In this recorded webinar, Cory Miller and Nellie Akalp talk about the benefits of incorporating your therapy practice and give helpful tips for getting the process started.
Nellie Akalp is a passionate entrepreneur, business expert and mother of four. She is the CEO of CorpNet.com, a trusted resource and service provider for business incorporation, LLC filings, and corporate compliance services in all 50 states. Nellie and her team recently launched a partner program for accountants, lawyers, and business professionals to help them streamline the business incorporation and compliance process for their clients.
Learn more about CorpNet’s top services for therapists:
Webinar Transcript
Speakers: Cory Miller, Nellie Akalp
Cory Miller 0:03
Everybody, welcome back to another all counselors comm webinar. I’ve got a great guest today that’s going to be presenting on a key subject. And I know a lot of you counselors and clinicians therapists asked all the time when you’re thinking about starting your own private practice. And so she’s going to be talking about incorporating the business, giving you an overview of all that if you have questions along the way, we hit the q&a button, and we’ll try to get to those if we have time. But first, I want to introduce Nellie. Nellie’s a passionate entrepreneur, business expert and mother of four. She is a CEO of ct net.com, a trusted resource and service provider for business incorporation, LLC filings and corporate compliance services in all 50 states, Nellie and her team recently launched a partner program for counselors, business professionals to help them streamline the business incorporation and compliance process for their clients. So you can go to CorpNet.com, they’ve got fantastic services that will help take you through the process you could share about corporate structures related to clinicians, excellent service, I’ll tell you, I was looking on this site. And I’ll be putting a link here in a second to you’ve got this, your team’s got this amazing.
Cory Miller 1:18
What’s it called, it’s basically a walkthrough, kind of guide you what structure you might need, I’ll put that in the chat soon as I find the link to that. And also, we’ll have that in the show notes for for later on. But Nellie, thank you so much for being here today and presenting on this vital subject to our counselor, tribe and community and another gonna learn a lot of stuff and get some great thoughts about how they can incorporate and the structures and all that kind of stuff. So thank you so much for being here today.
Nellie Akalp 1:48
Thank you, Cory. It’s such a pleasure and an honor. I’m humbled. Thank you so much. For all of you listening out there, my name is Nelly a cowboy, I’ll be your webinar presenter today. And I have an amazing passion for health and wellness and recovery. I’m an entrepreneur who’s just like Cory really, really invested in and really leading a life filled with courage, compassion and connection. And I think mental health is a part of it, and a huge part of it, otherwise, we wouldn’t be surviving and, and, you know, thank God for all of you who are in business, providing mental health, what a great you know, business to be in and we’re gonna get you all the tools, all the information, everything you need to take your business to the next level.
Nellie Akalp 2:42
So without further ado, I want to get into the presentation. Today we’re going to be discussing the importance of incorporating a business and providing you on a refresher course on the different types of business entities out there. A little bit about myself, I’m an entrepreneur, I’ve been incorporating and helping professionals like yourself, entrepreneurs, business owners, CPAs, any type of professional or entrepreneur, getting them started with legalizing their business, expanding their business and taking their business to the next level. Together with my company corpnet we can provide business incorporation LLC filings, any type of business compliance, business expansion, payroll and sales tax registration to your, for yourself or for your clients, even in all 50 states.
Nellie Akalp 3:41
And business incorporation, in my opinion is one of really the foundations of starting a business and making sure your business is started up properly. And so that you can expand your business having that peace of mind that God forbid, if you end up on the wrong end of a lawsuit, you are protected from personal, you know, liability. And if you have any type of assets, your assets are protected.
Nellie Akalp 4:12
So let’s talk about you know why it’s so important for you as a professional for you, as a counselor to think about placing your business into a legal entity that’s going to be protecting you protecting your assets and protecting you from liability. In addition, why it’s so important to become a corporation or LLC to give your clients that are dealing with you that peace of mind that you’re an established business soby default many business owners and even business owners that are providing services in the area of mental health operate as a sole proprietor or general partnership
Nellie Akalp 5:00
sole proprietor is basically a person operating under their own name or under a fictitious business name. Similarly, a partnership is two or more people operating under their own name, or under a fictitious business name. And with a sole proprietorship or general partnership, there is no liability protection, there is no asset protection. So you are the business. And if you’re, you know, in a partnership with another business owner, you and your partner are in a business, which means there is no corporate veil, there is no liability protection. And if somebody comes in sues you for providing them subpar services, they can potentially come after you personally, your house, your car, your savings account your retirement. So hence, being a sole proprietorship or general partnership, although it has its perks of being very simple to form and simple to manage.
Nellie Akalp 6:08
There’s a lot of downside to that in that there is no corporate veil, there is no liability, or asset protection. So although it’s a simple option for people starting out, there are many advantages of why someone would want to incorporate their business place their business into a corporation or an LLC. And first and foremost, the first benefit is actually liability, protection of your personal assets.
