ForumsStarting a Business

LLC looking for CPA advice, Welcome Darrick

Everybody in Business should have a Lawyer, An Accountant and an Insurance Agent.
You said that you have a Lawyer. Ask him for the names of two CPA's.
Also talk to the CPA about 1099's. Again as you said 1099 are NOT employees. They could be contractors, but be careful. The I R S likes employees, does not like 1099.

Good luck, Happy New Year, LUCKIEST

Hi SCCAlive
Thanks for your enthusiasm! Currently my wife is not a part of the LLC, but both she and I are W2 employees after speaking with our attorney and a couple of CPAs. I guess in Oklahoma the 1099 usage is fine here for what we are doing as far as the sales guys.

my wife and I are both very excited and yeah, the reason we want to be W2 employees is for tax reasons. We are also electing for the LLC to be its own entity, totally seperating our personal and business accounts. We don;t really have any assets other than computer systems and servers, since everything we do is online with no tangable inventory. We're rolling out soon, so it's going to get kind of freaky. Our pro forma 3 year looks like it will be around $15 million, so we are treading new water, so we want to make sure we have everything in place for a rapid growth.

Do you use a local insurance company for workers comp, or do you use a state one? In oklahoma, we have the option. How much do you usually pay? I've done some research, and it's not that expensive for this type of business. I guess I can email you for that info.

Anyway, thanks!
-Darrick

While I can't reliably answer how often should a CPA go over your books I can offer some experience.

I have my online business since 1999 and a CPA only sees my books once a year - at the very end.

In fact, the first one or two years there were no CPA at all (and, true enough, I did not do anything with the revenue as I was too busy building the busines while being careful NOT to make expenses that may inappropriate both business wise and legally).

Eventually, I got a CPA review the mess that has been created. Luckily, he was a good one, but he was also helped by the fact that I had an already established pattern of work and more or less clear short-term goals.

If you want my 2c I'd say this is a great way to build a small business - focus on the business. I am not saying to ignore the accounting and the legal side, but come on, there isn't much to think about while you're still small in both the accounting and the legal departments.

It's more common sense and focus on the job and less concerns about IRS and Fate or you might as well never take off the ground.

At the end of the next year find a CPA, bring all your papers and operations and let them help you organize it. You'll learn tons of useful information and you will very likely discover you've broken one or two rules, but you'll break them no matter what you do...

IRS will forgive many mistakes made during the first year and it's only natural to do so; after all, there won't be much revenue in the beginning so it's not as if they're losing a lot anyway; and it's not as if you do it on purpose.

Focus on the business and just use common sense when it comes to accounting, legal and all other neccessary evils.

Over time, you'll learn that your common sense is slightly different than the one of Uncle Sam, but if you're willing to take that and adjust to his views, you'll have little problems.

That is, at least, my experience. It's not perfect, but I am happy with it and I hope Uncle Sam is too, because he gets lots of my money before handing them to corporations like GM that publicly admit they have done tons of mess and intend to continue doing so.

Finally, if you have online business, don't hire C++ developer. You are more likely to need a Java or C# one.