who has a business attorney? Who's incorporated?

[SouthSoundTree]

My concern is some sort of lawsuit where insurance doesn't cover it, or cover all of a settlement. I have a hard time seeing it happen, but know stuff happens. An auto accident with a chip truck and chipper is the biggest concern, overall, I suppose.

On that note, from what the presenter at the Coeur d'Alane PNW training conference said, its very important to have given your drivers a documented test, and documented defensive driving training.


A tax benefit, according to my bookkeeper, of incorporating will be that my owner's SS tax will be deductible, whereas currently, since I'm not an employee, it isn't. There is some other payroll type tax like that, as well. I guess I would probably HAVE to get W/ C coverage for myself, whereas now, its optional. For WA State, its around $3.15/ hour/ person, pretty cheap.

From what I was reading, it is much easier to sell an incorporated business, for some reason. I just saw that as a highlight, an don't have any of the supporting details.

I'm not out to screw any banks, and only am considering financing a commuter/ estimate mobile currently. In the future, I might need to finance a new chipper or chip truck. Its not so daunting, as I don't expect to be buying a $50K rig.

 

[SkwerI]

Last I heard (my info is 10 years old), local tree guys here were paying (or not paying) $42 per $100 of payroll. Absolutely insane. And if I were to incorporate then I would no longer be automatically exempt from WC withholding by law and would need to go pay another fee and register with another government agency in order to buy a card that proved I was exempt from WC withholding. Of course having a single government agency confiscate a third of my income should be a pleasure.

Sorry for the derail, back to LLC stuff now. Just a single example of why I'll stay a sole proprietor.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Resist Authority.

 

[emr]

There are so many variables as to which direction a company should go and that's why we consulted a lawyer, our accountant, and a SCORE consoler before we made our decision. I agree with the sole proprietorship probably being the easiest, simplest, and cheapest but once you add a partner to the equation everything changes, and once employees enter then it all changes again. Any way that you slice it, if you own a company you are at risk. That's just a fact. If you dwell on it, it will give you an ulser. The form you take reasonable actions to cover yourself and conduct business in a professional and prudent manner then it can be a pretty cool experience. I have said all along that you need to be smart enough to know when you need to pay for expert advice, whether that comes from a lawyer, accountant, business consultant, or who ever.

 

[Tarzan]

Awesome thread. Sole proprietor here, but have wondered about the bennies of being llc. Thanks for all your knowledge sharing guys. I think I am going to stay small sole prop. for now...once I make my first million I might switch

 

[NickfromWI]

When I OFFICIALLY started my tree company last year I assumed I was going to do an LLC. After talking to a few people, I realized there were two camps of people:

Yes, of course you should be an LLC- those were usually bankers, lawyers, or the LLC paperwork filing companies- all of whom stand to gain by me becoming an LLC.
No, why bother at this point- that was basically everyone else.

To date I've stuck with sole prop and it still seems to make sense. LLC seems like extra headaches and extra fees for no ACTUAL benefits.

 

[stig]

I switched last year.
After working together for 6 years and knowing each other for 12 since he started out as my apprentice, Richard and I decided that the engagement had been long enough and it was time to get married..
We killed off our two sole proprietor companys and started a new one together.
The amount of paperwork was staggering, but once it was up and running, things are fine.
We save a load of money on insurance this way.