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Creating an entrepreneurial idea is a fascinating but complex journey. Here is everything you need to know to do business in USA and turn an initiative into a business success: from how to open a VAT number, to how to draw up a budget to the request for funding. Without forgetting innovation

USA Business setup

How to implement an entrepreneurial idea? What steps should you take to become an entrepreneur in USA? How to get finance, write a business plan or draw up a budget? These and many other questions are answered by this practical guide designed to provide useful suggestions on how to do business in our country.

What it means to do business and how to start a successful business?

What does it mean to do business today and in general what elements to consider realizing the personal dream of starting a business? And, on the other hand, what drives you to make a decision in this regard? Often the aim is to become an entrepreneur because of the desire to have schedules, workplaces and generally flexible commitments, as well as to transform a passion in one’s work or the need to find an alternative because one is in the condition of no longer having an employee job.

On the other hand, looking at the elements to be considered before leaving, there is first of all a serious evaluation of one’s own accumulated work and training experiences, then of the resources to which one can draw, both economic and human, or the collaborators / partners to refer to.

Of course, to start a successful USA business setup, personal qualities such as perseverance, goal orientation and all those soft skills that allow you to effectively deal with others, empathy, problem solving, teaming skills, customer orientation are essential.

But let’s proceed in order by going into the details of the steps to take to do business and immediately analyzing some data relating to our country.

Doing business: what it takes to be a good entrepreneur

A good entrepreneur must surely have acquired some experience in the field where he wants to start the business, take courses (at universities or professional institutes) but also attend conferences and seminars ; on the other hand, it is possible to be guided by a mentor , take an example from others, do internships at other companies already on the market.

Business idea and goals

To start your own business it is essential to have a business idea and set yourself precise goals. Once this has been clarified, a list of priorities must be made. In fact, it is important to understand what your weaknesses are to understand how to remedy any gaps and what to focus on to differentiate yourself from the existing market offer.

Market and target audience

Just the ‘ analysis of the market is one of the first tasks to accomplish: to understand the environment in which it will operate means being able to work out a strategy on hard data and design offering the best from the point of view of communication.

The same applies to the identification of the reference target, ie the potential recipients of the product / service. In this regard it may be useful to conduct interviews and surveys to understand what users really look for, segment them based on their personal characteristics, spending capacity or purchasing habits and so on.

Competition analysis

It is very important to understand which potential competitors are, in which geographical areas they operate, in which supply niche they have positioned themselves or, in general, which are the business logics that move them (price, specialization, etc.). All this is useful to understand what to do or how to do better or to decide if there are elements on which to base possible partnerships.

Business plan (what is it and why does it serve)

Business plan or business plan is the document that describes the business project in detail in all its features, focusing on objectives and strategies, strengths, highlights opportunities and threats in reference to the analysis of competition. Drawing up the business plan (summarizing it if possible in no more than ten pages) means presenting an objective assessment of the feasibility of the business project and tracing the guidelines for the management of the company.

The business plan serves the entrepreneur and his collaborators to do business, to improve where it is clear that it is necessary as well as to take up new challenges, etc., but also serves externally to the company. It is in fact requested by the banks to evaluate the possibility of making credit to the company and, equally, to potential investors or public entities dealing with responding to requests for subsidies. It can also be useful to present to potential customers and suppliers.

Doing business: bureaucracy and regulations in USA

The path to take to start a business requires a certain skill in managing the bureaucratic aspects, the ideal is to contact an accountant to prepare all the paperwork and be sure to do so in full compliance with the regulations in force in USA. The first steps to be taken regard the opening of the VAT number and the learning of all the notions necessary to draw up the budget.

What it takes to open a VAT number in USA

Open VAT number in USA is mandatory for all those who receive more than 8 thousand Dollars a year. The application for the attribution of a VAT number (the 11-digit code) must be sent to the Revenue Agency, filling in the forms that can be downloaded from the Agency itself that indicate the declaration of commencement of activity. Once completed, all must be sent together with an identification document by registered letter with return receipt. The Revenue Agency has also made available Application software to proceed with the registration of the VAT number.

Doing business: how to draw up the budget

The financial statement is an administrative and accounting document, mandatory by law, which photographs the financial and asset situation of the company and indicates a forecast for the future trend. It is composed of 3 documents: income statement (which reports costs and revenues), balance sheet (which indicates assets and liabilities) and explanatory notes, which exhaustively explains the economic and Financial Companies indicated in the other two documents of the financial statements. To draw up the financial statements, however, it is first necessary to make an inventory of the year (to have all the necessary elements), record the records relating to installments, depreciation, etc. and determine the balance of the accounts. In summary, the principles according to which the financial statements must be drawn up are those of prudence in the estimates (and only the results already obtained must be reported), of the economic competence (or the results already obtained must be entered), of the correctness, of uniformity (active and passive must be assessed separately) and of the constancy in the use of the evaluation criteria from one year with the other.

