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This is a structure where the business is separated from its owners and the ones who manage it. This also means that if the limited liability company has only one individual acting as the owner and the manager, the company is a legal entity. A good example of this is an individual I met recently while traveling. He owns Auto Towing in San Mateo. Oscar has always structured his business as an LLC due to what if offers.
Having this legal entity, the company can enter into agreements, contracts and can be sued on its own. In an event that the company issued, the owners cannot sell their personal assets to clear the debt unless they are culprits or they are the company guarantors.
Also, the legal entity means that the owners of the company cannot withdraw money from the company anyhow they want. The company has the ability to own assets and keep profits after taxation.
Another thing that a limited liability company enjoys is tax advantages. Seek more knowledge on this rule so that you can use it on your advantage. The company can continue to operate even if the owners no longer exist. This ensures that the employee job is not affected. If the owners were the managers of the company, the decision can be made quickly to allow quick transition and business operations running smoothly.
The two types of limited companies do exist:
This type of company can raise capital by sharing shares to the public. As a result, the company’s shares can be traded on national stock. The structure is more common in well-established businesses.
This type of business cannot offer shares to the general public. It is common for small businesses.
Registering the limited company varies from state to state but here are some of the common requirements;
Once the company is registered you have up to three months to register for corporate tax. If the registration exceeds the set timeline it attracts a fine. It is a requirement by the law that all the limited companies pay corporation tax even if they are eligible for other taxes such as PAYE, VAT and so on.
After you’ve created your corporate structure you might want to think about a business trademark. It can be important in protecting your brand.
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A trademark allows a business to have a specific logo, phrase or word that helps customers identify their products and services. A trademark is important since it helps customers to identify the products and services easily. This is because it helps with product branding and creating an identity. This reduces the cases of customers’ confusion of the product. Though it involves the organization incurring money it is equally important.
A trademark can be a symbol, word or phrase that distinguishes your organization products from another organization products. A trademark should be registered to protect the holder’s right thus preventing another organization from using your trademark. If common law rights are established it is not a must for the business to register the trademark. However to prevent the trademark from being copied as well as maintaining your brand identity it is important to register.
When to trademark a business name and logo
To avoid any legal complication related to trademarking, it is important to trademark your organization as soon as possible. Cases have been reported of companies copying other companies’ trademarks knowingly or unknowingly thus leading to them being sued. It is therefore, important to seek legal advice from your attorney to avoid being on the wrong side of the law.
Registering a business trademark
Registering a trademark involves filling of an application form that grants you legal ownership of your trademark. Seek legal guidance to make the process simple and reduce errors that may occur when filing the application forms. The relevant information required for instance the owner of the trademark as well as the time the business intends to start using the trademark require time to gather. Therefore it is important for business owners to take their time so that they don’t jump into conclusions and come up with a concrete trademark.
Cost incurred
Cost incurred in creating a business trademark vary differently depending on how the organization want to brand itself. Making a company’s trademark requires legal counselling from an attorney which comes at a fee. The bodies that also protect your trademark for instance UPTSO in the US require some fees for the application process.
Business trademark should be unique and it is advisable not to use the product names. If you feel that the cost of hiring an attorney is too high there are alternatives. However, there are unavoidable costs that the business has to incur. Most of the startups usually struggle with conducting a market opportunity analysis, read here so you can be a good startup.
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In a startup focusing on marketing options with the greatest success potential is essential in maintaining the stability of the business. An increase in priorities leads to a decrease in the company revenue as compared to peers of the business. In this stage, it is important to group your priorities into small sets with promising initiatives. This could drive the business to revenue that is above average through evaluation of the attracting factors to the market opportunity.
In this process get an analysis of the customers not excluding the business competitors to understand the market. The research is meant to get the reality of the products or services that one is offering. Understand whether the expansion of the business into the potential market works for the business in providing greater revenue. Among some of the areas of interest include age, education levels, income, location and other variables such as consumer motivation and lifestyle.
Getting an understanding of the customer is just a basis that needs broader research into the whole market and the success potential of the market. There could be even more potential than the small increase in points percentage. This gives you a broader view from the intra business perspective hence an objective overall view. In consideration should be factors such as the size of the market, competition intensity and the threat of entry of new products.
For profitable growth, the approach to expansion to adjacent space should be systematic and disciplined. By keeping a firm grip and being detailed with the market helps one in the maintenance of an approach that is proactive. In addition to this, the profitability is also bound to increase along with the expansion of the business.
Some of the business sectors face potential disruptions contributing to the increasing level of uncertainty. The economy, technological developments, trade policies and cultural norms have to be evaluated concerning the business opportunity in the sector.
The collection of information relating to all marketing factors is time-consuming and requires a lot of effort and level of expertise. Reports ranked as off the shelf could give one a better understanding of the customer environment and industry. These reports give an analysis of the opportunities for future growth and innovations including the development of new products. Conducting a market opportunity analysis is one of the crucial phases of starting a business. Read here about 5 keys to conducting a market opportunity analysis so you can be a startup.
More detailsThis is a structure where the business is separated from its owners and the ones who manage it. This also means that if the limited liability company has only one individual acting as the owner and the manager, the company is a legal entity. A good example of this is an individual I met recently …
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A trademark allows a business to have a specific logo, phrase or word that helps customers identify their products and services. A trademark is important since it helps customers to identify the products and services easily. This is because it helps with product branding and creating an identity. This reduces the cases of customers’ confusion …
In a startup focusing on marketing options with the greatest success potential is essential in maintaining the stability of the business. An increase in priorities leads to a decrease in the company revenue as compared to peers of the business. In this stage, it is important to group your priorities into small sets with promising …