How to Give Constructive Feedback – 7 Tips and Tricks


Unfortunately, in many companies the annual evaluation is the only time when employees receive in depth feedback on their work. Why is that? It is usually because we find uncomfortable to give feedback and managers and employees alike dread that moment, when the employees receive a year’s worth “constructive criticism” being thrown at them. 

Why is this not a good feedback giving method? Because, feedback is much more effective if given right after the moment the issue for negative or positive feedback arises. Feedback should be timely. If given a year later, no one will remember the exact situation or the issue anymore. When done in the right way, feedback is what will catapult your employees into greatness. But for the feedback to be heard and to have its effect, it has to be given carefully and frequently. Not only in cases, in which improvement is necessary, but also to the best performers which are usually the ones receiving the least feedback.

Giving constructive feedback is a skill that can be learned, just like everything else.

Here are some tips that I gathered and that I practice in my daily work and I hope you find them useful.

1. Strive for a Trustful Relationship with your Team Members

Think of a time when you yourself enjoyed receiving feedback from somebody. Who was that person? What was the relationship you had with this person? It most probably was a person you trusted and who cared about you. Therefore, first of all, you as a manager or team leader should always try to build a close relationship with your team member, based on mutual trust. This is how you will come across as trustworthy, caring and credible and your team members will be more receptive to your feedback in the first place.

2. Try to Make it a Positive Experience for both Sides

As I mentioned before, giving feedback can be stressful. In order to make it more pleasant, think about the intention. Think about why you are giving feedback and how you intend to do it. Is it to help your team member to grow, improve and perform better? Can you deliver feedback and get the point across with genuine empathy for the other person’s perspective? Your role as a manager is to give feedback, not giving it, would be irresponsible. Giving feedback can sometimes be painful, but at the end it is a gift you will give to your employee. To know if you are ready to give feedback, go through the checklist, created by BrenĂ©e Brown, the author of “Daring Greatly”: Engaged Feedback Checklist.

3. Be Positive

A way to start is to start off with something positive. It helps people see what they are doing right and they will keep on doing it. Another reason for giving more of authentic appreciation is that our minds remember negative feedback much longer and stronger than positive feedback. We react to positive feedback like “Teflon coating” and to negative one like “Velcro”. If we give authentic appreciation often, your team members will sense that you appreciate their effort and that you understand the nature and complexity of their work. That will lead to trust and it will make them more at ease when receiving your feedback.

4. Describe a Behavior, not a Personal Trait

One thing is to give feedback on somebody’s behavior, another thing is to talk about their personal traits. The magic formula experts recommend is called SBI. It stands for S - Situation, B - Behavior and I - Impact. It holds true for negative and positive feedback. If we describe the situation in which a certain behavior occurred and the impact it had, it will stick much longer. Ask if the person agrees the description of the situation fairly depicts what happened.

5. Be Timely and Regular

It is very easy to postpone feedback until the yearly evaluation or a1-1 meeting. But then it might be too late, nobody will remember anymore what the situation was and feedback will not have the same effect.

6. Be Specific and Fair

Talk about only specific behavior and only about what you know first-hand. Avoid feedback “triangles” meaning using information you get about somebody from somebody else. Remember, in this case you don’t have the full story, what you have is mere “hearsay”. Your team member can get upset if she/he finds out that they were not approached directly with the issue and you might lose their trust. You will also want to be fair with delivering feedback, pay attention and make sure that you give each person on your team the same quality feedback and that you use consistent criteria for it. Do not act on your assumptions about people and make sure it all makes sense to your direct report.

7. How to Make Feedback Actionable?

OK, so you have given feedback to you team member and you want him/her to act on it. You want to make clear that your expectations are clear and that you both agree on the next steps. You can even suggest specific steps or use the GROW model to motivate people for the change you want to achieve in them. GROW (G – Goal, R – Reality, O – Obstacles/Options, W- Will). And do not forget to follow up on them!

