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BPS 474: The Legal Mistake That Can Destroy Your Film Career with Nellie Akalp · Bulletproof Screenwriting™ Podcast

• 0:03
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, Episode number four seventy four.
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  Speaker 2: Your dream doesn't have an expiration date, Take a deep
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  Speaker 1: It's the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast, showing you the craft and
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  Speaker 1: business of screenwriting while teaching you how to make your
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  Speaker 2: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari. Welcome, Welcome to another
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  Speaker 2: episode of the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast.
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  Speaker 3: I am your humble host Alex Ferrari. Now.
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  Speaker 3: Enjoy today's episode with guest host Dave Bullets. But on
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  Speaker 3: today's episode we have a guest who's not a filmmaker,
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  Speaker 3: but it's a person that helps with LLC's I know
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  Speaker 3: a lot of people have been sort of you know,
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  Speaker 3: messaging me and asking if I could get somebody who's
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  Speaker 3: more legal centric on just for an episode or two,
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  Speaker 3: just someone to talk about like the legalities of some
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  Speaker 3: things creating LLC's how do you stay safe when you're
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  Speaker 3: making contracts? So this is actually gonna be a pretty
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  Speaker 3: good episode because she not only you know, does all
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  Speaker 3: work on that, but she also was an entrepreneur, a
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  Speaker 3: small business expert, a speaker, and the CEO of corpnet
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  Speaker 3: dot com. With guest Nelly Acow. Hey, Nellie, thank you
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  Speaker 3: very much for joining us on the show.
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  Speaker 4: Hi, Dave, Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you know, it's my pleasure. You know. You know, Nellie,
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  Speaker 3: you were the CEO of Corpnet, and you know I
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  Speaker 3: wanted to, you know, acquire more about your background. So
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  Speaker 3: I you know, I've seen that you always have sort
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  Speaker 3: of had this entrepreneurial spirit, so I wanted to ask,
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  Speaker 3: you know, Nelly, how did you get started, you know,
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  Speaker 3: down the road to becoming the CEO of corporate.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I've been in the industry for over fifteen years
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  Speaker 4: and got into entrepreneurship back in nineteen ninety seven, right
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  Speaker 4: out of law school when we found our first company
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  Speaker 4: and have been in the same an industry ever since.
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  Speaker 4: We grew our first company and sold it back in
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  Speaker 4: two thousand and five to a publicly traded company, and
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  Speaker 4: then took some time off focused on my family and kids,
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  Speaker 4: and decided I was too young, too passionate, too motivated
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  Speaker 4: to take on an early retirement. So I got back
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  Speaker 4: into the legal document filing industry in two thousand and
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  Speaker 4: nine and started my company, corpnate dot com.
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  Speaker 3: So, you know, obviously, you know, the landscape of entrepreneurship
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  Speaker 3: has changed since you know, you first started in and
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  Speaker 3: I think believe you said ninety six. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: what are some of the things really you've actually seen
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  Speaker 3: that have happened recently that has sort of have helped
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  Speaker 3: or maybe even hinted entrepreneurship.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think we're in a different climate than what
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  Speaker 4: it was like back in nineteen ninety seven. In nineteen
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  Speaker 4: ninety seven, when I started our first company, my Corporation,
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  Speaker 4: it was at the birth of the Internet age, so
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  Speaker 4: it was really easy to you know, put up a
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  Speaker 4: website and immediately start seeing orders come through online even
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  Speaker 4: without having any sort of a payment, get Gateway. Whereas
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  Speaker 4: in two thousand and nine when I launched Corporate, the landscape,
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  Speaker 4: the economic climate, everything had changed. And now we're in
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  Speaker 4: this new age of social media. So in my opinion,
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  Speaker 4: there's a lot of difference between how I ran my
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  Speaker 4: business back in the nineteen nineties versus now. And I
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  Speaker 4: have never worked harder in my life than I do today.
