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Start and Grow a Business Wiki
Welcome to the Start and Grow a Business Wiki where you can find updated information on what you need to know about kickstarting your business ideas into high gear even in today's challenging economy. How do you find out about the pros and cons of different ways to structure? Get a checklist so nothing gets left out. Move your plans off the back of an old envelope and into a respected form that will help you get the business financing you need. And do it all with people who know first-hand what it means to start a real business from scratch.

Considering offering Healthcare Benefits to your employees?
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Making a Good Choice for Structuring Your Business
Why make a choice in the first place?

1. It's your money and your future. You can get advice from all kinds of good places, but it all boils down to the choices you make.
2. You can save money...maybe. Even if you do need to get professional legal or accounting help, you will get more for your money by asking better questions.
3. People ask questions in the Intuit community all the time about making changes in business structures. Nothing has to be forever. A lot of us started as sole proprietors and outgrew that. You might too.
.

Type of Structure	What You Need to Do	First Things to Watch For
Sole Proprietor	almost nothing but the regular licenses to do business in your locale if you choose no other option, you are by default a sole proprietor	100% liable for all business debts and legal claims. If the business fails to pay bills, you pay. If somebody gets hurt, you pay. Pass-through taxation: Schedule C to report profit/loss,Schedule SE to report self-employment tax (you pay 100%) Can deduct health care premiums paid by the business for you & employees
Limited Liability Corp	check with state secretary of commerce (or similar) to find steps, you can likely do this online remember to file annual paperwork be sure to include an operating agreement	no personal liability (although be sure to treat it as a business, the "veil of protection can be pierced" pass-through taxation unless you elect for the corporation to be taxed (check professional tax advice the bank will want to see all your paperwork before you open accounts
C Corp	the corporation is a legal entity separate from any persons who own or control it enters into own contracts, incurs own debts, pays own taxes	taxed under normal corporate tax rules - Subchapter C of the IRS code limited liability for shareholders more involved paperwork and ongoing care
S Corp	similar to forming C Corporation then requires a Form 2253 signed by shareholders to elect S Corp tax status	any profits retained at end of year are allocated to shareholders who pay the taxes limited liability for shareholders shareholders must be US citizens or residents

*adapted from LLC or Corporation?: How to Choose the Right Form for Your Business by Anthony Mancuso. For all kinds of corporation structuring info, check out any book by Anthony Mancuso at nolo.com.
Build Your Business Plan Right

Why bother with a business plan?

Not the best question, but the question that most people start with. So we will ask the question. Why bother?

It really isn't boring. If you don't get excited about your business future and dreams, then why bother in the first place?
Somebody needs to know this stuff. You need to know it deep in your own purpose where it will live. Your potential investors need to know it if they are going to trust you with their money. (If you aren't professional about your approach, it won't work in the best of times.)
It won't take as long as you think. Put down the remote, step away to your computer and put on your thinking cap.

Business Plan Resources

Best Place to Start: Becky McKray in her blog Simplified Business Plans for the Real World. If you don't use any other resource (although you really should), create a spreadsheet built on Becky's outline and then USE IT.
Great software to start: Business Plan Pro from Palo Alto Software. I like having a complete tool that is both comprehensive and gives me a polished result that might give me the edge with a potential investor.While you are there, check out Marketing Plan Pro powered by Duct Tape Marketing (John Jantsch and other DTM coaches such as Bill Brelsford have contributed to the Intuit community).
The guru of business plans?: Tim Berry, the founder of Palo Alto Software. I follow his frequent tweets on Twitter.

Setting up bookkeeping to track revenue for a beauty salon

Thanks to QBConsultant! This was marked as a best answer by the community!

You may want to consider using some form of a cash register. If you do, at the end of each day when you close out the register, you can use the totals from the Z tape to enter a sales receipt into QB. You can create a customer called 'daily sales' and enter summary totals for the day. If you want to do it weekly, then I'd suggest you create an Excel spreadsheet to enter the daily totals and calculate weekly totals to enter into a weekly sales receipt.

You may want to have a Certified QB ProAdvisor help you get set up and trained to enter things properly.

Last update: May 19 2009, 12:39 PM EDT by ctk67 (content history | content tools) (help)

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