And remember: giving timely and regular feedback and genuine appreciation is essential for you teams’ growth! It is the feedback and the appreciation given at the right moment in the right manner that will help your employees on their way to excellence!











3 Key Ideas for Success in Business - From Peter Thiel's Zero to One Book



Peter Thiel is an American entrepreneur venture capitalists and hedge fund manager. He co-founded paypal with Max Levchin and Elon Musk. He is ranked fourth on the Forbes list 2014 at 2.2 billion dollars.
Disclaimer: This post contains an adapted version of the transcript from this video, where Peter Thiel presents his book Zero to One.

1. Don't Copy Successful Entrepreneurs

Every moment in the history of business, every moment the history of Technology happens only once. The next Mark Zuckerberg will not be building a social networking site. The next Larry Page will not be building a search engine. The next Bill Gates will not be building an operating system company. If you're copying these people, in some sense you're not learning from them. And this is why there is no science to business. Science starts with things that are repeatable and experimentally verifiable in one way or another. But every great company is one-of-a-kind.

So, how will the next one-of-a-kind company start?

Tell me something that's true that nobody agrees with you on. 

These are often quite hard questions to answer because it often requires courage to go against conventional wisdom. But those are the very questions we have to ask ourselves if we want to be successful entrepreneurs. It's not about directly copying Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Page or Bill Gates. It's about copying the way of thinking that lead them to discovering a unique truth that nobody saw.

2. Aim for Monopoly

If you are a founder or an entrepreneur what you want to aim for is monopoly. You want to aim to
build a company that is one-of-a-kind, and that's so far differentiated from the competition that it's not even competing with them. This goes against the conventional wisdom that claims that capitalism and competition are somehow synonyms.

A capitalist is someone who is in the business of accumulating capital. A world of perfect competition is a world where profit is being shared among competitors, which is a nightmare for a capitalist.

If you want to compete like crazy you should just open a restaurant in Chicago. But think about Google. It has had no serious competition in search since 2002 when it definitively distanced itself from Yahoo and Microsoft. As a result of this it has been generating enormous cash flows for the last 12 years.

The people who have monopolies don't talk about it. They pretend not to have monopolies for obvious reasons. And the people who don't have monopolies and pretend to have something unique about their business is because otherwise nobody would invest or give them any money.

Therefore, if you have a monopoly like Google you will pretend that you are in a much larger market so you'll never talk about the search business and say:

We have a sixty-six percent share of the search market and we're much more dominant than Microsoft ever was with the operating system market in the nineteen nineties

You will instead say:

We are a technology company and since technology is such a vast space we're competing with apple on iPhones, we're competing with facebook on social, and since we're going to build a self-driving cars we're competing with all the car companies in Detroit.

Conversely, if you were to start a restaurant and you talked to various investors you may want to try an idiosyncratic story that says that yours is a one-of-a-kind restaurant, completely unique and very different from all the others. It's the only British-Nepalese fusion cuisine in downtown Chicago.

3. Competition is for Losers 

We always think that the losers are the people who can't compete effectively enough. The losers are the people who are slow on the swim team in high school. The losers are the people whose grades or test scores aren't quite good enough to get into the right universities.

So, the idea that somehow competition itself is something that we are perversely attracted to is very counter-intuitive.

Competition is always this very-to-edge thing. When you compete ferociously you will get better at that which you are competing on, but you will always narrow your focus to beating the people around
you. And that often comes at this very high price of losing sight of what is more important, or perhaps more valuable.

Continuously looking for opportunities to compete, is not just this intellectual failure, it's also this thing where you have a tiny door where everyone's trying to rush through, and then maybe around the
corner there is a secret gate that no one's taking. You should always find the secret path and then go ahead and take the price.



Should I Share my Startup Idea with People?



  1. When should an entrepreneur share her startup idea? 
  2. how much of it? 
  3. with whom?
The short answers to these questions are:
  1. You should share your startup idea as soon as possible
  2. You should PROBABLY share ALL of it (Read more to find why I only said PROBABLY)
  3. You should share it with as many people as possible. 

