John_Christina
08-16-2014, 01:01 PM
Hello, everyone - nice to meet you all.
Need some help here - we're getting ourselves all confused trying to figure some stuff out.
Here's the situation: we (husband/wife) are planning on buying a franchise. It would be a new franchise in an open territory (so basically a start-up with nothing at the start except the right to operate under the corporations brand name). We plan on signing the franchise agreement after the first of the year (1/2015). We're planning on forming an LLC under which to do this. This brings us to the questions...
We've found the location we want to lease to operate the business. We would like to get the location now before it is leased to someone else. I'm assuming the lease should be done under the yet-to-be created LLC - is this correct?
How can we form the LLC prior to signing the franchise agreement? Can we create our LLC under the name "J&C, LLC" and then still conduct business after 1/2015 as "Zaxxon Widgets", for example (the corporate name of the franchise business we are buying)?
As far as accounting is concerned, would it be acceptable to lease the location now just as "regular people", and have the business then reimburse us the lease expenses?
This also bring up a question about forming our LLC... The application will ask for a business address, but our business address is yet to be leased... It's kind of chicken/egg - how can we lease the location without having our LLC, and how can we form our LLC without having our business address?
Basically, we want the location, and we want to get it now before someone else does. We're okay with signing the lease under our own names and using our personal funds to do so... But in that case, how can we then re-coup those costs from the business once it is up and running? I realize that either way the money for the lease will be coming from "us", but we're getting all twisted around trying to figure out the financial and liability ramifications....
I realize this question may be confusing itself, so if clarification is needed on anything, just ask and we'll provide the info...
Thanks for any advice,
John & Christina
P.S. This probably goes without saying, but yes, this is our first time doing this. :)
Need some help here - we're getting ourselves all confused trying to figure some stuff out.
Here's the situation: we (husband/wife) are planning on buying a franchise. It would be a new franchise in an open territory (so basically a start-up with nothing at the start except the right to operate under the corporations brand name). We plan on signing the franchise agreement after the first of the year (1/2015). We're planning on forming an LLC under which to do this. This brings us to the questions...
We've found the location we want to lease to operate the business. We would like to get the location now before it is leased to someone else. I'm assuming the lease should be done under the yet-to-be created LLC - is this correct?
How can we form the LLC prior to signing the franchise agreement? Can we create our LLC under the name "J&C, LLC" and then still conduct business after 1/2015 as "Zaxxon Widgets", for example (the corporate name of the franchise business we are buying)?
As far as accounting is concerned, would it be acceptable to lease the location now just as "regular people", and have the business then reimburse us the lease expenses?
This also bring up a question about forming our LLC... The application will ask for a business address, but our business address is yet to be leased... It's kind of chicken/egg - how can we lease the location without having our LLC, and how can we form our LLC without having our business address?
Basically, we want the location, and we want to get it now before someone else does. We're okay with signing the lease under our own names and using our personal funds to do so... But in that case, how can we then re-coup those costs from the business once it is up and running? I realize that either way the money for the lease will be coming from "us", but we're getting all twisted around trying to figure out the financial and liability ramifications....
I realize this question may be confusing itself, so if clarification is needed on anything, just ask and we'll provide the info...
Thanks for any advice,
John & Christina
P.S. This probably goes without saying, but yes, this is our first time doing this. :)