Legal timeline for a successful web startup?
tstegart: They're called corporate lawyers, but many small firms and individual lawyers do corporate law along with other areas of practice.There are tax issues on what you get to deduct before and after starting a company, but really I think your main concern should be the reason why you want to start a company. If you have considerable individual assets and your venture might be risky in terms of owing people money if it fails, then you would want the strong legal protection a company can provide. If you're doing something very benign, like starting a blog thats unlikely to get you into trouble, well, you can wait.It also matters how much capital you have. If you spend it all on a lawyer you might end up with a nice document and not enough capital to carry on a real business. On the other hand, you can have a great business and get caught without legal protection.This question was much more easily answered before the internet when people started businesses with real profit estimates and business plans. Its a little harder now with the "build first, worry about profitability later" attitudes because you might build a web 2.0 business and it never takes off, so you'll come away thinking your thousand dollar investment in a lawyer was wasted. It probably wasn't, but you'll think it was because the venture wasn't successful.When actual money starts to change hands, the legal protections become more easily visible and the value they provide is clear.If you're not sure you'll make money, i.e. you're building a website and hoping it will take off, my down to earth advice is to get a Nolo book, pay the $200 to incorporate an LLC somewhere, and live with that crappy legal situation until you start to make money. Its at least some protection at a cheap price.