When Should you Share your Idea?

The main reason for sharing it as soon as possible is that success mostly depends on execution, not on the quality of the idea. High tech investors are very aware of this fact. That's why they give so much importance to the founder team, since it's the best predictor that they have to tell whether the team will be able to execute the idea well or not. 

So, basically on one hand you have nothing to loose by telling the idea to other people. On the other hand, you have a lot to win, since your idea will evolve and get richer as you share it with people and listen to their feedback. 

How Much of your Idea Should you Share with Other People?

In most cases, the more you share the better. However, in some cases it's not a good idea to share all of it, since by doing so you would be losing crucial competitive advantage. 

The way to know if there is some part of your idea that you should keep to yourself depends on the Market Type you're in.

If you are in an Existing Market (e.g., selling smartphones, or music on demand like Spotify) you should be much more careful than if you are in a New Market (e.g., like Twitter was). 

Existing Market

In an existing market competition is your biggest problem. And companies compete in things such as price, quality, features (e.g., memory capacity in smartphones) and performance (e.g., number of cores in smartphones). If your idea (or part of it) will enable you to improve in any of these variables compared to your competitors, you should definitely either patent it or keep it as a secret.

In order for an idea to be eligible for a patent it has to meet three requirements:
  1. It must be new. That means, it hasn't been published anywhere, including the web. If the patent examiner finds your idea presented or explained somewhere (e.g., in a slideshow, in a webpage, in a Q&A forum) most likely you won't be able to patent it.
  2. It must be non-obvious. This requirement is to eliminate trivial patents. Your idea (e.g., a new computer architecture) should not be obvious to the experts in the corresponding domain (computer architects).
  3. It must have a clear industrial application. This requirement is to rule out abstract inventions that have no clear practical application.  
The fact that an idea can be patented does not mean that it should be patented. This is a very important distinction. When you patent an idea it is because you want to prevent others from using it, or to get money each time they use it (through royalties). But this cannot be done if it's hard for you to determine if someone is using your idea or not. 

For instance, assume that your idea is an algorithm that will be executed in the front-end of an Internet application, for instance, in javascript. Then it will be possible for you to prove in court that a competitor is using your algorithm and demand the payment of royalties because you can see the competitor's javascript code. 

However, if your idea is an algorithm that will be executed in the back-end of an Internet application, say behind an API, it will be very difficult for you to prove that a competitor is using your algorithm because you cannot see his back-end code. 

In this second case you may want to treat your algorithm as a trade secret, that is, as something you know and chose not to reveal to your competitors. For instance, many aspects of Google's Page Rank algorithm are kept as trade secrets.

Even if you don't share the most critical parts of your idea, you can still obtain valuable feedback from sharing the rest of it with other people. For instance, imagine that you've found a way to double the speed of a hard drive. You can share your whole business model (your plans on how to enter the market, who to target, distribution channels, pricing strategy, potential partners, etc.) with people in order to get valuable feedback without telling them how you managed to double the hard drive speed. 

New Market 

If you are in a New Market competition is the least of your problems. Your main challenge is to find a market with people that have the problem that you want to solve and who consider this problem to be very important. In this situation, the more you talk about your idea the better, because it will help you validate the existence of this hypothetical market.

As much as you love your idea, ideas are cheap, and every entrepreneur (i.e., a potential competitor) has many more promising ideas in her head than time to actually implement them. They will see your idea as your thing, not theirs. If they are nice, they will try to help you with feedback. So, relax and share your idea; it's all about the execution.

With Whom Should I Share my Idea?

With as many people as possible. More specifically:
  1. Share it with your family (e.g., your mother) to find insight about usability and to simplify how you explain your business model 
  2. Share it with potential customers to look for early signs that point out that you're solving a problem that they have, and a problem that they consider to be very important
  3. Share it with developers to get an idea about how much time it will take to implement the idea, and to know if it's feasible or not
  4. Share it with business people to identify weak spots in your business model and to learn from mistakes they've made that may be relevant to your business
  5. Share it with other entrepreneurs to get their opinion on what they think your MVP (minimum viable product) should look like

Conclusion

Share your whole startup idea as soon as possible, with as many people as possible, unless you are entering an existing market. In that case share only those parts of the idea that are not critical. 