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  Speaker 3: You know, it's funny because you know, that's what a
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  Speaker 3: lot I've heard it from a lot of other entrepreneurs,
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  Speaker 3: because you know, they usually quit their day jobs to
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  Speaker 3: you know, inter follow their passion, follow their own desires
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  Speaker 3: to build their own company. And they always usually say,
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  Speaker 3: you know, we end up working even more, but they
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  Speaker 3: usually enjoy it a lot more because it's working for
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  Speaker 3: their own company, if you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely, I think the greatest thing about being an entrepreneur
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  Speaker 4: is just being able to shoot as high as you
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  Speaker 4: want and really do it within your own climate, within
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  Speaker 4: you your own creative box, without having any limitations, and
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  Speaker 4: being able to spread your wings as far and loud
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  Speaker 4: and high as you'd like to reach them. And I
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  Speaker 4: think that was one of the biggest realizations for me
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  Speaker 4: after selling my first company, because when we first sold,
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  Speaker 4: really there wasn't any notion of us wanting to leave.
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  Speaker 4: But after the sale, it really lost its culture, its
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  Speaker 4: entrepreneurial spirit for us, and we thought it's perfect time
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  Speaker 4: for us to take some time off and really focus
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  Speaker 4: on growing ourselves as individuals, as entrepreneurs, focusing on my
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  Speaker 4: marriage with my husband and business partner of over nineteen
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  Speaker 4: years now, and really focusing on our children and had
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  Speaker 4: another kid on the way. And you know what it
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  Speaker 4: made me realize is that I really loving my own boss,
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  Speaker 4: and I really don't joy corporate America and really like
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  Speaker 4: to start from scratch create something out of nothing and
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  Speaker 4: really create that culture that I am vision wanting to
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  Speaker 4: be a part of on a daily basis.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people in
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  Speaker 3: America have become burned out on corporate America. I think
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  Speaker 3: they've really just gotten burned out on the inter office politics,
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  Speaker 3: you know, on some of the other practices in you know,
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  Speaker 3: corporate America. And I think that's why you're seeing a
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  Speaker 3: lot of entrepreneurship now, of people sort of you know,
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  Speaker 3: starting their own stores, like you know, you mentioned you
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  Speaker 3: started near you know, the the dot com boom. When
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  Speaker 3: I look around today, I see a lot of businesses,
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  Speaker 3: you know, starting up, and you know, there's not a
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  Speaker 3: brick and mortar store at all most of the time.
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  Speaker 3: You know, they're you know, sort of like an they're
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  Speaker 3: an online store, and then if they're like a T
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  Speaker 3: shirt company, they then just farm it out to another company,
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  Speaker 3: and then of course they farm it out to another
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  Speaker 3: company that ships the the the the goods. So it's
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  Speaker 3: just you know, I think this is we're going to
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  Speaker 3: that now where more people aren't going to have the
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  Speaker 3: traditional nine to five It's going to be an entrepreneur
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  Speaker 3: job where you know, you make your own business and
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  Speaker 3: you or even become a freelancer, you know, and you
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  Speaker 3: sort of start and you sort of start getting your
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  Speaker 3: clients and building it from there.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly. And frankly, I think in this day and age,
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  Speaker 4: it's really about the relationships and the reputation that you're
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  Speaker 4: creating out there and you're setting out there for yourself.
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  Speaker 4: Because to me, with this age that we're currently in,
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  Speaker 4: which is the social media digital era, it's really about
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  Speaker 4: that personal engagement and that client nurturing and cultivation and
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  Speaker 4: the relationships that you build with the clients that's going
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  Speaker 4: to determine the success of your business in the long run.
