American Incorporators

would like to wish you a

Safe & Happy 4th of July!

Our office will be closed on Thursday, July 4, 2013 and will reopen on Friday, July 5, 2013 at 8AM EST. 

American Incorporators is excited to introduce the Small Business Spotlight feature to our blog. The Small Business Spotlight will highlight businesses that we have helped get started. Each business will have the opportunity to provide a background of their business, highlight products and services, and share advice with entrepreneurs.

If you’re interested in being featured in the Small Business Spotlight, please contact Samantha@ailcorp.com and include “Small Business Spotlight” in the subject line. After we review your website, you will be contacted with information on how to be featured!

We look forward to introducing you to many amazing small businesses!

When opening a small business, it’s important to research any business license and permit requirements that may apply to your industry. Not having proper licensure can be extremely detrimental to your business. It can cause unnecessary stress, confusion, and potential fines.

To help you avoid this and better understand the basics of business licenses, we’ve answered these 4 common questions. 

1. Why Do I Need a Business License?

Obtaining proper business licenses and permits ensures that your business is maintaining compliance with federal, state, and local laws. Keeping your business license up to date is just as important as paying your taxes and annual state fees.

When applying for a bank account, you will most likely be asked to present your business license. Your business license can also help you with business financing, and may make things smoother when filing your taxes.  

2. What Are the Different Types of Business Licenses?

Keep in mind that license types and requirements can vary from federal, state, county, and city levels. The following are a few common types of business licenses and permits to help you gain a general understanding of what you may need.

Basic Business License: This is typically issued by the city or county in which you’ll be operating.

Health Department Permits: If you prepare, serve, or sell food products, this will most likely be required,

Sales Tax License: This license is typically required for the sales of products and services.

Zoning Permits: This permit states authority to use a certain area of land for a certain purpose.

Professional & Occupational Permits : These may be required for services that are regulated by the state. These services may include, but are not limited to:

Medical Services                Legal Services

Tax Servoces                    Real Estate Services

Be sure to review your state laws if you are in an industry that may require an occupational license.

Federal Permits: if your business involves any of the following, it is best to contact federal departments for specific requirements.

Alcohol, Tobacco, or Firearms  Ground Transportation

Drug Manufacturing                Broadcasting

This is a sample of industries that may require federal licensure. Please check with federal agencies for your specific requirements. 

3. Are There Penalties for Not Having a Business License?

If you do not obtain required business licenses and permits, you are highly jeopardizing the security of your company. Not having a business license can leave you legally vulnerable, result in high financial penalties, and in some cases may lead to imprisonment. Aside from this, it negatively impacts your credibility as a business owner and will cause long term negative effects for your business. 

4. How Do I Get a Business License?

Since business licenses are handled on many levels, we suggest doing research with your state to find out exactly what you may need. You may find that your local city hall, state’s government websites, or www.sba.gov are great resources.

As you can see, knowing exactly what business licenses and permits you may need can be difficult. American Incorproators Ltd. offers a service that researches, details, and lists all of the licenses and permits you will need. The only thing you would need to do is answer a few quick questions about your business. If you’d like to learn more, visit our Business License section.

Having the proper business licenses and permits is just as important as being incorporated. Do not leave this process out of your business plan. We hope that this eases your business license research process! If you have any questions, feel free to post below or contact one of our Incorporation Specialists by dialing 800.421.2661. 

This reminder is for Delaware Limited Liability Companies only.

 Your Annual Franchise Tax fee of $250 is due to the State of Delaware on or before June 1, 2013. This fee is paid in arrears for the preceding year, meaning that in 2013, you are paying your tax for the year of 2012. The $250 is a flat fee required to be paid by all limited liability companies regardless of company income.  If your fee is not paid on or before June 1, 2013, a late fee along with a 1.5% monthly interest will be assessed by the State of Delaware.

 If you use American Incorporators as your Registered Agent in the State of Delaware, you will be receiving additional reminders including instructions via e-mail and postal mail. If you have any questions about how to pay your tax, or are interested in checking the status of your company, please call 800.421.2661. 

Trade shows are rebounding as industry networking events that help promote brands and products. They can be valuable experiences for meeting new clients, as well as developing market positioning and learning about other dealers within your industry. While the key to effective trade show marketing is presenting an attractive booth represented by friendly communicators, budget concerns and planning should also be taken into account. To help you get the most out of your trade show marketing, we’ve compiled 7 key things to remember while planning:

1. Plan Far in Advance
   
   Research upcoming trade shows you would like to attend in the next year. Since booth space is usually limited, try to secure the best possible booth location as early as possible. Locations near the front of the hall, corners, food vendors, and restrooms will help give your booth high visibility. In the event you cannot afford a booth, you can still attend trade shows to network and market your business.
2. Distribute a Press Release
   
   One of the best ways to get attention from media, potential clients and other trade show attendees is to send press releases about your booth in advance. Postcards also make excellent vehicles for press releases because they can be read quickly and stored easily. PRWeb  is a great resource for creating, distributing, and tracking press releases.
3. Create Marketing Materials
   
