Business and Small Business

Small businesses have small amounts of money for advertising and promoting budgets. While big businesses can afford themselves wide area networks of Radio, Television and Newspapers, national scope,  small business have to limit themselves to local networks.

The struggle and competition among big and small businesses with their proportional opponents on the customers attention is strategically the same but the numbers and thus the tactics are different. Big businesses are talking about thousands of customers, losing or attracting them, is matters. For small businesses the struggle is over each customer, individually.

All businesses have websites. In many cases you can’t tell the men from the boys when it comes to be represented by a website. Small businesses can afford themselves complicated and well designed sites because every 15 years old youngster can develop a website nowadays some times for free, just for the fun of it. So money is not the issue here.

Although big businesses are thinking in big numbers (of customers) still – Customers services are important to them the same as for small businesses. Everybody knows that a happy customer brings 10 more and a frustrated customer drives out 100. This is why big and small businesses put a lot of attention to Customer services. It is only the outcomes of this efforts which is different. While for the big businesses a few angry customers are counted in fractions of percentages -  for the small businesses its 100% winning or losing each single client.  

There is one field of advertising and promoting where small businesses are big! The paper made printed materials: promoting Business Cards, Magnets, Stickers, Flyers and Postcards are circulated around by small business owners. You don’t expect “Sheraton” hotels chain or “TWA” to distribute Magnets from door to door or to stash Flyers in private mail boxes. But it is a natural advertising and promoting habit of plumbers, pizza parlor managers, and taxi drivers. The cost / effective ratio of such means are fit and suit small businesses perfectly, meeting their budget limitations and pay off.

After deciding what type of products or services you are going to offer, the most important decision you will make in start a new business is the type of business structure to form. You will be faced with deciding whether to form a General Partnership, S-Corporation, C-Corporation, Venture Capital or Limited Liability Company. If you are starting a small or home business a Limited Liability Company or LLC is your best choice hands down.

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) provides you best of all Worlds, in that it is a type of business ownership combining several features of corporation and partnership structures. Unlike a general partnership, owners of an Limited Liability (LLC) have limited liability. Which mean an owner of LLC can not lose more than the amount he or she has invested in the company. Thus, the owner is not personally responsible for the debts and obligations of the company in the event they are not fulfilled. And, unlike a limited partnership, owners of a Limited Liability Company (LLC) do not lose their limited liability by actively participating in management of the business.

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) also have many advantages over the most popular business structure, the Corporation. The Limited Liability Company (LLC) and the S Corporation both have the benefit of pass-through taxation. This means that owners in the company report their share of profits and losses on each owner’s individual tax return. The IRS assesses no separate tax on the company itself. However, in the C Corporation “double taxation” occurs when the C corporation first pays taxes on its own earnings and then the shareholders or owners pay income taxes on the dividends they receive. Even though the tax status of a Limited Liability Company and a S Corp are almost identical, the Limited Liability( LLC) can offer small and home business owners many advantages over a Corporation.

A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is much easier to form. Requirements for forming a corporation and filing the necessary documents with the IRS to have it be taxed as an S corporation is a complex and time-consuming process. With a LLC you simply file a Certificate of Formation or Articles of Organization with proper state agency, in most states it is the Secretary of States. Unless you choice to do otherwise, single-member Limited Liability Companies are automatically taxed as sole proprietors by the IRS. Limited Liability with multiple owners are automatically taxed as partnerships. Which is much different from the Corporation which must file IRS Form 2553, “Election by a Small Business Corporation,” within 75 days of the corporation’s formation to obtain pass-through status a! s an S corporation.

Other attractive benefits of Limited Liabilities Companies (LLC). In contrasted to Corporations, LLCs are not required to hold annual meetings or keep formal meeting minutes. Owners of a Limited Liability Companies do not have to issue stocks to the owners. There is no limit to the number of members who may have an ownership interest in the company.

There are some draw backs to an LLC but as it relates to small or home business owner they are so insignificant they are no worth mentioning. It clear that an Limited Liability Company is a small business owner’s dream. It provide the protection of corporation, while maintaining the simplicity of a partnership. With LLC you will have more time to focus on the important details of your business and not spending precious time pushing useless paper. For more information on LLCs or other business issues visit www.wizatbiz.com