Nellie Akalp 6:35
As a corporation or LLC, you’re creating a bubble. So think of yourself as the business owner, inside of this bubble, this veil, so that when God forbid, you as a corporation, or LLC are being sued by somebody who you’ve provided services to, they cannot go after you as the owner of that corporation or LLC personally, because there’s a corporate veil, there is a corporate shield around you. So the first and foremost benefit of considering incorporating or placing your business into a corporation or LLC is liability protection of your personal assets.
Nellie Akalp 7:17
If somebody sues you, if you’re a corporation or LLC, they cannot go after you personally as long as that as long as that corporation or LLC is, you know being complied with and being operated in accordance with the state laws, that corporation or LLC is protecting its shareholders its members from being personally liable. So if there’s a judgment entered against that corporation or LLC, they can go only to the extent that the corporation or LLC has assets, they cannot go personally against the shareholders of that corporation or the members of that LLC. So that’s the main foremost, first and foremost benefit. second benefit is separation of, you know, it’s a separate legal entity, the corporation or the LLC once form, it’s separate from that business owner.
Nellie Akalp 8:13
It’s a separate legal entity. So that business owner, although a shareholder of that corporation or LLC, although a member of that LLC, is separate from the business. So again, there’s a separation, and this corporation or LLC when it’s formed, you know, the shareholders and members are within that business entity, but there’s a veil around it, there’s a veil a shield, and that it shields that shareholder and shields the owners from being personally liable.
Nellie Akalp 8:46
Next benefit is added credibility by having the IMC or LLC next to your business name. You’re giving the public notice that you are an established business, you’re more likely to want to have clients deal with you because they’re looking at you as more of a credible business have more established business there because they’re they’ve seen you taking the steps of legalizing your business. Another benefit is that with a corporation or LLC, there’s perpetual existence, meaning that if one of the shareholders or members of that LLC pass on the corporation or LLC still continues on and unless it’s formally improperly dissolved.
Nellie Akalp 9:31
Lastly, there is also tax flexibility as a benefit of placing a business into a corporation or LLC, a lot of tax flexibility as to how the LLC or the corporation can be tax and lastly, deductible expenses as a corporation or LLC, you’re able to deduct expenses that you would otherwise not be able to deduct As a proprietor or a partnership with that said, I want to take you through a little refresher course of the different types of popular business entity choices. And the popular business and indie choices are obviously as we discussed a sole proprietorship or partnership, a C Corp, S corp, or an LLC, the thing that’s not on this graph is also a professional corporation or professional LLC, which is really a C Corp.
Nellie Akalp 10:36
But when we call it a professional Corporation, it’s really a C corporation designed for professionals, such as people like yourself that has to be licensed from the State Board of professional Corporation in all other aspects is a corporation, but it’s really for somebody who’s a professional, providing a professional type of service that’s required to have a license from the state board. Similarly, a professional LLC is simply the same thing as an LLC in all other respects, except for again, in many states, professional LLCs are recognized. And it’s for a professional in the practice of a profession that requires a license to be issued by the state board.
Nellie Akalp 11:24
So let’s start with the sole proprietorship, sole proprietorship, partnerships are the most simplest type of entity out there, there’s simple to form and maintain. There’s really no financial statements or lengthy pay paperwork to stay compliant. So basically, here’s what a sole proprietorship is. It’s me, Nellie a cow, okay, wanting to do business, either under my own name as a consultant, or let’s say I want to get really creative, and let’s say I want to provide services under and are a consulting services. Okay, however, I don’t want to incorporate I don’t want to form an LLC.
Nellie Akalp 12:08
If I’m doing business under NRA, which is my initials of my name, NRA consulting services, because people are going to be writing me a check to NRA consulting services, the bank is not going to accept it. If I just, you know, have the bank account under nearly a cow in order for me to be able to deposit checks. Under NRA consulting services, I need to file what is called a DBA, or doing business as filing also called a fictitious business name.
Nellie Akalp 12:42
So a sole proprietorship is basically someone doing business under their own name or under a fictitious business name. There’s no separation of personal or business assets, you are the owner, you are the business and you are liable for any acts of the business whether right or wrong. One of the disadvantages of being a sole proprietor or partnership is the fact that you cannot really gain business credit, take out business loans or raise capital, unless you personally guarantee those types of applications.
Nellie Akalp 13:20
So where the fictitious business name or the DBA filing comes in is the fact that as a sole proprietorship, you can start doing business under your own name and start accepting funds for those services that you provide. And if they’re writing a check out to you, you can, you know, automatically deposited into your bank account. And then at the end of the year, you’ll have to report the income you received as a result of providing those services on the schedule C of your personal income tax returns.
