

Ask HN: Registering names? Handling taxes? - bsilvereagle

From browsing the web and reading books, you see startup "guides" discussing how many founders to have, how to find an idea, etc.<p>None of them talk about <i>acting</i> on your idea. How to register a name, how to make sure no one else has the name, patenting your work, trademarking your logo, making sure you make decisions that will help you at tax filing time, not hurt you.<p>Does anyone know of a good source about actually launching a business? Or have advice of your own?
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mindcrime
Go to any Barnes & Noble store and find the section on small business /
entrepreneurship. You'll find shelves of books with titles like

"How to Organize an LLC in North Carolina" or "How to Incorporate In South
Dakota", and "How to Start Your First Business" etc, etc. There are plenty of
books that deal with the nitty gritty, nuts and bolts stuff, taxes, naming,
etc. Just to spend an hour or so at a bookstore and poke around.

As for specific recommendations... I'd have to get out of bed and go dig
through my stacks of books to pick some out, but one that comes to mind is
_The Art of the Start_ by Guy Kawasaki. Not quite down at the level of "how to
deal with taxes" etc., but some good low-level stuff about launching a
startup.

Also, if/when you go to B&N (or Books-a-Million, whatever), somewhere near the
"small business" section you'll usually find a section with the
accounting/finance/taxes books. You'll probably see a few titles like "Tax
Handbook for your Maine LLC" etc.

There are also books full of "stock" forms and contracts and what-not.

Also, if you have a community college nearby, you might call them and see if
they have a "small business center" of some sort. That's pretty common here in
NC... they offer seminars and sessions periodically, on topics like you are
asking about.

You might also see if your state (assuming you're in the US) has something
analogous to CED (the Council for Entrepreneurial Development) that we have
here in NC. <http://www.cednc.org> I'm guessing most states have something
similar, but it might be called something different.

Finally, look into SCORE - the Service Corps of Retired Executives. You can
hook up with a retired exec who can provide some mentoring and assistance to
you. <http://www.score.org/>

HTH.

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pikewood
Entrepreneur Press (same shop as Entrepreneur Magazine) has a series of books
that concentrate on starting a business in each specific state. Look up "How
to Start a Business in North Carolina", for instance. There's only a couple of
sections in the book that are truly state-specific; the rest of it is standard
startup business stuff, which sounds like that's what you're looking for.

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mindcrime
I could be wrong, but I've always assumed they print 50 versions of those
books, one per state, and mostly retail them in the corresponding states.

Just out of curiosity, did you mention NC because you are a North Carolinian,
or was that just a random example? Just wondering, as I'm from Chapel Hill,
NC.

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niggler
Most states have online information about the process of registering the
business (including registering with the IRS)

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steveax
Of course it's always best to consult with an attorney, but Nolo Press has
good self-help legal resources.

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noahc
Part of the reason why is that for many classes of start ups those things are
completely unnessecary and will be distractions from actually shipping your
product.

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L0j1k
Find a local inventors' club. For me, this has been an invaluable resource for
gathering information related to starting/maintaining a business and filing
for patents and the like.

