Cory Collier

I’ve seen a lot of mis-information, and mis-guided information on how to start a corporation. The specifics of this vary by state to state. I live in Florida, and I went through the process on my own. The process was a bit difficult, but only because there wasn’t a clear guide on what to do.

Hence, this tutorial

First, you’ll need to download a form, that indicates the type of corporation you want to be. This is NOT to determine if you’re an S-Corp or C-Corp. The determination of S-Corp or C-Corp is done with the IRS. That determination is done later. For now, you’ll just need to decide which of the following you will be:

• Non-Profit Corporation – If you want to be a 501c3, this one is for you. (form here)
• Profit Corportation – S-Corp and C-Corp (form here)
• Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) – Typical LLC (form here)

The forms will outline the specifications for each of the types of incorporation. While each of the forms contains the necessary questionnaire, I don’t recommend just filling in the blanks. There are a large number of templates for this. Google searches typically will bring up something to work with. Here’s the one I did for Hacked For BBQ, Corp.

Once  you get something written up, mail off the package with money included. Once you’ve gotten this done, you’ll have to wait a couple weeks for the state to get back to you. If everything looks good, you’ll get a letter of confirmation regarding your corporation.

Once you have this letter of confirmation from the state of Florida, it’s time to get your FEIN number and file your corporation type with the IRS. I did this as an S-Corp, so my experience may be different than some of the rest of you.

Go to the IRS’s online application for obtaining an FEIN number at the current website for this : http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html. You’ll click a link that says ‘APPLY ONLINE NOW’. Afterwards you’ll be sent to a page giving you the instructions on how to complete the FEIN process. The process itself is fairly self-explanatory. Completing this process immediately provides you with an FEIN number, with which you can open a bank account and start doing some business.

To close, I’d like to point out how unnecessary services like company.com are. These services are overpriced, and often put people in difficult situations. DIY business starting isn’t nearly as bad as it might seem at first. As always, any feedback is certainly welcome.

So I haven’t written anything of substance since Melissa and my Memorial Day camping vacation. I can rectify that situation now.

Melissa and I went on a date last Saturday night in downtown Sanford. For those of you who don’t know Sanford, it’s a small town about a half hour north of Orlando, situated at the south end of Lake Monroe. As you might have figured, not very much happens in Sanford on a regular basis. The big news lately: 

On March 24, 2008, the City Commission adopted a temporary noise amnesty ordinance which suspends Section 38-63 (b)(1) of the current ordinance for a period of 90 calendar days from March 24, 2008 in the special commercial zoning district (SC-3). The SC-3 

So Melissa and I went there for a date. We first stopped to make reservations at our restaurant of choice for the evening, Hollerbach’s Willow Tree Cafe. There was a wait, so we passed the time at a local wine bar, The Sanford Wine Company. If we had already eaten dinner, we could have stayed there all night. 

We didn’t however. The Hollerbach has an ingenious way of letting you know your table is ready: they call your cell phone. I can’t believe that nobody has though of this amazing idea before. It doesn’t tie you down to the restaurant, and management saves a ton of money. That’s how Melissa and were able to go to the wine bar while we waited for a table to open up. 

So, they called us and we went in for dinner. 

The Hollerbach (I can hear Gwen Stefani right now), is pretty typical of most German restaurants. Well, it’s pretty typical of most, that are actually IN Germany. The food was awesome, management has the good sense to keep a lot of people working there, and there’s live German music too.

The beer selection is pretty kick-ass there as well. When I went to Germany with some of the team at NFi last October, I was pretty disappointed with the beer there. I’m a stout kinda guy, and most beers I could find at the time were either a lager or a pilsner. Well, in Sanford, FL I found a really good German beer. It’s more of a porter, but it was awesome. Now, if I could just remember the name of it…

We intend on heading back there soon. We have friends in Deland and Deltona (not Daytona), so Sanford is a good meeting place for us. If you get the chance to go up there, I really recommend it. The folks out there were really nice, and we had a really good time.

It puzzles me, on a daily basis, how poorly people drive. There are a lot of reasons why people drive badly. One of those reasons, is ignorance. Well, I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to drive like an dumbass. So I’m posting the Florida Drivers Handbook here for all to review.

There will be a test…

Florida Drivers Handbook

Last night, Bender and I went down to the Crooked Bayou for the Florida Creatives event over there. I couldn’t stay long, but I still had a good time. I was able to talk to a lot of friends, and meet some new people

I spent some time talking to my buddy Greg about business. I’ve always felt a certain level of camradre with Greg. Both he and I don’t come from CS backgrounds. We both work out a lot, and we both drink lots of beer. Greg has some interesting ideas up his sleeve. That guy’s a businessman, through and through.