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  Speaker 3: It's very interesting as well because you know, as we're
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  Speaker 3: talking about entrepreneurship, you know, I actually, up until a
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  Speaker 3: few months ago, I actually worked full time at a college,
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  Speaker 3: and you know, when we were actually talking about you know,
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  Speaker 3: creating a new course all about business, you know, a
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  Speaker 3: lot of the professors were they they there was nothing
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  Speaker 3: about this, about this new age about digital and social media,
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  Speaker 3: and I obviously I said something about that and we
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  Speaker 3: ended up not making the course. But it got me thinking.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I've read a book a while ago about
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  Speaker 3: you know, college and where it's at today, and this
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  Speaker 3: guy basically said he thinks that a lot of college
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  Speaker 3: degrees and a lot of people going out and out
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  Speaker 3: in the real world now, they don't have the necessary
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  Speaker 3: tools to succeed. Rather than if you just fresh out
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  Speaker 3: of high school went right in doing what you want
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  Speaker 3: in entrepreneurship, you know, I kind of see his point.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know, do you do you have
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  Speaker 3: a thought about that.
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  Speaker 4: Here's the thing is, I think personally, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 4: I think anybody who wants to become a successful entrepreneur,
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  Speaker 4: and if they really want to go through entrepreneurship, you
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  Speaker 4: can straight out of high school go into it. But
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  Speaker 4: in my opinion, I think it's super important to have
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  Speaker 4: education under your belt and get a college degree. Why
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  Speaker 4: because I think all of those junctures in our lives
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  Speaker 4: are again extra experience, and the courses that you're taking
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  Speaker 4: in college are geared towards somehow helping you becoming a
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  Speaker 4: better entrepreneur. For me, it has helped me a ton.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I got my degree in business and marketing,
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  Speaker 4: and some of the classes that I took really helped
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  Speaker 4: me in my daily operations of running and growing my business.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that every class I took helped, but
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  Speaker 4: I think again there geared to be a tool and
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  Speaker 4: a resource to make you a better person in life.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
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  Speaker 4: And a better entrepreneur. If that's really the way you
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  Speaker 4: want to go. Others may have a different outlook on it,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: and others may have a different opinion on it. You
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: may have those people who really have that vision, passion
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: and determination to really write out of high school, want
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: to start a business. And again, by all means, but
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: I think it's really important to always better yourself and
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: always you know, improve yourself as a person and an entrepreneur.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: And if you choose not to go to college and
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: at least, you know, take some online courses to really
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: you know, strengthen your skills as a business person, if
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: that's the route you want to go.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, there's a lot of online courses now
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  Speaker 3: and I see, you know, with the massive online open courses,
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: you know, a coursia on you to me on skill
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: share and I sometimes wonder, you know, if that's the future,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: if there would be basically you could just take what
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: you want to take, meaning there would be we would
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: have to redefine what degrees are. But you know what
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I mean, Like so it wouldn't be you taking like
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: a traditional bachelor's degree, you know, course or curriculum. You
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: would have you you would take the courses that you
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: were interested in, and they would either give you a certificate.
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  Speaker 3: What I've seen them do now is there's like a
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: mini program like I T for instance, had their their
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: micro master's course and basically it was like you know,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: five or six online courses that you had to pass
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: and then you could you would be getting this what's
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: called MicroMasters, and it would be about a year's time
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: rather than the traditional you know two years for a
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: master's degree. It's just it's just an interesting, uh, you know,
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: time to be alive because of all these different changes.
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: And you know, I always look to get different people's
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: you know, feedback about this, and you know what they're
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: you know, experiencing and you know in the quote unquote
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: real world.