Nellie Akalp 13:54
However, if you wanted to start accepting payments and checks under a different name under then other than your name, you would have to go File what is called a fictitious business name filing also referred to as a doing business as filing with the county recorders office in your state. And the reason why is because when you accept the check under a different name other than your own name as a sole proprietor or partnership, the bank is not going to let you deposit that check.
Nellie Akalp 14:26
They’re going to ask you for that fictitious business name statement. So the sole proprietorship if that business is being formed, and if it’s being formed to provide a service under a different name. Other than that proprietors name, a fictitious business name filing is required. And you need to file it with the state or the county recorders office in the state you’re located in. Once it’s filed, you take it to your bank, you file that fictitious business name with your bank and then you can start accepting checks and payments. Under that fictitious business name, this is whether you’re a one person IE sole proprietor or multiple people as a partnership conducting business, where you’re not wanting to be a corporation or LLC.
Nellie Akalp 15:14
Again, as a sole proprietor or partnership, there is no asset protection, there is no liability protection, there is no corporate veil, which means God forbid, if you get sued, they can come after you personally go after your car, your house, your savings account, whatever you have. That is why it’s so important in light of how easy it is these days to consider no matter how small you are to incorporate or form an LLC. Moving on to the C corporation, the C corporation is the most formal type of business entity there is when it comes to placing your business into some sort of a corporate shield.
Nellie Akalp 15:58
Okay, a C corporation provides you with the maximum level of liability protection asset protection, typically with a corporation, the owners of the corporation are the shareholders. The shareholders elect a board of directors who run the corporation, who in turn elect officers who run the day to day business of that Corporation. With a C corporation, the owners are often shielded from personal liability. With a C corporation. A general C corporation is often subject to double taxation. What does that mean? double taxation means when the corporation provides, you know, produces profits, it’s once taxed at the corporate level.
Nellie Akalp 16:47
And then once the corporation pays out a distribution or dividends to each of the shareholders, the shareholders are again taxed, again on the individual level, thereby the concept of double taxation. Now, with a C corporation, I don’t recommend this for a small business owner, because of the fact that there is double taxation, and with the S corp coming into play, and if you’re a business owner who can qualify as an S corp, there’s no need for you to pay that double taxation.
Nellie Akalp 17:22
However, for those who don’t qualify as an escort, after the passage of the JOBS Act, C corpse are now taxed at a flat percentage of 21%, which is substantially lower than the 35%. That used to be the tax rate prior to the passage of the JOBS Act. So with the C corporation, highest form of legal protection, liability protection, most formal type of entity out there, lots of administrative paperwork, lots of compliance paperwork, typically not ideal for a small business unless you have a roadmap unless you are thinking of being acquired unless you’re thinking of seeking VC funding or going public. Okay.
Nellie Akalp 18:13
Next is the S corporation. Now, there is a very, very big myth out there that people think that an S corporation is a is a type of business entity. And that’s corporation is simply a C corporation that elects pass through taxation by the IRS. So an S corporation is really a C Corp, that files a form with the IRS if they qualify to be treated as an S corp as a pass through tax entity in the eyes, in the eyes of the IRS. Okay, so an S Corp. It’s not an type of business entity. It’s really a tax designation that’s given to a C Corp that’s been formed.
Nellie Akalp 19:00
So generally, why would people want to form an S corp? Well, a C Corp would want to elect us for status to avoid being taxed twice. So what an S corp does the benefit of an S corp is that it allows that C Corp to become a pass through tax study tax entity in the eyes of the IRS, thereby avoiding double taxation. So there are strict requirements as to who can qualify to become an S Corp.
Nellie Akalp 19:30
However, if you meet those requirements, that C Corp is now recognized as a pass through tax entity whereby all the profits and losses are flown through and tax once on the individual shareholders level. As I mentioned, there are strict requirements as to who can qualify to become an escort. First and foremost, you can only have up to 100 shareholders all the shareholders must be resident aliens or US citizen that election has to be made within 75 business days of the corporation or LLC coming into existence. And you can only have one type of stock.
Nellie Akalp 20:10
However, if you meet those qualifications, the S corp is great for small business owner because you’re not paying that double taxation that otherwise a C Corp would have to pay. In all other aspects, the S corp is ran just like a C corporation. And you know, it’s owned by the shareholders. It’s run by the board of directors and the officers. And as far as corporate formalities go, again, heavy, heavy corporate formalities whereby you have to have the annual meetings of the shareholders and the Board of Directors and file annual meeting minutes and meet all the other compliance requirements that are often required by Corporation.
Nellie Akalp 20:54
Moving on to the LLC, the LLC stands for a limited liability company. Now, the way I like to characterize this entity is that you get to have your cake and eat it too. Why is that? Because the LLC combines elements of the sole proprietorship and a partnership with elements of a corporation. And the the reason why I say this is the best type of entity whereby you can have your cake and eat it too, is because of the fact that with an LLC, it’s the it’s an entity that provides maximum liability protection, asset protection, but without all the corporate formalities and the paperwork that is often associated by being a corporation or an S Corp.
