Don’t Be Scared

While I always knew I wanted to start a company one day, I was seriously daunted by the legal side of things. I expected structuring the business to be wildy complex, time consuming, and expensive. If it weren’t all of those things, wouldn’t people go around saying it was no big deal? Well, I never once heard that.

Let me tell you something:

The legal set up of a company is really no big deal.

I wonder if I might have taken the leap even sooner had I realized how simple it was. I got a referral to a lawyer who seemed nice. He asked me for six simple pieces of info to get started: the company name, my full name, my birthday, address, phone, social. That’s it. I asked, Don’t you need me to at least fill out some paperwork or something? Nope.

The hardest part was that I had to pick a business-y addendum to go with Yes and Yonder, as Indiana law requires corporations attach one of a few options, like inc. or co. to their legal name.

For less than $1000, YAY got registered with the state, and as an S Corp. I have help meeting all of the requirements of being a corporation, plus the peace of mind of knowing I have legal counsel if needed. I spent about 20 minutes chatting with the lawyer, and another 15 minutes or so signing and shipping documents.

I also got a referral to a CPA who will do YAY’s taxes, my personal returns, and be available for year-round advice via phone for about $850. If I had guessed how much that would cost, it would have been in the thousands.

That’s it. Really. If you’ve been intimidated by this part of the start up process, don’t be.