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  Speaker 4: Well here's my take on it. I have four children,
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: and two of them are teenagers, and obviously they see
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: me on a daily basis in my work attire and
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: just juggling and trying to balance life with work, and
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: they see my successes and obviously it's good enough reason
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: for them to be all amped up and excited about, Hey,
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: I want to become successful like you, mom, and I
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: want to go into business for myself. But the one
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: thing that I always tell my kids is that, well,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: you know, success it comes with experience. And my path
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: for success was not only going and you know, through
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: high school, getting good grades at listening to my teachers,
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: going and getting my four year college degree, but I
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: also decided to go to law school because for me,
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: every you know, every hour of education that I received
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: both through my college years and my graduate years was
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: again experience underneath my belt. And this is from somebody
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: who not only went to college and graduate school, but
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: at the same time maintained the job through college and
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: grad school. And every one of those experiences, in my opinion,
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: has led and paved the way for me to be
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: a better person, a better entrepreneur, and really has paved
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: the way to my success today because those were all
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: experiences and those interactions, to me, is what really led
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: me to be who I am today. So I think
• 13:39
  Speaker 4: the more you can expose yourself to tools and resources
• 13:44
  Speaker 4: that can make you a better person, a more rounded
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: person by all means, go for it.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: And you know that's what we're to talk to you about,
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: you know, is your successes. You know, because you know,
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: I see what you're doing at corporate and it's just
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: you know, it's awesome, and you know, I want to
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: sort of ask you. Now, you know, if we were
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: going to let's just say, you know, let's let's just
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: say my friend and I just giving an example, we're
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: going to create a business, and you know, we were
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: going to come to something like you know, comes come
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: to corp net, you know, what would you recommend? I mean,
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: you know, should we you know, you know what I mean.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: I know that's a very open into questions Tycher. Probably
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: probably probably we were that. So you know, let's just
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: say we came and we wanted to ask you, you know,
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: the question of LLC versus like S corp and stuff
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: like that. You know, uh, because you know, with film projects,
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: they're a little bit different than say some other entrepreneurships
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: because me because you know, a movie in itself is
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: is its own entity, so you know, you know, you
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: build upon that. So if I was going to come
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: to you with like a film project. You know what
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: were some of the things that you know you would say,
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: and you know what would you recommend between an LLC
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: or maybe even something different than an LLC. You know,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: I'm always interested to hear about that.
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: Let me back up for a minute and just give
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: you a two second version of what corpnet does, and
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: then I can provide you with the differences in the
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: business structures and what we see and would recommend as
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: a resource to your audience. Our company, Corporate provides business
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: filing services to startups, entrepreneurs, movie film producers, anybody who's
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: looking to start a corporation or LLC or any other
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: type of business filing, or they have an existing business
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: and want us to help them maintain the business structure.
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: We provide the services online in all fifty states, and
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: really what makes us different from all the hundreds of
• 15:40
  Speaker 4: thousands of other competitors out there is our level of
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: personal service and really the dedication we have to our
• 15:49
  Speaker 4: clients from start to finish. So you can visit us
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: online at www dot corpnet dot com. We have live
• 15:56
  Speaker 4: chat experts standing by at any time of the day
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: Monday through Fridays from six am until five pm Pacific
• 16:04
  Speaker 4: standard time. But specifically, what makes us different is that
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: we have a very very large customer base of dealing
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: with the entertainment industry and movie and film producers. So
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: we probably have about thirty percent of our clients are
• 16:21
  Speaker 4: in the film industry, and really we consider ourselves experts
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: in the field of really guiding your audience as to
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: what's necessary, what type of legal document filings are required,
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: and to be able to assist them and guide them
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: into getting what they need. So, in answer to your question, really,
• 16:43
  Speaker 4: for an inter a person in the entertainment industry trying
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: to set up a business structure for their movie or film,
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: you can go either way LLC ors corporation because, as
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: you mentioned, it dave a movie like an entity of
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: its own. So one of the things that we recommend,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: because we deal with a ton of producers is that
• 17:07
  Speaker 4: they come with several different movies. Well, each movie should
• 17:10
  Speaker 4: have its own entity, and as far as it being
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: an LLC or an S corporation, it really really depends
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: on the level of formality that you want to deal with.
• 17:22
  Speaker 4: As far as that particular movie. With the S corporation,
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: there's stricter requirements as to who can qualify, whereas with
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: an LLC it's a much more lax type of entity.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: Anybody can be a member of an LLC and it's
• 17:39
  Speaker 4: much less formal as far as the filing requirements that
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: are required to bring the LLC into existence. In addition,
• 17:50
  Speaker 4: the only piece of document that really controls the LLC
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: is the operating agreement. So if you are trying to
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: set up a movie and the people backing the movie
• 18:04
  Speaker 4: up some are in state, some are out of state,
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: the LLC may be the better way to go because
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: there are no requirements with the LLC that bar and
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: out of state or to be a member of the LLC.