Doing business: types of activities that can be opened in USA

The main criterion of differentiation that characterizes companies concerns the profit-making objective, ie there are those born to achieve profit and non-profits , organizations that work for social utility and that, therefore, by definition do not distribute profits to the owners. There are different types of activities of the first type, distinguished in turn between.

NPR

Non-profit organization stands for non-profit organization of social utility and with this is meant private institutions that in their statute or constitutive act declare to carry out charitable activities, training or research with the purpose of social solidarity; such organizations, as mentioned, do not distribute profits and if they have operating surpluses they are obliged to re invest them in other activities. The non-profit organizations enjoy special tax breaks.

Individual company

The sole legal form is the simplest and least onerous legal form, its opening only entails the request for VAT. It is a type of company in which, by definition, the sole promoter and manager of the company is the entrepreneur.

Snc

Snc: the acronym stands for Company in the general name and concerns a company (usually small and medium) for whose constitution a written document must be prepared for the Office of the companies that contains the generality of the members, the indication of the managing partners, the services due to the same shareholders, the duration of the company and the methods of distribution of profits and losses. All members are unlimitedly and jointly responsible for social obligations.

Sas

The Sas is the limited partnership, it has two types of partners: general partners and limited partners; the former have more obligations and responsibilities than the latter. However, the greater responsibility is compensated by the fact that they can represent the company and make their names appear in the company name.

Doing business: the importance of innovating

In the Census Bureau document we read that in 2016, spending on research and development in USA amounted to around 56.4 billion dollar (1.37% of GDP) and represented a figure lower than that of the max average. This is a percentage of expenditure, among other things,

The importance of innovating and the need to invest above all in the digital world in order to be competitive, however, is growing, although USA, in general, is in the last places in US in the development of digital innovation. The budgets allocated by the companies for the ICT are in fact increasing: according to a Research of the Observatories Digital Transformation Academy and Startup Intelligence the growth trend for this year in this regard is equal to 5.6% . This, according to the authors of the research of the School of Management.

Start a successful business: some suggestions

Once the first phase of the entrepreneurial activity has been set up, the daily work proceeds during which various situations can arise. These include the need to draw on external economic resources to further promote the business and enrich its offer portfolio, as well as to protect intellectual property or decide to relocate production. Here are some useful suggestions.

How to get funding

Companies can opt for the classic financing request from banks, which, in particular, thanks to specific agreements with the state, offer new entrepreneurs subsidized rates. Of course it is not a question of unsecured loans and it is therefore essential to pay attention to interest rates, comparing more offers before choosing which bank to turn to.

There are also state financing, they can boast particularly advantageous rates but they can also be withdrawn. In this regard, the funds can be, indeed state, but also made available by the USA as well as by the Regions. They have different conditions, which vary from case to case.

In USA, most of the funds are held by Invitation (an agency managed by the Ministry of the Economy): to access it, it is necessary to identify the call, submit the application, wait for the outcome and, if necessary, the disbursement of the loan.

How to file a patent?

Depositing a patent is not a simple practice and it is advisable to involve an expert in the matter who helps to deposit the application, an operation for which it is necessary to first group together a series of documents. It is in fact necessary to provide the technical description of what is to be patented (with technical drawings, innovative specifications, etc.) with the detail relating to all the results that the invention allows obtaining.

How to register a trademark?

Registering a business mark means making the origin of a product or service recognizable from a certain company and increasing the reputation and reputation of the latter, creating trust around it. The validity requirements of the brand concern the fact that it is new (they must not exist of similar), lawful (do not offend others or the sense of morality) to have distinctive capacity (ie to immediately identify what it was created for).

There are more types of brands.

To obtain the Italian trademark the application for registration must be submitted exclusively by electronic means; the first time the so-called first deposit application is made, after the 10 year deadline the renewal is requested.

Production relocation: advantages and disadvantages

Production abroad to lower costs? Here are some useful suggestions for understanding yourself and why transfer the production of goods and services to other countries.

Availability of low-cost raw materials, the possibility of forging alliances with potential competitors, ease of integration into the production process , financial incentives, reduction of transport costs or even proximity to outlet markets and target customers, tax breaks (and in some cases even lower labor costs) are some of the advantages that drive companies to relocate production.

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