Starting a Business
How Do I Get Started?
To start a business, you don’t need a corporation, LLC or nonprofit. All you need to do is sell something. Anyone can do it. Sell any product or service and then—you’re a business. It’s automatic. No paperwork or filing fees required. You just need to make a transaction.
Sell a cup of coffee at a farmer’s market—you’re a business.
Sell a loaf of bread—you’re a business.
Still, there are many reasons to formalize your business by filing for an LLC or corporation. We’ll walk you through your options below.
And if you want us to take care of formation for you, we’ll get your paperwork filed fast. Plus, we’ll give you everything you need to establish your online business presence, including business website, email, and virtual phone services.
Why Incorporate?
Since starting a business is actually a simple process, the obvious question is why would someone want to incorporate?
The main reason is separation.
When you sell the cup of coffee or loaf of bread at the farmer’s market, there is no legal separation between you and the business you’ve created. You are the business. This business type is known as a sole proprietorship.
In a sole proprietorship, should someone sue your business, they’ll be suing you personally. If their lawsuit is successful, they’ll get not only your business assets, but your personal assets as well. Additionally, the IRS will tax you personally on the taxable income you made by selling your products and services. This type of structure works fine for thousands of people. But if you’d like to limit your liability or find a preferred tax structure, then starting a Limited Liability Company (LLC) or corporation might be for you.
LLCs (Limited Liability Companies)
The vast majority of businesses started this year will be formed as LLCs. Why? The main reason is simplicity.
LLCs were created in 1977 as a way to blend the benefits of corporations and partnerships into an easy-to-maintain entity, giving new businesses the security of a corporation’s asset protection and the no-nonsense tax structure of a partnership. Since their conception, LLCs have become wildly popular with new businesses and are currently the most popular type of new business entity.
These are the main features of an LLC:
- Limited liability asset protection
- Owners are called members
- LLC ownership is divided into percentages
- Pass-through taxation (income passes through to the members as personal income)
- Easy to maintain
Learn more about LLCs
Corporations
Corporations were the original business entity and helped pave the way for business as we know it in America today.
Prior to the 20th century, corporations could only be formed by an act of congress, but through a series of supreme court decisions, the power to form a corporation was passed onto the individual. Corporations remain the entity of choice for large companies and start-ups seeking funding.
These are the main features of a corporation:
- Limited liability asset protection
- Owners are called shareholders
- LLC ownership is divided into shares
- Double taxation (corporation profits are taxed and earnings passed to shareholders are taxed again as personal income)
- Annual shareholder meeting and corporate maintenance required
Learn more about corporations
Business Entity Overview
| Asset Protection | LLC | Corporation | Non-Profit |
| Limited Liability | |||
| Ownership | LLC | Corporation | Non-Profit |
| Has Shareholders | |||
| Has Members | |||
| Ownership by Shares | |||
| Ownership by Percentage | |||
| Funding | LLC | Corporation | Non-Profit |
| Can Sell Stock to Raise Capital | |||
| Sells Percentage of Company to Raise Capital | |||
| Investor-Preferred Entity Type | |||
| Donations | |||
| Maintenance | LLC | Corporation | Non-Profit |
| State Reports Due Periodically | |||
| Requires Annual Meetings | |||
| Owners Can Make Company Decisions Quickly | |||
| Taxes | LLC | Corporation | Non-Profit |
| Can Elect to be Taxed as S-Corp | |||
| Can Elect to be Taxed as C-Corp | |||
| Pass-through Taxation | |||
| Double Taxation | |||
| Possible Corporate Tax Exemptions |
With Incorporate Fast, you can start an LLC or corporation in a just a few minutes.
If you already know the type of business entity (LLC, corporation, or nonprofit) you want to form, you can start and finish the formation process in 5 minutes, right now.
Why IncFast?
When you start a business, you will establish a permanent public record under your name and address by filing business formation documents. It will be a searchable public document for the rest of time. At Incorporate Fast Inc, we not only will file your paperwork faster than any other incorporation service, we’re the only incorporator that will focus on your privacy.
We will not list your home or office address whenever possible. We use our own registered agent service address to be able to omit your home and office address from permanent public records. Ten years from now, you may not want your old office address a public record. We don’t even charge for this. We do it for free. A year from now, if you’d like, you or us can easily change everything from our registered agent address to your home or office, but as a solution we offer continued registered agent service for $125 a year from that point on.
As part of offering more than other incorporation services, we also provide website, domain name, email, and virtual phone service with all of our formation packages at no additional cost. Strengthen your brand with a custom domain name and get on the web quickly with a secure, pre-built website. Keep your business and professional communications separate with up to 10 email addresses at your domain and a dedicated business line with an area code of your choosing. Get your domain free for a year and everything else free for 90 days (just $9/month after that). Cancel anytime.