• 18:17
  Speaker 4: But as far as the protection as to which one
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: will afford you greater liability protection, et cetera, both the
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: S corporate and the LLC offer liability protection. They both
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: offer the the double taxation avoidance, whereby you would otherwise
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: have to pay by forming SC corporation. So it really
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: depends on again the level of formality that you want
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: to deal with, whether all the shareholders or members of
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: that particular film are you know, residents of the US,
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: are citizens of the US. If they are, then S
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: corporation is a great way to go. Otherwise, the LLC
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: is a great type of entity and the most favored
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: within and amongst uh the film industry and the entertainment industry,
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Because my experience you know with LLC's came when we
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: had to start buying insurance because you know, because when
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: when when I was doing you know, student films. You know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: you know, most student films are just you know, running gun.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: They really don't have you know, the doing it, you know,
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: the proper way. But when I started, you know, getting
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: into buying insurance because we started doing you know, riskier stuff,
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: you know, whether you want to you know, blow up
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: a car or whatever, the LLC and then you you know,
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: I would get the insurance and then I could you know,
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: go from there. And uh, you know that's was you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: a couple of years ago when I actually the last
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: time I actually produced something, that's what we did. We
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: actually went the LLC route.
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: Yes, LLCs are really really the favorite type of entity
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: these days. Again, as I mentioned to you, it's great
• 19:55
  Speaker 4: for a small business.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a wh from our sponsor
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: And literally anyone can be a member of an LLC.
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: It's very, very informal. I refer to the LLC as
• 20:18
  Speaker 4: the entity where you can have your cake and eat
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: it too, because not only it provides you with all
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: the liability and asset protection that you want in creating
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: a business structure, but with limited formalities, with minimal formalities,
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: so we can take care of it for you. It's
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: offered in all fifty states, and again we can take
• 20:41
  Speaker 4: care of filing the LLC for you in any of
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: the fifty states, and all of the paperwork required to
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: keep the LLC incompliance throughout the years the LLC in
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: it is in existence.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: So you know, Neilli, I wanted to ask, you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: if a filmmaker listening to this, you know, wanted to
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: come to you about starting an LLC, is there anything
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: they need to do beforehand before coming to you to
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: start the LLC?
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Actually not really. I mean, typically, speaking for a film producer,
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: we normally use the name of the movie as the
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: name of the LLC, unless they have another, you know,
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: particular name that they'd like to use, such as they're
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: holding company, et cetera. But really what we need before
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: they come to us is just the name the members
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: of the people that are going to be as part
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: of the LLC, the business address, and then we take
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: care of the rest. I mean really we take the
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: hassle out of the movie producer doing all the legwork
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: and bringing the LLC into existence, and then we become
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: your partner throughout the lifetime of the LLC and helping
• 21:48
  Speaker 4: you keep the LLC in compliance.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: So what are some of the things you're like the LLC?
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: You know, I know I've been in my experience with
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: the LLC some of the things like a tax ID
• 21:58
  Speaker 3: number usually comes up. So you know, what are some
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: of the things that about being in compliance? You know
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: that should you know, you know, we be concerned about
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: for the LLC to being compliance.
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: So with our company, Corpnet, we offer three different packages
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: and normally what I would recommend to any movie, film
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: producer or somebody in the entertainment industry is our Deluxe
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: or all inclusive complete package, whereby, you know, not only
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: we take care of handling the name check, we submit
• 22:28
  Speaker 4: the paperwork to the state for filing for the LLC.