Why you Shouldn't Wait and Form a Business Now




A common question I get from entrepreneurs is whether they should create a company and if so, when. My answer to this question is invariably the same: you should formally establish your company and do it as soon as possible.

I know that when you are starting a business creating a company is not in the list of tasks that will enable you to move towards your business goals. Making decisions about the legal structure of your company and doing some paperwork may seem like a distraction that has nothing to do with your primary goal of making money.

Actually, I also think it's a distraction, but a necessary one. Here you have 6 reasons that support this statement, with examples and in plain English.



1. The Lost Founder

One of the main advantages of having a business is that you can move all assets to the company. For instance, consider the following example, which is also a true story:
You start working on an idea with a group of friends, one of them quits because he finds a job. You continue and after a lot of hard work you finally succeed and investors are lining up to take you to the next level. This is when your "friend" remembers you and decides to quit his job and go back to the startup asking for 50% of the shares. You took all the risk and turned the idea into a successful business while your friend was watching you from his safe job. And yet, your lawyers tell you that you are forced to accept this extremely unfair deal. Why? Because he registered the domain of your business under his name since there was no company to assign it to. Your domain is your brand, and your brand is very important to your business, so if you want to keep it you have to give him 50% of it.

The same applies to that other "friend" who wrote some lines of code for your startup and then left. Watching your succeed 3 years later, he decides to get x% of your shares claiming that he owns part of the product. As unfair as it may seem, a court will probably acknowledge him (or her) ownership of that code since it was never transferred to a company.

In general, not having a company makes that every person involved in the development of the idea may claim ownership of her/his contributions. The moment you properly create your business you can:
Assign ownership of all past contributions (e.g., domains, code, patents) to the company.
Future contributions of the members of that company can be assigned to it, preventing potentially unfair situations like the ones described above.



2. The Legal Mistake

If you don't create a company, you respond with your personal assets to every problem that may arise connected to your idea or business. Here you have two examples:
  • You ask for some money to develop your idea. It turns out that your idea doesn't work but your creditor still wants the money back. 
  • A competitor sues you because he claims you are infringing his copyright and wants to take you to court. 

In both cases, since you didn't operate as a company but as an individual, your personal assets are at risk. You can lose your house, car or money since a court may decide to repay your creditor with your money, or that you have to pay an expensive penalty for infringing your competitor's copyrights.
The moment you form your business as a corporation or an LLC (Limited Liability Company), you are granted limited liability. This means that your personal financial liability is limited to a fixed sum. More specifically, you respond with your personal assets in case the company runs into financial trouble only up to the value of your investment in the company.


3. The Smart Competitor

Imagine that you build a business around website ww.yourbusinessname.com, but that you have not registered a company yet. A smart competitor may make the move of registering a company with exactly your domain's name: Yourbusinessname. This may confuse some of your customers which may fall on your competitor's side. It also gives your competitor power over you. Once more, your domain is your brand, and your brand may be closely tied up with your business. If your company name is taken by someone else you can't just change your domain name and pretend there'll be no consequences.


4. The Money-Making Idea

When you start making money you start worrying about taxes. But by then it will be too late to enjoy many tax benefits that you would have had, had you created a company from the start. More specifically, corporations and LLCs may deduct normal business expenses before they allocate income to the owners. This means that the money you put towards growing your business can be deducted from your taxable income, allowing you to pay less taxes. Let me put you an example.
Scenario 1: you create a LLC, then pay a programmer to code a mobile app for you.
Scenario 2: you pay a programmer to code a mobile app for you.

In Scenario 1 your personal income tax is lower than in Scenario 2 because you can deduct the salary of the programmer as a business expense of your LLC.


