Categories: Business Entities

Remember to Incorporate

All new entrepreneurs have the choice of incorporating or not. By not incorporating, you’ll get out of some hefty paperwork, though you’ll be missing out on some great benefits that come along with incorporating your business. If you are a small business owner and you haven’t gotten around to incorporating yet, here’s what you’re subjecting your business to:

A lack of trust from customers.

Your customers want to know they are giving their business to a legitimate, professional establishment. Having an Inc. or LLC at the end of your business’s name helps make your customers feel comfortable with you. Without it, you may receive some skepticism.

You’ll miss out on tax savings!

When you incorporate, you can save up to 50% on taxes. When you’re a small business owner, you want to save everywhere you can, especially when just starting out. Use that money for growing your business in other ways. You also have less of a chance of getting audited when you incorporate.

Your assets won’t be protected.

Most importantly, incorporating protects your assets. This means that if your business ever falls into debt when you are not incorporated, your house, car, and other personal assets may have to be sacrificed as payment. When you incorporate, your business becomes a separate entity from the business owner, so if your business falls into debt, only the business owes money, not you.

Deborah Sweeney

Deborah Sweeney is an advocate for protecting personal and business assets for business owners and entrepreneurs. With extensive experience in the field of corporate and intellectual property law, Deborah provides insightful commentary on the benefits of incorporation and trademark registration.

Education: Deborah received her Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degrees from Pepperdine University, and has served as an adjunct professor at the University of West Los Angeles and San Fernando School of Law in corporate and intellectual property law.

Experience: After becoming a partner at LA-based law firm, Michel & Robinson, she became an in-house attorney for MyCorporation, formerly a division in Intuit. She took the company private in 2009 and after 10 years of entrepreneurship sold the company to Deluxe Corporation. Deborah is also well-recognized for her written work online as a contributing writer with some of the top business and entrepreneurial blogging sites including Forbes, Business Insider, SCORE, and Fox Business, among others.

Fun facts/Other pursuits: Originally from Southern California, Deborah enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons, Benjamin and Christopher, and practicing Pilates. Deborah believes in the importance of family and credits the entrepreneurial business model for giving her the flexibility to enjoy both a career and motherhood. Deborah, and MyCorporation, have previously been honored by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal’s List of the Valley’s Largest Women-Owned Businesses in 2012. MyCorporation received the Stevie Award for Best Women-Owned Business in 2011.