Nellie Akalp 21:40
So with an LLC, the single piece of document that controls the LLC is the operating agreement. So for somebody who wants to have that liability protection, asset protection, but does not want to deal with all the corporate formalities and paperwork, the LLC is the way to go because you get that liability protection, asset protection, without all the complex maintenance and management and paperwork. Also with an LLC, it’s very flexible for taxation. As an LLC by default, if you’re a single member LLC, it’s taxed as a sole proprietorship, whereas a multi member LLC is taxed as a partnership. Thereby, by default, if it’s taxed as a sole proper partnership, you’re likely to pay higher self employment taxes.
Nellie Akalp 22:36
However, with an LLC, you can opt whether you’re a single member LLC or multi member LLC to be taxed as an S Corp. If you meet the requirements of that S Corp. requirement provided by the IRS You can also opt to be taxed as a C Corp. If you can’t meet the qualifications of the S corp, but still want to avoid paying those higher self employment taxes you can offer to elect to have your LLC be taxed as a C corporation, Place yourself as a on payroll as a member of an LLC and draw a paycheck, which will likely lower your self employment taxes because generally speaking by default, a single member LLC taxed as a sole prop or multi member LLC tax as a partnership can’t become an employee of the LLC, they can only take a draw.
Nellie Akalp 23:36
And as a result by taking a draw your higher likelihood of paying, you know, higher self employment taxes. So a way to get around this is although you can have the foundation that the structure of that business be an LLC, you can get around it by electing S corp or C Corp status. And by electing S corp or C Corp status, you maintain the minimal formalities of the entity. But now as a member of an LLC, you can place yourself on payroll and draw a paycheck from the LLC. Now, owners of an LLC are referred to as members whereas owners of a corporation are referred to as shareholders. And again, really the main difference between a corporation and the LLC is really flexibility in how you manage how you tax and less paperwork, less compliance, really, really easy to manage and run.
Nellie Akalp 24:40
Moving on, there is as I mentioned at the beginning of this webinar, what is called the professional Limited Liability Company, also referred to as a pllc. So in many states, if you’re a professional, which your job requires professional licensing by yourself You’re not legally allowed to just form an LLC. Instead, you have to form what is called a professional Limited Liability Company. As long as it’s recognized by your state, the rules and requirements for a professional LLC really vary from state to state. And if your state recognizes that and they recognize the professional LLC, you can form that professional LLC but all the members of that pllc have to hold the same license and they have to be practicing the same profession. With pls LLC, there are difficulties
Nellie Akalp 25:40
that are faced when it comes to continuing the business. For example, if one of the business owners you know leaves or you know, one of them passes on, the PLC will automatically dissolve as long as the other members also hold that same professional license. But in all other respects professional LLC is offered the same type of liability protection and that that an LLC offers and they differ in the following areas one pllc does not protect individual members from their from their own malpractice lawsuits. So you still have to carry malpractice insurance in a professional LLC and also with a pllc. Some banks may require the members of that pllc, for personal guarantee in order to lend money to the pllc.
Nellie Akalp 26:40
But again, in all other aspects, think of a professional LLC, very much the same as an LLC when it comes to how it’s run, how its manage how it’s taxed. Except the main difference here is that a professional LLC is really for a, for a professional offering a professional type of service, such as a doctor, a lawyer, a chiropractor, an anesthesiologist, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, and some sort of profession that requires licensing from the state board. Similarly, there’s something called a professional Corporation.
Nellie Akalp 27:21
A professional Corporation, again, is a corporation that’s formed by professionals. So a professional corporation is for a professional who really wants that maximum level of protection, they don’t really mind the paperwork or if it’s for someone who has no choice but to form a professional Corporation because their state doesn’t offer a pllc or recognize a pllc. Again, a professional Corporation and all other aspects is very similar to a C corporation, professional corporations can become S corporations, as long as it satisfies the requirements of the S corporation. And really, the professional corporation is typically considered by the IRS as a corporation, and it’s taxed as a C corporation.
Nellie Akalp 28:17
Again, the only difference is that with a professional Corporation, the shareholders of that Corporation are professionals offering a professional type of service such as doctors, lawyers, psychiatrists, psychologists, anybody who needs to have a license from the state board in order to be providing that type of professional service. I’ve gone ahead in the next slide, and really, really summarized all these the different types of entities for you. And I’ve also summarized the type of initial filing requirements, the annual compliance filing requirements, and whether a Registered Agent is required for the type of entity that you would want to be considering to form for your practice.
