Replies

I was forced this route back when the dotcom bust happened. I now own a small IT security business.

LLCs are good. Cheap and easy to maintain. I went with an S corp. The reality is neither really helps that much. Anybody suing you will have a better lawyers than you so what they really look for is a contract and liability insurance. Banks don’t care and will want your personal assets on the line.

I wouldn’t recommend partners unless you have too. If you do they have to bring something to the table. Money or business, otherwise use them as a consultant and pay the rate.

No unique challenges to doing business in other states except NY and CA. If they find out they will want a %. You’re really supposed to register in each state but they don’t really care unless you do a lot of business in that state, (a lot >$500k). Having employees in other states can be a major pain. I had employees in maryland and then stopped. The state didn’t like that and it took me almost 3 years to stop the threats and penalties for not paying taxes I didn’t owe.

I ran my company as home based for 7 years. You’ll get lots of mail and everyone will know. It does effect who will do business with you. I’d recommend using a executive office company so you have a ‘business address’. You can get these with Regis or one of a many others. I saw major differences in business when I moved to a ‘office’.

Selling is a bitch to learn for technical people usually. Absolutely critical though. If you can’t sell then it doesnt matter how good of an engineer you are.

Be careful if you have any customer who generates more than 10% of your revenue. I had customers who generated 50-80% and it hurt bad when they stopped.