When you make the shift from being an employee to a business owner, you’ll want to gain an understanding of how compensation and health insurance will differ as a business owner versus that of an employee, as well as familiarize yourself with something called imputed income.

As a business owner, it’s vital to stay away from using monies from your business to pay for personal expenses even if you intend to reimburse the company later. You run the risk of piercing the corporate veil and getting into serious trouble with the IRS and other tax agencies should you and/or your business undergo an audit (ex: claiming business deductions for non-legitimate business expenses, failure to report and pay taxes on taxable income).

If you are planning to establish a legal business entity (ex: Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Corporation) or have an existing legal business entity in New York and are considering a sub-chapter S election, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind.

Generally, if you are comfortable preparing your own tax returns, are familiar with your tax situation and you don’t have a complex tax situation (ex: you only have income from W-2 wages, interest income from interest-bearing accounts, you don’t itemize your deductions or only itemize state & local taxes & charitable contributions), you should be able to prepare your own tax returns using tax preparation software (desktop or online) from companies like Intuit (TurboTax), H&R Block and TaxAct, just to name a few.

Once your business is on track to “go live” and commence business operations, you’ll need to find a good bank and open a business bank account. To start off, you’ll probably only need one business bank account - typically, a business checking account but as the business needs and requirements change, opening additional accounts may be warranted.

As you get started with your new business, there may come a time when you will need to seek professional counsel from a good business law firm and/or CPA firm. Even if your circumstances may not warrant professional counsel at the onset of your new business, you may eventually need to seek counsel as your business grows.

Now that you’re ready and committed to starting a business, you need to put together a game plan. There are a lot of moving parts when it comes to starting a business so it’s important to be organized, detail-oriented and have all your ducks lined up. You’ll first want to take a “view from 10,000 feet” and then drill-down into the specific details.