Nellie Akalp 29:07
As you can see here, with a sole proprietorship, there’s really no initial filings required. There’s really no annual type of compliance filing requirements and you’re not required to have a Registered Agent. Whereas with a C corporation, you have initial filing requirements in order for that C corporation to come into existence. There is something called an article of incorporation that must be drafted in some states an initial report is required after the articles of incorporation are filed with the state. Some states also require publication fees.
Nellie Akalp 29:42
There’s also annual compliance requirements that are associated with forming a corporation and maintaining a corporation. Most states require an annual Statement of Information also referred to as an annual report to be filed with the state office. With a corporation you have to have annual meetings and draft annual meeting minutes. And in any type of business structure, whether it’s a C Corp, S corp, LLC, or pllc, or professional Corporation, a registered agent is required. Now what is a Registered Agent?
Nellie Akalp 30:16
When you form a corporation or LLC, you must designate a person which is over the age of majority in the state where the corporation is being formed to accept Service of Process on behalf of that corporation or LLC. Generally speaking, the Registered Agent has to be 18 years of age or older, they must be at that location physically between the normal business hours of eight to five. And that Registered Agent office has to be a physical business address that cannot be a peel box, or a private mailbox.
Nellie Akalp 30:53
A lot of people don’t like designating themselves as a Registered Agent, because it really refutes the whole idea of that layer of privacy that you’re creating for yourself by becoming a corporation or LLC. So we here at corpnet, offer Registered Agent services in all 50 states, and we can act as your registered agent of record for any of the 50 states for your corporation or LLC.
Nellie Akalp 31:20
Now, here are questions to ask yourself, when you’re considering wanting to put your practice into a corporation or LLC, you want to number one, figure out Do I have any type of personal assets? Am I concerned with personal liability? Do I need to live off the business’s profits each year? Do I want to keep paperwork in administration as simple as possible? Or is it not really a big deal for me? And do I want to keep that business forever. And when you ask these questions, it can really guide you to figuring out what type of business entity would be best for your practice. And also, which will give you the best tax consequences at the end of the year. In addition, we have a great tool on our website, which is on the front page of our website located at www.corpnet.com, which is our business structure wizard.
Nellie Akalp 32:17
It’s been created by a team of attorneys and accountants. And it’ll lead you to a series of questions about your business. And at the end of that wizard, you get to ask have the answer of which business entity is really recommended for you, which will give you maximize liability and asset protection, in addition to the best tax savings. So again, check it out. It’s called our business structured wizard. And it’s located on www.corpnet.com.
Nellie Akalp 32:50
And it will be posted in the notes here on this webinar as well. So now that we’ve kind of gone over the different types of business entities, the question becomes, okay, how do I get started? What are the steps to get started? Well, for those of you who want to really keep it super simple, you come to Corp net, and we take care of everything from A to Z for you. However, again, incorporating a business or for me, and I’ll see is not something that has to be done by a lawyer and accountant, you can, your One option is to go to a reputable company, such as our company corpnet.
Nellie Akalp 33:28
Another option is to do it yourself. Okay. And then of course, the last option is to hire an attorney or an accountant, we recommend against the last option because it’s going to cost you an arm and a leg. How do I know this? I’m an attorney myself, I used to practice law. And I used to charge each client upwards of $5,000 to form a corporation or LLC. And why I don’t practice law. And I’m not licensed. It’s because of the fact that I see, you know, I wanted to become an entrepreneur. And I wanted to streamline the business startup process so that everyone can benefit from it. And we can we can offer a service, streamline it and offer it at a fraction of a price that you would otherwise have to pay an attorney or an accountant to provide these services to you. So again, it’s not something that you have to hire an attorney or an accountant, you don’t have to hire corpnet you can do it yourself.
Nellie Akalp 34:30
But when you do it yourself, you run the risk of making a lot of errors and also it becoming a little bit more time consuming for you. So what we recommend for you is to let a reputable company such as our company handle this for you so that you can focus on doing what you do best is providing mental health and recovery to your clients. So what are the steps to get started to incorporate a business first and foremost, you want to make sure your income With licensing and zoning laws, you want to conduct a business name search to make sure that name is available in the state you’re planning on incorporating your business or forming the LLC. One name a Registered Agent.
Nellie Akalp 35:14
Again, you can choose a Commercial Registered Agent such as our company to act as the agent, you draft the articles of incorporation, you file those articles with the state. And then you write up corporate bylaws, applying a paper federal tax ID number, and then you have a corporate record book where you maintain all the corporate records and corporate minutes to keep that corporation or LLC in compliance throughout the lifecycle of that corporation or LLC. And then you want to make sure you stay compliant annually by filing all the necessary paperwork with the state on an annual basis, and especially as a corporation or an LLC.
