BUSINESS CREATION

We receive many calls from real estate investors and small business entrepreneurs who have heard "just enough" to make them curious about protecting their business by running it through a corporate entity. 

"I want to protect myself from creditors."

"I want to prevent lawsuits."

"I need an LLC."

There is some truth to the urgency behind the calls. To protect your personal assets from the catastrophic costs of litigation, you do need to separate your business activity from your personal activity. 

The first step is to run the business from an entity such as an LLC (Limited Liability Company) or a Corporation. Where to file it depends largely on how easy you would like it to be run, how much privacy you want to have, and how costly you would like for it to be to maintain it. States like Wyoming, Nevada, Montana, and Delaware offer a lot of privacy but at quite the cost. States like Florida are more open to the public, but far less expensive.

Once a person, or group of people, begin to run their business from an entity, they have created separation from the creditors of their business and their own personal assets. But is that what running a business is all about, Creditor Protection? Absolutely not!

This is where I see so many business owners make mistakes. They are so concerned about lawsuits, that they forget that the point of creating a business is to make a profit for the business owner(s). A profit involves making enough money that the business owner doesn't feel better off being someone else's employee.

Our business creation services are designed to help you create a business that will bring you financial independence, otherwise, why be in business?

If you want to have a serious conversation about setting up your business with our attorney, contact LegalAdmin@lcolawfl.com or call 813-480-2106.

We're not here to change the world. We are here to bring independence to Real Estate Investor Luke's world. 

Luke wants the long days and extra hours he's putting into his real estate business to pay off. He wants to make his father and father in law proud. He's a devoted family man and he wants to be THE successful provider for his family. His wife believes in him, but needs the important men in his life to agree that he's on the right path to take care of his family for the long term. 

Luke  beats himself up when his tenants don't pay, when his foreclosure bid auctions have challenges, and when he buys a property that looks like a "money pit." He is afraid to lose a deal when he is told by the title company that he must complete an action to quiet title to his tax deed before they'll close it. He loses sleep over it. His hair gets grayer. Luke does not know where he is going to find the time to "fix" those problems and run his business. 

Luke has been asking advice from his investor community and he is getting a lot of "advice".  However, the advice he is getting is conflicting, and some of it appears to be downright unethical. That's not acceptable to Luke because Luke only wants to do right by his business and his family. 

Luke is nervous about the cost of having a legal advisor for his business, after all, he's never spent much on himself. Business is different though. He knows he needs to invest in his business for it to grow, but doesn't know how to or where to make those investments. All he knows is what he "hears" from fellow investors: buy this kind of house, buy these kinds of materials, charge this rent because this is what "we" charge. 

He keeps telling himself he needs a business plan, but he has not made the time to write one down. He also doesn't know what goes into a real estate business plan.  He hears a lot about LLCs and corporations and partnerships and trusts, but doesn't really know what would be best for his business or what the difference is. He doesn't know if there are any tax benefits to having a separate business and he's worried about a big surprise tax bill at the end of the year. He hears horror stories about tenants suing for stubbed toes, slip and falls, and mold. Would having an LLC protect him from that? 

Luke does not want to be like his friend Howard, who tried to file an eviction himself and ended up litigating for eight months to get troublesome tenants out of his rental in Seminole Heights. He doesn't want to be like Miguel who ended up having to file a lawsuit against his business partner because their handshake agreement went south when the market changed. He also doesn't want to be like his dad, who died with the State's estate plan and it took him and his brothers two years of bitter fighting in court and tens of thousands in attorneys' fees to finally sell the family home he left behind.

Luke wants a real estate business like Tony, his mentor. Luke wants what Tony has: a predictable and growing real estate business, to have his family protected from lawsuits and taxes if and when something happens to him,  time for his children and for wife, time for his fishing boat, and time for his hockey team. Luke saw that Tony Took Charge of his Legacy, and he's ready to Take Charge too.