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: Once the LLC is filed, we actually obtain and assign
• 22:36
  Speaker 4: the tax ID number to the LLC, which is really
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: the Social Security number for the LLC, that particular LLC,
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: where the IRS can identify all the transactions associated with
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: that particular LLC. And then once the tax id is
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: signed and we have all the paperwork, including the operating
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: agreement all drafted, we forward all the documentation to the
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: particular client for that LLC, whereby it allows them to
• 23:06
  Speaker 4: go open up the bank account and then start conducting
• 23:09
  Speaker 4: business under the LLC. And then within a year or
• 23:12
  Speaker 4: two after, depending on the state requirements, we can file
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: all the statement of information, annual report filings, all the
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: compliance filings that are due for that LLC within their state.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: In addition to, for example, if the general principle of
• 23:32
  Speaker 4: the LLC likes to make any modifications to the LLC
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: AD members, the lead members, we can help them throughout
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: the lifetime of the LLC with all those needs as well.
• 23:42
  Speaker 3: You know, that's something that you know, I've learned that
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: you need on a film project is either so you
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: know somebody who knows the legalities of things, because you know,
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: when you get stuff like the tax ID number and
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: you start getting you know, into into sort of like
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: you know, lots of legal documents. I've realized that you
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: do need to have somebody who you can turn to
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: and be like, what does this mean? Exactly Yes.
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: And here's the great thing about our business, Dave, is
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: that we assign you your own business filings expert, your
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: own dedicated account rep. And we deal with a tin
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: of high end movie producers who will call here and
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: for example, deal with our senior filings expert, Amanda Baron,
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: who is literally has been with the company since day one,
• 24:31
  Speaker 4: is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to forming corporations
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: and LLCs in all fifty states. But she's also our
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: specialist in dealing with people who are within the entertainment
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: industry and who'd like to form corporations or LLCs for
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: their movies. So we will assign you not only to
• 24:53
  Speaker 4: an expert, but an expert that has expertise in your field.
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: So, you know, nearly I wanted to ask, you know,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: if we were talking about entrepreneurship, you know, and I
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: always wonder, you know, where crowdfunding sort of comes into this,
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: because you know, with the equity based crowdfunding coming in
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: the law, you know, I always wonder, you know, where
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: that would fall within the LLC because now you know,
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: with people being able to sort of buy into the project.
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: I wonder if does that add you know, a lot
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: another dimension or two to to your LLC.
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: I mean, we deal with all sectors, all verticals, and
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: really we're here to service any type of clients filing
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: needs that they require. So you know, in my opinion,
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: whoever needs assistance with setting up a corporation or an
• 25:40
  Speaker 4: LLC in whatever business, vertical or sector they are, we
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: can assist them.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: That's good to know because you know, like I was
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: saying before, you know, with you know, having somebody in
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: your corner, because I've been down that road before too,
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: and it's just you know, I've ever done equity based crowdfunding.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: So I was doing crowdfunding. It wasn't around. But you know,
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: even when you're doing perk crowdfunding. You know, I had
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: a producer on there going is this legal? Should we
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: get a lawyer on here? And I said no, no, no,
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: I said, you know, it's through their own website, you know,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: and they explained in their terms and agreements, you know
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: what is entailed with this crowdfunding campaign. It's perk based,
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: you know, et cetera, et cetera. But you know, i
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: just wanted to ask, because you know, with that becoming
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: nor we're rolling out more and more. I just wanted
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: to ask if that would you know, entail something completely
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: different on top of the l's.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, not at all. And in fact, one of the
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: notions and the lack of awareness out there that I
• 26:30
  Speaker 4: wanted to address, which you just brought up, Dave, is
• 26:33
  Speaker 4: the fact that there's still this lack of awareness that
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: a corporation or LLC can be done on your own
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: through a reputable online company such as the services we
• 26:44
  Speaker 4: provide here at Corporate and most often people think that
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: they do have to go to an attorney or an
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: accountant to get these filings. Then again, remember this company
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: and our other companies was found by attorney husband and
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: wife teams. So we've been through law school, we are
• 27:00
  Speaker 4: within the industry. My husband is admitted to the California
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: State Bar, and frankly, you do not need a lawyer
• 27:08
  Speaker 4: to form a corporation or LLC and nearly act as
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: a scriptner to file documents with the state. You can
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: take care of these filings and more with the help
• 27:19
  Speaker 4: of a company such as ours for literally one tenth
• 27:24
  Speaker 4: and iota of the price and really save that money
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: that you would otherwise pay to a legal professional and
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: really use it when it comes handy when you actually
• 27:33
  Speaker 4: need the assistance of a lawyer. So we're very capable
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: and consider ourselves experts in the field and can handle
• 27:41
  Speaker 4: all these filings and more in all fifty states.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: So, you know, Nelly, that's a good point you just
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: brought up, and I wanted to ask, you know, when
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: it does come to time to dissolve the LLC, like
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: if it was a film project, you know, we've shot it,
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: you know, we've we've no it's in post production, it's
• 27:55
  Speaker 3: being distributed, you know, and it's this comes up a
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: point in time when you have to dissolve it. L
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: you know, is that a complicated process?