Nellie Akalp 36:01
Even if you’re a single personality, you have to have annual meetings, and you have to make sure you draft your Annual Meeting Minutes again, a service that can be utilized and is offered by corpnet. Similarly, the steps to forming a limited liability company very similar to a corporation I have listed here again, choose a name file articles of incorporation, choose an agent for Service of Process apply for the tax ID number stay compliant. Now, a lot of you may be asking, Well, what is a federal tax ID number, a federal tax ID number is basically the social security number for that corporation or LLC.
Nellie Akalp 36:44
Because the corporation or LLC is a separate legal entity, it’s like giving birth to a baby. So when that corporation or LLC comes into existence, it’s like giving birth to a child. So when you give birth to a child, they’re assigned a social security number. Similarly, when you bring a corporation or LLC into existence, you have to assign what is called a federal tax ID number to that corporation or LLC, because that’s how the IRS identifies the transactions that are run through the corporation or LLC.
Nellie Akalp 37:22
Now, when that corporation or LLC is formed, if you’re a shareholder in a corporation that meets the requirements of the S corporation election status, after that corporation or LLC is formed, and you decide you want that corporation or LLC tax as an S corp, you you have to take steps, another step to elect S corporation tax status with the IRS. So businesses that are first incorporated as a C corporation or have filed as an LLC, have to file IRS Form.
Nellie Akalp 38:05
I’m sorry, I IRS Form 2553, with the IRS in order to elect S corp status. Now, if you’re an LLC, again, if you want to be taxed as an S corp, you file form 2553. However, if you’re an LLC, that does not qualify as an S corp, but you want to opt to be a C Corp, then that LLC files form 8832. Again, if you have questions about this, you can post it in the chat. I’ll be more than happy to answer those questions for you.
Nellie Akalp 38:40
Or simply go to www.corpnet.com. We have live agents standing by where they can answer your questions, you can simply email us to [email protected] or simply come on to the side and there’s a live chat expert that can answer any of your questions. Now we have some helpful resources for you. If you have any questions because I’m sure you know I had to go ahead and cram all this information into an hour. So I’m sure there’s a lot of questions that you may have.
Nellie Akalp 39:17
Again, simply reach out to us at www.corpnet.com you can send us an email to info at corporate att.com or simply pick up the phone at www I’m sorry, simply pick up the phone at 1884492638. Again, we provide a plethora of resources, a lot of content. We have an amazing blog that I ride on at least three times a week with anything and everything that goes through the lifecycle of starting a business managing a business, expanding a business all the way down to winding down the business and closing down the business. notice some helpful resources and tools for you that you should be aware of. We have our business name search tool.
Nellie Akalp 40:10
So if you’re thinking about you know a name for your corporation or LLC, right on the homepage of our website, we have a business name search tool, which you can check that name for availability to see if you can be utilized as a corporation or LLC. We also have a trademark search tool that you can utilize to see if that name is available in all 50 states. And if you can have an end game federal trademark protection rights to that name, we also have our business structure wizard, which is a great tool for you.
Nellie Akalp 40:43
If you’re not sure about what type of business structure you want to form, whether you want to be a corporation or LLC, we’ve put one of the highlights of that business structure wizard here for you. But the wizard is great because it takes you through a series of questions specifically related to your business, and it then recommends a business structure for your particular business. We also have a great compliance portal, which Corey was very excited about. Because as a business owner, when you form a corporation or LLC, you often think your job is done.
Nellie Akalp 41:18
But as a corporation or LLC, there’s a lot of compliance formalities that go along with maintaining a corporation or LLC. And our compliance portal is free of charge and helps keep you on your toes by providing you with monitoring alerts and proactive alerts to make sure your corporation or LLC is in compliance. Again, it’s free of charge, you don’t even have to use our services. And you if you’re already a corporation or LLC, you can sign up for our corporate compliance portal and start receiving alerts and we’ll monitor that corporation or LLC for you.
Nellie Akalp 41:57
We also have a meeting minutes template and Annual Meeting Minutes service where we can help you with drafting annual meeting minutes for you, if you’re a corporation, we have plenty of guides and business checklists for you. And then we have an amazing blog that we post timely blog posts and news on there for you. With that said, I’m going to go ahead and thank you guys for the opportunity to present. And again, if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. It’s been wonderful presenting to you guys, feel free to check us [email protected]. And I’m going to go ahead and hand it over to you, Cory, if you want to go ahead and you know, open up for some q&a, or whatever you’d like to do.
Cory Miller 42:49
Yeah, if you have any questions, post those in the q&a app, I’m going to say a big thank you to Nelly a cap founder CEO of CorpNet.com. I put bunches of these links in there, into the chat, and they’ll be in the notes underneath the recording for this, if you’re watching this at a later time, from the business structure, which wizard which is awesome, because you gave us this fantastic overview that you can go through and actually, you know, answer the questions on the wizard. The compliance thing, Nelly, he did sign up today.
