

Ask HN: Building several small companies, how to incorporate them? - vonklaus

I am going to prototype a few really small lifestyle businesses. Just little companies to try and generate some income. I want to make sure I am protected from liability, but due to how limited the income will be, I don&#x27;t know how to proceed.<p>These will be small companies and projects. Does it make sense to just incorporate one entity and then run the companies under a single umbrella? This would open other companies up to the liability of all of them?<p>Should I make a single master entity, and then have small subsidiaries? What makes sense for operating a few small lifestyle businesses, while limiting liability?
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sebg
Short answer - ask your lawyer/accountant.

I personally run a few small businesses out of 1 LLC. Because I am a single
employee of the LLC, the LLC gets treated as a disregarded entity
([http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-
Employ...](http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-
Employed/Single-Member-Limited-Liability-Companies)). I work with my
accountant to report everything from all the different websites/business but
at the end of the day, it gets reported on my personal tax.

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vonklaus
I don't have and an't afford a lawyer. At te end of the year I will get an
accountant to do my taxes. It sounds like you are running a couple companies
under a single entity. I think that makes sense. In a best case situation any
individual company would generate ~10k in annual revenue. Maybe the better
ones would be 80k.

What did your lawyer say about liability. If one company got sued, couldn't
they come after the assets of another because it is knly a single entity?

