So, you’ve decided to start your own business, congratulations! You’re on your way to a fantastic experience as you build a successful enterprise. Here are a few key tips, documents, and warnings from commercial lawyers and someone who started their own $10 million dollar software company.
- Protect Yourself. Business is a risky proposition, and starting your own enterprise can put you at tremendous financial risk. Fortunately, the law provides a way to protect your hard work and safeguard your personal property and other assets should anything go dramatically wrong in your business. The entity I’m describing is a corporation, or limited liability company. Both of these constructs allow you to run a business but shield yourself from liability. It’s important to do several key things:
- Corporate ‘formalities’: You can’t start a corporation and then pretend it doesn’t exist, you have to run your business and maintain what commercial lawyers call “corporate formalities” – meaning you have to hold regular managers or shareholder’s meetings, and in all ways act as if it’s the company doing business, not you.