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: Not at all. In fact, again, we handled dissolutions in
• 28:05
  Speaker 4: all fifty states, and we can help you in dissolving
• 28:09
  Speaker 4: the LLC at the end of the film project. It's
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: just merely a document that needs to be filed within
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: the state, and obviously every state has different requirements. Some
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: dissolutions are much more tedious and require much more filings
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: than others. But again, we handle dissolution paperwork in all
• 28:30
  Speaker 4: fifty states and can help you in dissolving the LLC
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: as well.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: So nel you know, now we know we've talked a
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: lot about LLCs and you know, and making companies and
• 28:39
  Speaker 3: everything like that. Is there any sort of challenges you see,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: you know, in your daily, your weekly, you know, business
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: from from entrepreneurs or filmmakers. Is there any sort of
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: mistake that you see a lot of that? Is it
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: almost like a common mistake that you see that people make.
• 28:53
  Speaker 4: I think oftentimes the most common mistakes that we see
• 28:56
  Speaker 4: is again the filmmaker, the entrepreneur not having the due
• 29:01
  Speaker 4: diligence or the information necessary, paying tons of money where
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: they otherwise they could have saved the money and come
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: to a company such as ours to form the legal
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: paperwork for them, oftentimes not having the correct information and
• 29:17
  Speaker 4: filing the LLC in a state other than the state
• 29:21
  Speaker 4: where the movie is being shot, and not doing their
• 29:25
  Speaker 4: due diligence and making sure the name is available before
• 29:29
  Speaker 4: forming the LLC, and then after the LLC is formed,
• 29:34
  Speaker 4: not having the proper information to keep the LLC in compliance.
• 29:38
  Speaker 4: So these are all mistakes that we've dealt with and
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: oftentimes have to have fixed. So again, it could all
• 29:46
  Speaker 4: be saved by having a reputable company take care of
• 29:51
  Speaker 4: these filings for you and just calling us and having
• 29:54
  Speaker 4: us do a free business consultation over the phone with you.
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: Will be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 30:08
  Speaker 4: Or taking advantage of our live chat feature.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: So, you know, Neil, you brought up a funny you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: grow up something, and it reminds me of a funny
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: story that happened to me. You know, I have a
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: friend of mine who's an attorney on my you know,
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: on my Facebook friends list, and when I started my
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: production company, she actually sent me an email telling me
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: that it was it was a bad idea. I mean,
• 30:27
  Speaker 3: it was called Iron Fist Films, my my production company,
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: and she thought it was too close to the Marvel
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: superhero Iron Fist and I and I said, but my
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: Iron Fist is based off of Iron Fist training from
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: Shallon kung Fu. That's you know, three thousand years old,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: you know, I I you know, And I was trying
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: to go back and forth with her about this, But
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, have you seen something like similar like that
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: happen where maybe a trademark was a little too close
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: to home.
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, we deal with that on a daily basis because
• 30:53
  Speaker 4: as part of our products and services, we offer trademark registration,
• 30:58
  Speaker 4: search and filing services. And oftentimes people, as I mentioned
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: to you, do not take the time to check on
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: that name to make sure it's available before they start
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: the business, and they don't take an additional they don't
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: take the additional necessary steps to do a further research
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: of the name to see whether anybody has common law
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: rights to that name, whether that name has a potential
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: trademark right to it. And again we can help and
• 31:27
  Speaker 4: assist because we have all those tools on our website
• 31:30
  Speaker 4: such as the free name Search, the free trademark search,
• 31:33
  Speaker 4: that can provide you with the necessary information so that
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: you are prevented on being on the wrong end of
• 31:41
  Speaker 4: a trademark infringement suit potentially.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: You know another funny story. It's involves a friend of mine.
