legal issues that we’ve seen consistently become hurdles for entrepreneurs and their lawyers. While in some cases they will simply be a hassle to clean up in a financing or an exit, they often have meaningful financial implications for the company and, in the worst case, can seriously damage the value [...]
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Venture Deals: Chapter 9: Negotiation Tactics
Explore Ask The VC (Aug 6 2011)
Regardless of how much you know about term sheets, you still need to be able to negotiate a good deal. We’ve found that most people, including many lawyers, are weak negotiators. Fortunately for our portfolio company executives, they can read about everything we know online and in this book, so hopefully in addition to being [...]
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Venture Deals: Chapter 1: The Players
Explore Ask The VC (Jul 26 2011)
On day two of our romp through the table of contents of Venture Deals: Be Smarter Than Your Lawyer and Venture Capitalist, we cover the various players involved. While it might seem like there are only two players in the financing dance—the entrepreneur and the venture capitalist—there are often others, including angel investors, lawyers, and mentors. [...]
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Five Legal Traps Every Entrepreneur Should Avoid
Explore Startup Professionals Musings (May 2 2011)
Although every startup is unique, there are certain common avoidable mistakes that can lead to legal complications which jeopardize the long-term success of the business. I’m not suggesting that every startup needs a lawyer, but you should definitely pay attention, and not be afraid to consult legal counsel if any of these raise qualms for you. Like other environments, most legal issues don’t result from fraud, but from ignorance on specific requirements, or simply never getting around to doing the things that common sense would tell you to do. Here are five of the most common examples: Failure ...
Comment Mentions: IRS Marty Zwilling Bernie Madoff
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Key Ring is Hiring
Explore The Startup Lawyer (Jan 3 2011)
Key Ring is a mobile app by Mobestream Media on both iPhone and Android that brings all your loyalty cards together. You use Key Ring to scan & store your existing loyalty cards, enroll in new loyalty programs, and access exclusive coupons and discounts. This Dallas-based startup is looking for people to fill the following [...]
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Pawan Deshpande » A Startup Partner Needs More Than a Good Resume
This is very true!
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This is a must read.
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