5. The Awkward Conversation

Legally establishing a business forces you to have perhaps the most difficult conversation among the founders of the business to decide how to divide the equity ownership (e.g., shares). This will obviously have a direct impact on how much each founder will participate in the financial success of the business. This is an awkward conversation nobody wants to have. It can create division among founders when there are apparently more important things at stake to discuss, like for instance how to make money. So, founders may be tempted to delay this conversation and reach a superficial agreement, like:

Let's all put effort into the idea to make it work. When we're successful we'll split the pie according to each individual contribution.

Creating the company right at the beginning forces founders to reach a formal agreement (i.e., an agreement with legal implications). This has several advantages:
  • It is much easier to reach an agreement when there is no money on the table than when there is. 
  • It is much easier to split equity according to what each founder potentially brings to the business, than doing the accountability exercise of agreeing on the degree to which each founder's contribution was important for success. 
  • If there is no agreement among founders the loss is minimum, whereas if this conversation is delayed a lot of time and money may have been invested by founders. 
  • If there is no agreement among founders, maybe they have trust issues, or it's not clear what each one brings to the business, in which case it may be a good idea not to start a business together at all.

Variations of the Problem

  • The problem gets even worse when the founders don't talk about splitting the pie, even at a superficial level until it's too late. 
  • A verbal agreement is obviously not enough either. 
  • Even a written agreement outside the scope of a company will not provide founders all the necessary guarantees.
The Greedy Founder:
It is also a problem when a founder registers the company under her name and promises the other founders a certain percentage of shares once the company achieves a certain milestone. Leaving aside the fact that this founder may not honor her word, this way of doing things also brings many problems. By the time when the owner wants to give the other founders the shares, their market value may be too high for the founders to buy their way into the company.


6. The Game of Credibility

A major benefit of incorporating your business is the stamp of approval adding an "Inc." or "LLC" after your business name. This distinction affords your business with instant credibility and authority associated with owning an incorporated company. Potential consumers, vendors and partners tend to prefer to do business with an legally established company and will look overlook those who are not.

Conclusion

For all the reasons above, I strongly encourage entrepreneurs to formally establish their business right when they start working on the idea at an early stage. If done properly, it will only take you a few hours and less than $500.

The Online Course

Due to the large number of people interested about this subject, I have created an online course that teaches you how to easily create (and dissolve) a US business from the comfort of your home, be it in the US or elsewhere, avoiding expensive legal fees.


The course contains 37 lectures with videos, instructions, quizzes and checklists to help you navigate through the process of setting up your US company, avoiding common pitfalls inexperienced entrepreneurs usually fall into. You will also find templates for all the necessary legal documents, which you can freely download and use right away.

As a special thank to my blog readers, I've created 100 coupons to access this course with a 50% discount. Click on the link below to redeem your discount code before I run out of invitations!




For an in-depth understanding of how to form your business in the US I recommend you this book by Constance E. Bagley.

Enjoy creating your US company!

7 Reasons Why you Should Form a Business



Some entrepreneurs question the necessity of creating a company for their business, or simply delay its formation until they have proven they have a stable revenue stream. Although this may sound reasonable, legal experts strongly advice to form a business as soon as possible.
Here you have 7 reasons why you should form a US business, regardless of its size and type of business. That is, whether it's a corporation or a Limited Liability Company (LLC).

1. Personal Asset Protection - Limited Liability

Forming either a corporation or a LLC allows the business owner to separate and protect her/his personal assets in case of a lawsuit or in case of claims against the business entity. In an effectively managed and structured company, owners should have limited liability for outstanding business debts and obligations. This remains as one of the leading benefits to creating a business.

2. More Credibility

As a close second to personal asset protection, a major benefit of incorporating your business is the stamp of approval adding an "Inc." or "LLC" after your business name gives. This distinction affords your business with instant credibility and authority associated with owning an incorporated company. Potential consumers, vendors and partners tend to prefer to do business with an legally established company and will look overlook those who are not.

