Opening your own business: corporation, LLC, sole proprietorship?

So what is the next step after you have written your business plan? Figure out how you're gonna get money!! Most cities offer loans from their redevelopment center in small amounts ( roughly 40K) with small interest rates, so that would be a good possibility to look into. If you're going to do business in San Jose, CA, the redevelopment Agency offers a max 40K loan with a 3-6% interest rate. There is an Opportunity Fund that can give up to 200K in small business loans. Just contact the city that you're thinking of doing business in for more questions about their loan programs. Good luck on that!

While you're figuring out how to get money for your small business, you should start looking into what kind of business entity you want to be: sole proprietorship, corporation, partnership or LLC. How do you decide? Here are some websites I found helpful:

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID/ED01121A-B4BF-498A-8BC0DBD121A0C869/catID/BAAE1B67-F54A-41B4-91943A51F56C3F79/111/182/245/FAQ/

http://www.themoneyalert.com/Corp-Entity-Table.html

http://nolo.com/article.cfm/ObjectID/63773C59-44CB-488D-8F3659FDE5C899DB

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectId/3FD19141-DB91-4FCA-BDB93416A4D05479/111/182/147/ART/

http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectId/BC12D427-ED89-439F-AECBD53DC24EB012/catID/DA9428C8-2E99-47F2-A24C1190FE5F24E7/111/182/275/ART/

Once you have decided what kind of business entity you would like to go with, you will need to come up with a name and register that entity with the state that you're doing business in. I found Legalzoom.com very helpful. You just have to fill out information about your business and personal information and they compile it together and register it for you in your state of choice. You will have to pay a little more than if you did it yourself, but saves you time and headache

Ok I hope that helped! Stay tuned for the next step. Ciao!