Cory Miller 43:22
If I had done court net for several of my businesses, I wouldn’t have to worry. And then I’ve been the one that has been not compliant and had to when I sold my software business a couple years ago, we were we were getting all of our due diligence, go into that and go, Oh, I need to go do my compliance, you know, like I’m at a compliance. So that is such a fantastic thing. I’m going to be signing up today personally, and I put a link to that in in the chat here for everybody. But while you have questions, I’m wondering nilly. So tell me a little bit about CT net and how you got started.
Nellie Akalp 44:00
Oh, thank you. So I’ve been in this industry for Oh my god, since 1997. My husband and I met in college and we decided we had similar passions of wanting to go to law school, and we went to law school and we thought, okay, we’re going to both become lawyers, I really wanted to become a trial lawyer. And then in our last year of law school, we really realized that, you know, the entry level salary for what a, you know, entry level lawyer would make is not going to be really sufficient for the lifestyle we envision for ourselves.
Nellie Akalp 44:36
You know, we both come from very dysfunctional families. And we’re both in recovery very, very, very grateful to be in recovery. And, you know, we we, we love this community, you know, because we believe in mental health, we love mental health and we wanted to have a big family, you know, we’re both only children. So um, Coming from that background, we an envisioning having a large family because I am a mother of four. And it wasn’t, you know, be working, you know, in a law firm wasn’t really going to, you know, provide us with that lifestyle that we envision.
Nellie Akalp 45:14
So, back in 1997, the internet was right. And, and the internet was really, you know, coming on, and it was the birth of the internet. So, starting businesses, for people on the internet was a really hot topic. So we decided to put up a one page website, and, you know, launch our first company, that company soon, and, you know, really grew, you know, really fast. And fast forward to 2005, we sold that company to a private to a publicly traded company into it, and then took some time off and started all over again, with cork net in 2009. And CorpNet has just been such an amazing blessing. My kids are a lot older now.
Nellie Akalp 46:03
You know, my twins are 20. So my daughter works for the company. She’s actually one of our top sales experts. So if you have any questions, you can reach out to Nadia, Akalp, [email protected]. Again, that’s [email protected]. And she is one of our business filings, experts that can assist you in helping set up your company in any of the 50 states. And if you already have a corporation or LLC, she can also help you in keeping that corporation or LLC, in compliance in all 50 states.
Cory Miller 46:46
Okay, that is a first Nellie when you can say, so I had part of my software business. I had my mom was our salesperson for a very long time. And as I say sales, it was just incoming emails. But this is the first to say, here’s my daughter’s email address. She’s awesome. Go. That is fantastic.
Nellie Akalp 47:06
Yeah, I’m really honored to help my daughter worked for me because, um, you know, in this day and age No, I’m, I’m one of those parents who really, you know, likes to equip my, my kids with courage, compassion connection to kind of go out and seek what they want. And her passion was just, I guess it’s genetic, I don’t know. But she’s really passionate about actually taking my position as the CEO of a company. I said, Well, you know, that’s gonna take some time. Why don’t we start here, and she’s just killing it. And she’s very, very personable, very knowledgeable. And she can definitely help when it comes to helping any of you start a corporation or an LLC in any of the 50 states.
Cory Miller 47:53
Fantastic. So one last question. And we’ll wrap this up again, we know you’re super busy. And we thank you, and we’re going to be asking you to come back, because phenomenal presentation. Thank you. A lot of you’ve been in business for a very, very long time. And you see a lot of mistakes, I’m sure. One thing I see over and over is when you kind of started out, you talked about sole proprietorship, but thinking I can just do these things without getting legal without it. And it’s not, it’s not just legal to, as you mentioned, it’s protection from your own assets. But are there some as you think about people that are thinking their budding entrepreneurs, or, in our case, private practice, you know, clinicians’ some of those mistakes you see people making when they’re getting their business started. And this can go outside of legal, I’m just curious, as an entrepreneur, very accomplished entrepreneurs, yourself, you know, mistakes you’ve seen, budding business owners make over the years.
Nellie Akalp 48:53
So first and foremost, first and foremost mistake I see a lot of entrepreneurs making is they’re not really taking the steps to research for example, that business name that they want to choose for their business entity, and all of a sudden, they get a demand letter from some other business entity that says, hey, you’re violating my name, you’re violating my trade name.
Nellie Akalp 49:19
So it’s really really important to check that business name before you start conducting business under that name, because it’s all that time you wasted on you know, printing out business cards, letterhead, whatever can really go two ways if you don’t take the proper steps, and do your due diligence to check that name for availability. Next Big mistake we see is for those professionals who you know, are ready to incorporate or form an LLC. And they typically go after those, you know, hyped up incorporate in Delaware Incorporated, Wyoming incorporated in Nevada. And this is really a myth and it’s going to really bite People in in the behind if they don’t incorporate in their home state because although Delaware, Nevada and Wyoming are really, you know, business friendly states to Incorporated, if you’re not located in that business in that state, if you’re not operating within that state, if you don’t have employees within that state it you’re subjecting yourself to multiple states filing fees and state laws.