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: He actually was a private investigator and lawyers, trademark lawyers
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: will actually hide or hire him out to go and
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: investigate some different trademarks and he actually had one. One time.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: These four guys started a company. They just start, you know,
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: open up a actual physical store and the name of the
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: store was called Apple, and literally they did I don't
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: think they made an LC but they just started coming.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: You know, the business called Apple. They had a they
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: had a logo outside their Their logo also was was
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: you know, a green Apple. And when he went in
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: there to talk to him about it, they actually were
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: like dumb they were attending they were dumbfounded, like we
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: don't know anything about this other apple? What are you
• 32:28
  Speaker 3: talking about. Needless to say, they actually decided to shut
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: it down when finally when the trademark lawyers were like, look,
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: we're gonna sue you if you don't stop.
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: Yes, exactly, and that will happen. And again, you can
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: save yourself a ton of headache and time if you
• 32:43
  Speaker 4: just go about and do your due diligence before you
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: start printing out business cards and letterheads and start using
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: that name in commerce.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's uh, yeah, I concur You know, that's when
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: when I used iron Fist, I actually went through and
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: I actually made sure it wasn't going to be a problem.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: But I know that, you know, her and I were talking,
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: my attorney friend, and I she you know, brought that
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: up just because she thought it was you know, too close.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: But uh but again mine is based off something completely different.
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: You know, that's a's a couple thousand years old, so
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: I don't really know if anybody could actually trademark that,
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: although you know, I hear Budweiser is changing the name
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: of their beer to America. Yeah, I heard that. I
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: don't know how he would be able to trademark America,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: but that would.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: Be considered a generic term, so it's not a trademarkable
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: unless they do Budweiser slash America or something like that.
• 33:38
  Speaker 4: I'm sure they have a great team of legal experts
• 33:41
  Speaker 4: working on that as we speak.
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: You don't know that we've been talking for about, you know,
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: thirty minutes. You know, I wanted to ask, you know,
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: is there anything that we sort of haven't discussed yet,
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: or anything you wanted to to maybe mention that we
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: we didn't get a chance to.
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: Actually, I think we've covered it all and again. We'd
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: love to assist any one of your audiences with any
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: of their business filing needs or helping them set up
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: a corporation or LLC in all fifty states. You can
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: visit us online at www dot corpnet dot com. If
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: you have any questions, feel free to email us to
• 34:16
  Speaker 4: info at corpnet dot com or just pick up the
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: phone call one eight eight eight four four nine two
• 34:22
  Speaker 4: six three eight. You can follow me on Twitter at
• 34:25
  Speaker 4: corpnet Nelly, or follow the company at Twitter at corpnet.
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: And then we're also on live chat Monday through Fridays
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: from six am until five pm Pacific Standard time.
• 34:37
  Speaker 3: And that's awesome and everyone I will link to everything,
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: all the links Nelly just said in the show notes
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: as well. You know, Nelly, I want to say thank
• 34:45
  Speaker 3: you very much for coming on and you know my
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: pleasure and you know, I want to wish you the
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: best of luck with everything with CORPNT and for helping
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: all the future entrepreneurs.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: Thank you so much, and thank you for the opportunity.
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: Dave, oh my pleasure, take care, NELLI takes care.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so so much for doing
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: such a great job on this episode. If you want
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: to get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 35:04
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Bulletproofscreenwriting dot tv.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: Forward slash four seventy four. Thank you so much for
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: listening to guys. As always, keep on writing no matter what.
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: I'll talk to you soon.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Bulletproof Screenwriting Podcast. At Bulletproofscreenwriting
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: dot tv,