   Prepare and order handouts that attendees can take home well in advance. Keep your trade show marketing messages simple and be sure to include contact information. Business cards and flyers are low cost, yet effective marketing tools. Try to make your business cards stand out in some way, so that they don’t get lost in a pile. Get inspired by this article featuring creative, intelligent business cards.
4. Invest in Portable Exhibits 
   
   Keep exhibits as small and as portable as possible without sacrificing appearance. Some of the most affordable yet presentable booths are lightweight and can fold into shippable tabletop units.
5. Design Attractive Signage
   
   Create an eye-catching banner of your logo to display at the top of the booth. Use another sign that summarizes your mission or positioning statement in six words or less. Messages will be most memorable if they are quick and easy to read. Skyline Exhibits is one resource that can help with both signage and exhibits, and also offer frequent webinars for trade show education.
6. Practice Presentation
   
   The most important aspect of any trade show presentation is more about the presenter than the booth. Aim to send outgoing representatives with adequate product knowledge that can capture and engage your prospects. If part of your goal is to book sales, keep in mind that you will probably want to send someone with sufficient sales experience.
7. Follow Up
   
   Collect as many business cards and details as possible at the event so that you can follow up with potential clients and resources. An app like Card Munch can help organize these cards without the mess. Taking notes on relevant trade show contacts can help accelerate the process of developing relationships and meeting individual needs in the future.  Keep in mind that email may be a way to save time, but calling individuals on the phone will likely have a more dramatic impact on sales or building relationships. 

Good luck and we hope that you’ll find these tips useful at your next trade show. Remember to review the trade show and see if it was worth your investment before considering reserving a spot for the next year. If you’re interested in reading more about trade show strategies and the best ways to follow up, take a glance at these articles:

• 10 Tips for Working a Trade Show
• 4 Steps For Judging the ROI of a Trade Show

 If you have any strategies that you’ve found to be successful, please share them below! 

Our New Online Client Dashboard is Live!

Click Here to Login!

We are excited to announce our new Online Client Dashboard! This new feature will make it easier to maintain your business records. Inside, you’ll have convenient and immediate access to:

If you are a client, you should have received an email including your login username and password. If you did not receive this email, please visit the live chat on our website or call 800.421.2661 to receive your credentials!

We look forward to hearing your feedback and hope that this helps maintaining your business much easier!

In today's dynamic business environment, it is important for your small business to be on the cutting-edge of technology both in the office and on the go.  Having office capabilities and access to your small business information is now becoming available anywhere you are thanks to mobile apps. Take a look at these 7 useful apps for small business owners: 

• Square Register: Square Register allows you to accept payments from Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover, anywhere you are, by plugging a compact card swipe machine into to your mobile device.  A 2.75% fee is charged per transaction. There are no contracts or monthly fees and funds will be deposited to your linked bank account within a few days.
• Quickbooks: This mobile app allows you to have access to and manage customer invoices, monitor payments, while tracking and creating sales receipts, all from the comfort of your phone or tablet.
• Pageonce: Pageonce allows you to see an overview of all of your business's bank accounts, bills, and credit cards on one user-friendly mobile interface. You can see more details about bill due dates, account transactions, and can even pay your business's bills with this app.
• Dropbox: This app is essential for all of your documents, presentations, and files.  Store important business files "in the cloud" so that no matter where you are, you can access them.
• Elance: When you're running a small business, your manpower can be sometimes limited and the knowledge base of you and your employees may be concentrated on your business goals.  As you decide that you need someone with marketing experience to help with the launch of a new product, hop on Elance mobile and put an ad out or contact for a job seeker for freelance work.  Find programmers, mobile developers, designers, writers, and more. 
• Salesforce: This app is perfect for keeping your customer's contact information, correspondence, files, and sales efforts at your fingertips.  Whether you’re at the airport, waiting for a haircut, or lying on the beach in the Bahamas, you can easily access information on your customers.
• Zendesk: Zendesk is a customer service app that allows you to create, organize, and complete customer service related queries. If you get a call from a customer with an issue, you can create a ticket to monitor and track the issue from the time its received it to its final correction.  This app will help you see all your customer's outstanding issues and prioritize and work through them as quickly as possible

Setting up payroll for your small business doesn't have to be a daunting task.  You'll find that here are many benefits to establishing a payroll system.  In addition to saving you time, it can keep you from incurring any IRS penalties.  We’ve outlined these seven steps to help you set up your small business payroll system in no time.  