I had the opportunity to talk with Jason of Rails Envy , about the hillarious videos they keep putting out. I’ve never really had the opportunity to talk to Jason before. I’ve met Gregg a few times, and he’s a nice guy. However, it was really good to meet the other side of that effort. If you haven’t seen what those guys are up to, you owe it to yourself to check them out.

Erik Hersman was there as well. Erik’s a strategy guy, who has made a living on predicting where web trends will go, and advising businesses how to capitalize on them. Erik can shame the best of geeks with his industry knowledge. So, I had to ask him a few quick thoughts about my upcoming side project. Erik was understandably brief (we were at a bar, and there was loud music playing), but he gave me some tips I’ll take to heart.

Much of the rest of the time, I was getting phone calls from clients. It figures I suppose. I shouldn’t be upset about it. They’re paying my bills, and right now, I could use the extra cash.

A few other attendees that I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to: Alex Rudloff, Etan Horowitz, Chris Scott, Ryan Price, Meagan Fisher , and a multitude of others that I can’t remember.

Good times.

Today my wife and I closed on our first home. It’s a 3/2/2 in Altamonte Springs, FL. We’re paying about a quarter million dollars for a house with less than 1,400 square feet. However, the house is full of amazing upgrades that really sold us. Full granite counter tops throughout the house, 18″ tile floors, stainless steel appliances, cooktop stove, big yard, etc…

I can’t begin to mention how excited we are about everything. We were pretty lucky that pretty much everyone we worked with was amazing to have around. Our realtor Colleen Offner , lender, parents, and even the sellers were all amazingly helpful.

I’ll have some pictures of everything soon.

Update August 12, 2007 – Pictures

Here are the pictures I promised:

This is the front view of our house. I got a lawnmower yesterday and mowed the yard. It sounds lame, but I can’t express how excited I was to mow my own yard.
The yard itself is 115 x 75. That makes it over 8,600SF, or about 1/5 an acre.
That is stone you see in front as well. There’s also some faux hurricane shutters on the office window in front as well.
The garage is 2 car, though I’m sure my truck will never be parked in there.

Here is a picture of the backyard. It’s not very deep. Most of the yard is in the front and on the west side.
There’s tons of trees on the side though, and that’s always cool.

Here is a picture of the kitchen. It’s the first thing you see when you walk inthe front door. Look at the lower left corner of the picture. That’s stone that wraps around the bar. Hell yes!
We have a cooktop stove, and all stainless steel appliances. We also have a hellacious amount of cabinets.
Most of the house is 18″ tile floors. We intend to change to hardwood, but that’s going to have to wait a while. We’re a bit tight with money right now.

Here is a picture inside of the kitchen looking at the door to the garage. The chandelier is pretty low right now, so we’re going to have to swing it a bit.
The open door you see is to the laundry room. That room also contains the location of where we would install a ’smart’ system for the house.
Think Jetsons here: You walk in the house and say “kitchen lights”, and they come on for you. If only I could say, “pay bills” ….

This is a picture from inside the living room, looking into the kitchen. The hanging lights over the bar are really nice.
Notice the wood veneer covering the wall underneath the bar. It’s not our first choice, so we’re thinking we might run the stone around the whole under-bar area.
If that prooves to be a bit too expensive, then we might just tear off the veneer and paint dark red underneath.

Here is the master bedroom. I don’t think this picture does justice to the size of the bedroom. It’s a good size room, and the ceilings rake from 12ft high to 10ft high.
There’s already a ceiling fan installed (thank you ceiling fan gods), and there is a cool ledge over the entry way to the bathroom.

Here is a picture of the master bathroom. There’s a good size tub, and a glass shower in there.
It’s nice, though the tub could be a little bigger. The location of the faucet and levers aren’t condusive to more than one person in the tub at a time.
The tile along all of the walls is super-cool though.

Here’s another picture of the master bathroom. Note that there’s only one sink in the master bathroom. :/.
However, it’s hard to complain with the granite counter tops and custom mirror job. The vanity lights are well done too.
The knobs for hot and cold water are a little close together.

And now, a picture heading toward the living room. The stone in the kitchen is more apparent here as well.
This picture also doesn’t give a good idea of just how tall the slider is going into the backyard. I’ve not seen sliding glass doors that tall in my life.
We’re going to have to get new drapses to handle them.
The ceiling fan is controlled via a dimmer switch on the wall. That’s great, since I’m not a fan of pulling chains.