3. Brand Protection

In most states, other businesses are not entitled to file your exact corporate or LLC name in the same state. From a branding standpoint, this is great news. It not only helps protect your company's reputation from being diminished by or confused with another company that happens to have a similar sounding name. It also strengthens your businesses in terms of brand identity and marketing efforts.

4. Perpetual Existence

Corporations and LLCs continue to exist throughout ownership or management changes within your business. Sole proprietorships and partnerships simply end if an owner dies or leaves the business. Forming a corporation ensures that your business' legacy can be preserved, as well as continue to provide employment and services for clients should any changes in ownership take place.

5. Tax Flexibility and Benefits

There are several tax advantages and benefits of incorporating a small business. While profit and loss typically "pass-through" an LLC and get reported on the personal income tax returns of owners, an LLC can also elect to be taxed as a corporation. Likewise, a corporation can avoid double taxation of corporate profits and dividends by electing Subchapter S tax status and thus becoming an S Corporation. A word of warning for foreigners, an S corporation requires all
its owners (stakeholders) to be US citizens. 

6. Deductible Expenses

Corporations and LLCs may deduct normal business expenses, including salaries, before they allocate income to owners. This means that the money you put towards growing your business can be deducted from your business income in determining your actual taxable income.

7. Investable

Investors that invest money into a Corporation or LLC in exchange for equity have legal guarantees that they are the rightful owners of that equity. Without a company as an investment vehicle this would not be possible. In addition, investors typically prefer a Corporation over a LLC since it offers them more flexibility when it comes to transferring/selling their shares and provides them with many guarantees through an extensive and well-matured body of corporate law.

A Note for Foreigners

If you are a US foreigner you may be wondering if you should form a US business, or a company in your homeland. In this post you have 5 additional reasons why you should incorporate in the US, instead of in your country.

The Online Course

Due to the large number of people interested about this subject, I have created an online course that teaches you how to easily create (and dissolve) a US business from the comfort of your home, be it in the US or elsewhere, avoiding expensive legal fees.


The course contains 37 lectures with videos, instructions, quizzes and checklists to help you navigate through the process of setting up your US company, avoiding common pitfalls inexperienced entrepreneurs usually fall into. You will also find templates for all the necessary legal documents, which you can freely download and use right away.

As a special thank to my blog readers, I've created 100 coupons to access this course with a 50% discount. Click on the link below to redeem your discount code before I run out of invitations!




For an in-depth understanding of how to form your business in the US I recommend you this book by Constance E. Bagley.

Enjoy creating your US company!


Meaning of a LLC


Definition of a LLC: LLC Stands for a Limited Liability Company, and it is the US version of a private limited company. It combines advantages from both, Partnerships and Corporations.


Partnerships 

They require its owners to pay tax only once. This is technically called pass-through taxation. The income of the Partnership is treated as the personal income of its owners, and its taxed as such. However, the owners of a partnership are liable for all the debts of the business (unlimited liability). This means that if the company runs into financial trouble, the owners respond to the creditors with their personal assets, such as their house, car or money. 

Corporations 

They introduce the concept of limited liability, which means that the owner's personal financial liability is limited to a fixed sum. More specifically, the owners (called shareholders) respond with their personal assets in case the company runs into financial trouble only op to the value of their investment in the company. However, the income of a Corporation is taxed twice as it flows to its shareholders. A corporate tax is applied as soon as the Corporation registers income. When shareholders receive part of this income (for instance as dividends), they are taxed once more, this time according to a personal income tax.

LLCs

They enjoy the benefits from both, partnerships and corporations. Their owners (referred to as members) have limited liability, just like in a corporation, and the income of the LLC can be taxed once, as personal income from its owners, just like in a partnership.

Difference Between LLCs and S Corporations

An S corporation is a special type of corporation (there are also C corporations). It also has most of the federal tax pass-through features found in an LLC and its limited liability. However, in S corporations:
  • ownership is limited to 75 shareholders
  • no shareholder may be a foreigner
  • it can only have one class of stock
  • all shareholders must be individuals, certain tax-exempt organizations, qualifying trusts, or estates
An LLC has none of these restrictions. 