1. Obtain an EIN. You must make sure that you have an Employer Identification Number, or an EIN. This number is used when you report employee information or taxes and other documents to the IRS. If you have not obtained an EIN, you can click here for more information. 
2. Check State & Local ID Requirements. Different state and local government agencies require a business to also get an ID number so they can process local taxes.  Check with your state or local government agency.
3. Fill Out the Proper Forms. Have your new employees fill out W-4 forms (Federal Income Tax Withholding form).  Once your employee completes the form, these forms will allow you to withhold the right amount of taxes from the employee's pay.  You also want to be sure to withhold the right amount of taxes depending on if the employee is an independent contractor or an employee.  Business.gov provides an easy-to-understand distinction between the two.
4. Decide on a Pay Period. Some states predetermine employer pay periods, so be sure to review your local regulations.
5. Maintain Careful Documentation. This includes compensation, paid time off, overtime pay as well as health plan premiums, retirement and any other contributions.
6. Choose a Payroll System. You can choose to run payroll in house or use an outsource service . If you’re considering in-house payroll, you can find software to maintain your payroll. Keep in mind that in-house payroll can be time consuming, and if you do not pay close attention to detail, you may face penalties as a result of small mistakes. Outsourcing your payroll can also save you time. Using an experienced accountant or payroll service provider may save you time and money in the long run. Don’t forget to consult within your network – ask other small business owners how they’ve handled their payroll to gain a better understanding of your options.
7. Preserve Well Kept Records. Make sure you’re aware of proper record keeping techniques.  You must keep W-4s on file for every active employee. After an employee is no longer working for you, you are still required to keep copies of their forms for an additional three years thereafter.  

With a little research and simple organization, you will have your small business payroll set up and running.  Review your options and understand what will work best for you. Don’t forget to network with your peers to gain a better understanding of the best options for people in your industry. Remember to follow all IRS and/or local government instructions carefully; when in doubt, ask a professional accountant for advice. 

For small business owners like you, trying to find your first employee can be a challange. When hiring employees, small business owners must ensure that they are meeting their tax and legal obligations, and you must also make sure that you are hiring the "right" candidates for the job. In order to most successfully hire your first employees, we’ve outlined 8 key steps to finding the perfect fit.

• Obtain an EIN or an Employer Identification Number if one has not already been assigned to the company. 
• Open bank accounts in your company's name if one does not already exist. Employees' pay should be taken from these accounts.
• Obtain copies of all of the documents necessary to report the new hire to the government and to operate the business legally. The Small Business Administration (SBA) has published a description of all of these forms on its website.
• Create a job description. The job description should be accurate and understandable, and it should include an overview of both the company and the position (i.e., tasks involved, qualifications, salary range, etc.). More tips for writing effective job descriptions can be found online via Inc.com and the Small Business Administration’s website.
• Publish the job description. You have many outlets to find your perfect fit. Try publishing the description on your company's website, on job-search websites, social media sites, and even in the newspaper. Here's a great article outlining 10 places for you to start your search. The open position can also be promoted by recruiting firms, or presented at career fairs. Make sure it is visible to the best potential candidates for the job itself.
• Create a list of questions to ask prospective job candidates. For ideas, check out Monster.com's list of 100 potential interview questions.
• Conduct the interviews. Make sure to include company and job-specific questions, and always be cognizant of the "7 C's."
• After conducting interviews, select the best candidate for the job and extend an offer.
• Start working!

By following the steps described above, you can be sure that you’re meeting all of your obligations and that you’re hiring the best possible candidates for your jobs - the first time and every time!

When forming a corporation, you’ll come across the term “officers.” This is a term unique to corporations and does not apply to Limited Liability Companies. Your Board of Directors is the governing body of a corporation who is elected by shareholders. The directors are then responsible for selecting the officers of the corporation and for the supervision and general control of the company.

An officer can be defined as individuals appointed by the board of directors who are responsible for carrying out the board's policies and for making day-to-day decisions. The necessary positions and duties of officers are typically set forth and stated during the creation of your corporation’s bylaws.

Here, we briefly describe 4 commonly valuable officer roles and their duties in the corporation.

• President. The president is responsible for managing daily operations of your corporation. If you do not have a chairperson, your president will preside over all meetings of the board of directors. You may want to consider appointing a Vice President to fulfill the president’s duties, should the president be unavailable. However, it is important to note that if the president is to leave a company, the vice president does not automatically assume the position of president.
• Secretary. Your secretary will be responsible for maintaining your corporate records and is commonly responsible for recording minutes during your meetings. If your bylaws state that you must notify shareholders and directors of meetings, your secretary would be responsible for sending out the notification.
• Treasurer. Treasurers will maintain corporate account books, including your profits, losses, assets, and other pertinent tax information. Your treasurer may or may not be involved with daily financial record keeping, depending upon how you set forth their duties in your corporate bylaws. If they do not partake in daily bookkeeping, you may decide to have the treasurer oversee the daily activity of your internal accountant.
• Assistant Positions. If you have a large corporation, you may find it beneficial to create assistant secretaries and treasurers. These assistant positions can help you to proficiently manage workloads while saving time if you have multiple offices. Creating assistant positions also offers the opportunity to boost employee morale without significantly changing their specific career duties.

While these are the most common roles and duties of officers of a corporation, you may find that you do not need to fulfill all of the above mentioned positions. Keep in mind that we do recommend having a president and secretary at minimum.

If you’d like to learn more about the common characteristics of corporations, take a look at our previous blog post. As always, if you have any questions that aren’t answered on our blog or in our Learning Center, one of our incorporation specialists would be happy to assist you by calling 800.421.2661.