You have made the decision, that you wanted to start your own business. And you have narrowed down the product or services, that you'd like to offer. You're ready to officially start your business. You're really excited, but you're not sure what your next step should be.

In today's episode, I'll be explaining the various business entities that exist, and what you need to understand and consider, prior to launching your business to the public, to ensure you're compliant with multiple laws, and to ensure that you're protected from financial loss, and a whole lot of headaches.

Welcome to episode number seven. My name is Jeremy Epp, and I'm here to help you set up, launch and grow a profitable business. Let me take you back to the first business, that I've ever set up. It was at a time where I was working in Bothell, Washington, for a medical device company. The company had been purchased by another company, that had headquarters based in Boston. Essentially, we were working in tandem for a couple of years- to where there started to get overlap, in the efforts that were occurring between the two offices on the West Coast and the East Coast.

It came as no surprise when the announcement was made, that they were actually going to be shutting down the Bothell office where I worked, and laying off everybody. Now, I had the opportunity to actually move over to Boston, and continue to work for that particular company. But I chose not to make that move at that time, with my young family. I saw this as an opportunity to launch my first business. I had been thinking about it for quite some time, and was ready to go. And looked at this as the perfect storm, to help motivate me and get out there in the entrepreneurial space.

I launched my trade show business company, called Caspian Event Management. In the process of setting up the company, I felt like I needed to get some expert advice in both the business entity, as well as the tax formation standpoint. I set up one meeting with an attorney, and another meeting with a CPA, to get more information about what I needed to know, in order to protect myself, and make sure I was doing everything right. As I was sitting in the attorney's office, and this gentleman was telling me different stories, and giving me various examples, all I could think about was how much his hourly rate was. And how I could minimize his storytelling discussions, so that I could get the value that I was looking for, and get out of there without having to pay him too much money.

Similarly, I had the same experience with the CPA. Where again, as I was sitting there listening to information, a lot of it wasn't making a whole lot of sense. However, I was so busy thinking about how to shut down that meeting, so again, I didn't owe too much money.

Now, one of the things that I want to help you with, is to give you a good solid foundation to start from. That, as you begin to do your research online, and look at what your needs are to seek professional assistance in the future, that you already have the bases covered. You don't have to start from scratch, and spend your time, and energy and money in developing the right business entity formation, for what's good for you.

Now, before we begin, I want to say that the information that we're going to be talking about today, is going to be centered on US laws. If you are listening to this, and you do not reside in the United States, take this with a grain of salt. There may be some good information, that you can take and apply to the regulations and the laws, within the country that you reside. But, I'm going to focus in on US centric focuses. Because that's what I know, that's what I'm familiar with.