Business Startup Checklist

1. Decide on a legal form (structure) of your future business.

• Sole Proprietorship: you are going to use personal assets and own business startup funding to operate your business on your own, either under a business name or your own name.
• Partnership: you are going to run a business with one or more partners. You share business startup costs, capital investments and business startup risks with your partners. You need to create a business startup budget template that is approved and signed by all participants of your business.
• Corporation: you decide on running a business as a separate legal entity, separate from yourself and your personal assets. You act as an independent business startup investor.
• Co-operative: you want to run a business owned and controlled by a group of people who use and benefit from your products/services.
• Society: you are going to found a non-profit organization in which any funds, profits and business startup opportunities will be used only for the organization's purposes.

2. Registration of business startup information: two steps.

• Business startup package: if you decide to run your business under a name different from your own, you should register that name because you will need to get proof of business registration (including official confirmation of the chosen business startup form) to open bank accounts, apply for loans, and many other business building activities that are usually combined into a business startup package.
• Step 1: Get approval of your business name. You will need to submit your business name request online or in person at specialized State Registry Services. Submitting of business name is an important procedure as it allows preventing use of business names that are so similar as to confuse or mislead people. The procedure also lets determine ownership and form of companies. The procedure is a subject of your business startup expenses spreadsheet.
• Step 2: Register your business. Once you have been informed about successful approval of your business name, you have some period of time (usually it's about 1-2 months) to complete incorporation process. This process may vary depending on the chosen form of your business and business startup requirements in your state/province. You can request Registry Services in your state/province for details about incorporation process for Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Corporation, Co-operative and Society.

3. Legal Requirements: Obtaining business license to operate.

• Depending on legal requirements and requirements of a municipality, you may need to register for a business license that gives you permissions to run your business on your own or leasehold premises within the municipality.

• Contact your local city hall to get business startup assistance. ...

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