The Online Course

Due to the large number of people interested about this subject, I have created an online course that teaches you how to easily create (and dissolve) a US business from the comfort of your home, be it in the US or elsewhere, avoiding expensive legal fees.


The course contains 37 lectures with videos, instructions, quizzes and checklists to help you navigate through the process of setting up your US company, avoiding common pitfalls inexperienced entrepreneurs usually fall into. You will also find templates for all the necessary legal documents, which you can freely download and use right away.

As a special thank to my blog readers, I've created 100 coupons to access this course with a 50% discount. Click on the link below to redeem your discount code before I run out of invitations!




For an in-depth understanding of how to form your business in the US I recommend you this book by Constance E. Bagley.

Enjoy creating your US company!



5 Reasons Why a Foreigner should Form a US Business



Creating a US company provides may benefits for the US entrepreneur. In this post I've mentioned the most important ones. But what if you are not a US citizen and live abroad, is there a reason why you should form your business in the US instead of in your homeland?

In this post I elaborate on 5 reasons why you should create your company in the US and not in your country of origin. These reasons are in addition to the ones that apply to US entrepreneurs.



Build Trust Online with US Consumers

Online spending by U.S. consumers is at $183.9 billion and growing! One of the best ways to get your share of this huge market is to have a US business. You may be surprised to learn how affordable and simple it can be to establish a US presence that gives your business trust and credibility. Often, US consumers will avoid the risk of dealing with customer service and liability issues in another country. It is very easy for them to just click on the next search result and get to your closest US competitor. As a result from this, you could be losing a significant percentage of your sales leads every year, simply because your website does not show a US adress.


Establish Credibility with US Business Partners

In addition to the benefits that having offices in the US provides to your brand, there are also many advantages to establishing an international presence in the US. Most US businesses prefer working with other US companies to minimize tax and legal complications. Having a US presence removes these barriers and can open up new profitable opportunities for joint ventures and strategic alliances. Potential partners are scanning your website right now to see if you have an office in the US. You could be losing revenue because of a perception issue that can be easily and inexpensively fixed.


Protect your Assents from Devastating Lawsuits

Lately there has been an increase in a number of lawsuits. One the best ways to minimize risk is to spread it among several business entities. Keeping parts of your business safe and secure in another jurisdiction can protect your assets from legal actions at home. A US corporation or LLC can be a convenient way to reduce risk of legal exposure by setting a protective firewall around your business and personal assets. It might in some cases help you reduce insurance costs or increase your eligibility for a business credit.


Reduce your Merchant Account Costs

Setting up a US business entity means that US customers' payments will be processed through a US merchant account. If you take into account the number of international transactions processed in a year, it can make a huge difference in your profit and loss results. It will enable to generate a lot savings for you will avoid the “international” credit card rates charged to process those same transactions in your home country.

Efficient US Bureaucracy

Setting up a company in some countries can take a long time and a lot of bureaucratic effort. Some US states are extremely efficient at this, most notably Delaware. Even if you are abroad you can setup a business in Delaware within hours.

The Online Course

Due to the large number of people interested about this subject, I have created an online course that teaches you how to easily create (and dissolve) a US business from the comfort of your home, be it in the US or elsewhere, avoiding expensive legal fees.


The course contains 37 lectures with videos, instructions, quizzes and checklists to help you navigate through the process of setting up your US company, avoiding common pitfalls inexperienced entrepreneurs usually fall into. You will also find templates for all the necessary legal documents, which you can freely download and use right away.

As a special thank to my blog readers, I've created 100 coupons to access this course with a 50% discount. Click on the link below to redeem your discount code before I run out of invitations!




For an in-depth understanding of how to form your business in the US I recommend you this book by Constance E. Bagley.

Enjoy creating your US company!