Hodu.com - Your Communications Skills Portal:: Real Small Business

Determining how to structure your business is a potentially complicated decision. Your options include sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and limited liability company, and each carries with it potential benefits and disadvantages with regard to the legal and financial obligations of your business. Ultimately, the choice will be based on your individual goals and style of doing business.

The decision you make will impact how your company handles tax filing, licensing, the ability to control the company's operation or ownership, and to what extent you are personally liable for the company's debt or legal actions against the business. Since there are so many issues involved -- and potentially momentous consequences of the decision -- your best bet is to do extensive research on your own, then seek the guidance of a legal or financial adviser who is familiar with your business before choosing a structure.

This week, Real Small Business takes a closer look at structuring a business, to help you learn more about your options and make the right decisions for your company.

·	Structuring The Business

·	Incorporate Out of State?
·	Writing a Partnership Agreement
·	Choosing a Board of Directors
·	Basics of a C Corporation
·	Overview: Corporations
·	Basics of a General Partnership
·	Basics of a Limited Liability Company
·	Basics of a Limited Partnership
·	Basics of a Non-Profit Corporation
·	Basics of a Professional Corporation
·	Basics of an S Corporation
·	Basics of a Sole Proprietorship
·	State Offices of Incorporation

·	Fred Steingold on what legal structures to consider.
·	Ask a Question

·	Meet Andrew J. Sherman, capital partner with the Washington, D.C. law firm McDermott, Will & Emery.