Nellie Akalp 50:29
So, really, at the end of the day is if you’re considering incorporating or forming an LLC, incorporate in your home state where the business is located. Lastly, the another big, big big issue we see is, once they’ve incorporated or formed an LLC, failing to keep that corporation or LLC in compliance throughout the lifetime of the LLC, so not, you know, properly aligning themselves with a compliance service, such as our company that can keep their corporation or LLC in compliance. Because, you know, by by incorporating or forming an LLC, your main, you know, you want to maintain that corporate shield, you want to maintain that corporate veil. And by failing to keep that corporation or LLC in compliance, you’re likely going to lose that corporate veil, that corporate shield, which, in essence, you’re going to lose protection. And ultimately, if your corporation or LLC is not is not in compliance, the state that you’re incorporated or formed as an LLC is going to put your LLC in bad standing. And ultimately, that corporation or LLC will become administratively dissolved by that state.
Cory Miller 51:52
Gotcha. Good to know. Good to know for sure. Which is why the your compliance check your free compliance check is so critical. Excellent. Yes,
Nellie Akalp 51:59
yes. And it’s easy. I mean, literally, how hard is it, go to our website, go to our compliance portal? Literally, it’s three to four questions that you have to answer. And then we start monitoring your company. And we’ll even give you a courtesy call to let you know when it’s due, like, Hey, your corporation is coming up due for its annual report or its annual meeting minutes. And you either tell us, hey, you can take care of this for me, or we you know, you’ll do it on your own. And we’ll dismiss the alert for you for that for that year. So really great service free of charge and something that I feel anybody should participate.
Cory Miller 52:44
Yes, absolutely. Okay, so one final question. And then we’ll let you go. And thank you so much on this Friday, of course, of course. So sometimes the therapist will relocate from another state actually talked to a couple and and there are licensure things for them that they have to deal with to correct. Let’s say you started a private practice in Oklahoma. You moved to Texas? Yes. Now, the licensure they’re figuring that out, but from the incorporation. what’s the what’s the best practice for for that?
Nellie Akalp 53:16
Great question. Great question. So two options here. One is called Read, read dama seiling, also referred to as read domestication, okay, I read the domestication or read domicile is basically where a corporation or LLC is formed in one state, and they don’t really want to lose the tenure ship of that corporation or LLC. And they want to keep the longevity of that corporation or LLC that they started out with in that original home state. Okay, if that state that they’re moving into offers a read domestication, that’s their best option to ridden, read domesticate, meaning, converting out of one state and converting into the other state.
Nellie Akalp 54:05
Okay, if the state doesn’t offer we domestication basically what that business owner that’s formed as a corporation or LLC has to do is they’ll need to dissolve that corporation or LLC in their home state and form that corporation or LLC into the new state. Now, there is a third option. Let’s say that business owner is still wanting to practice in that home state and they want to maintain their licensure and not home state. The third option is they can keep that business entity in that original home state and foreign qualify that Corporation into the new state and expand into the new state or multiple states. So lots of different variances as to how this can be done.
Nellie Akalp 54:56
And again, we offer all these types of services out corpnet let’s say for example, your practice is growing and you’re hiring additional, you know, counselors and professionals to work under you or you know, have a receptionist or someone as an administrative assistant that you want to place on payroll, well, by, you know, paying people on payroll, you have to register for payroll tax, wretch number, employer tax rich number, we can also assist you with those services as well in all 50 states. So we are a one stop A to Z, business filing service that provides services in all 50 states to you.
Cory Miller 55:42
is fantastic. Any, any budding entrepreneur out there not just clinician therapist, Korematsu, fantastic have your friends that have worked with you nilly and coordinate for years and, and amazing services, you’ve really fleshed out the whole suite. Thank you, Nellie, thank you so much. And one, two, I meant to mention this, thank you for sharing that you’re also in recovery and your passion for mental health. And, and then finally, just thank you for your time today and sharing your expertise.
Nellie Akalp 56:13
Of course, of course, it’s been a pleasure to present to all of you, I am very grateful and honored to be here, Corey, and again, post your questions in the chat box, because Corey and I are going to design a series of webinars to come back at you and come back to you with more and more education. Again, this is my passion, my passion, really, other than being an entrepreneur is really to teach and Blaze and really help you as an entrepreneur grow as a professional and helping you grow your business. So I’m really, really, really humbled to be here and to be presenting to all of you. Thank you.
Cory Miller 56:57
Yes, ma’am. Okay, Nellie, have a great weekend. Thank you again, we’ll be talking about that series because I can’t wait to do that and our clinicians in the community. You’re ready for that. Thank you, everybody. Have a great Friday, and we’ll see you all next time. Have a great day.
