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The shareholders are the persons or other business entities who actually own the corporation. The corporation ownership is divided into shares of stock in the corporation. Each share may be sold to shareholders who are then issued a stock certificate that represents their ownership of a percentage of the corporation, represented by numbers of shares [...]

As explained in our Shareholders of an S-Corporation article, directors are elected by the shareholders at their annual meetings. Please note, however, that in the forms available on our site, the initial board of directors is specified in the Articles of Incorporation which are prepared and filed with the state. This listing of the directors [...]

To the officers of a corporation fall the responsibilities of running the business. Their powers, however, are dictated solely by the board of directors. Officers can be given very broad powers to transact virtually all business for the corporation, or they can be tightly limited in their authority. A single shareholder can act as both [...]

Limited liability companies are a relatively new form of business organization, first recognized in the United States by the State of Wyoming in 1977. Since then, legislation has been enacted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) to allow businesses to organize as limited liability companies. A limited liability company is a separate legal entity, as is a corporation. The business structure is actually a hybrid type of business entity–between a corporation and a partnership. It is organized in a fashion similar, but not identical to, that of corporations.

One of the first decisions that potential business owners must confront is how their busi¬ness should be structured and operated. This crucial decision must be made even before the business has actually begun operations. The legal documents that will generally accompany the formation of a business can follow many different patterns, depending on the particular [...]

One of the most important and often overlooked aspects of starting a business is the process of preparing a Business Plan. It is through preparation of a formal business plan than you begin the process of refining what your business will actually be and, more importantly, how you can make it successful from the start. [...]

An integral part of the process of starting a business is preparing a Marketing Plan. Whether the business will provide a service or sell a product, it will need customers in some form. Who those customers are, how they will be identified and located, and how they will be attracted to the business are crucial [...]

The third crucial part of your initial Business Plan entails how your business will obtain enough money to actually survive until it is successful. The failure of many small businesses relates directly to underestimating the amount of money needed to start and continue the business. Most business owners can, with relative ease, estimate the amount [...]

The business arena in America operates on a daily assortment of legal forms. There are more legal forms in use in American business than are used in the operations and government of many foreign countries. The business corporation is not immune to this flood of legal forms. Indeed the operation of a corporation, in general, [...]

The planning stage of incorporation is vital to the success of any corporation. The structure of a new corporation, including the number of directors, number of shares of stock, and other matters, must be carefully tailored to the specific needs of the business. Attorneys typically use a pre-incorporation worksheet to assemble all of the necessary [...]