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IFH 853: The Legal Mistake That Can Destroy Your Film Career with Nellie Akalp · Indie Film Hustle® - A Filmmaking Podcast

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: You are listening to the ifh podcast Network. For more
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  Speaker 1: amazing filmmaking and screenwriting podcasts, just go to ifhpodcastnetwork dot com.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Indie Film Muscle Podcast, Episode number eight
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: fifty three. Cinema should make You forget You're sitting in
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: a theater, Roman Polanski.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Broadcasting from the back alley in Hollywood. It's the Indie
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Film Hustle Podcast, where we showed you how to survive
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and thrive as an indie filmmaker in the jungles of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the film biz.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: And here's your host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Welcome to another episode of the Indie Film Huscle Podcast.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I am your humble host, Alex Ferrari.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Today's show is sponsored by Rise of the Film Entrepreneur
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: How to turn your independent film into a profitable business.
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  Speaker 2: It's harder today than ever before for independent filmmakers to
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  Speaker 2: make money with their films from predatory film distributors ripping
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  Speaker 2: them off to huckster film aggregators who prey upon them.
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  Speaker 2: The odds are stacked against the indie filmmaker. The old
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  Speaker 2: distribution model of making money with your film is broken,
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  Speaker 2: and there needs to be a change the future of
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  Speaker 2: independent filmmaking is the entrepreneurial filmmaker or the film entrepreneur.
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  Speaker 2: In Rise of the Film Entrepreneur, I break down how
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  Speaker 2: to actually make money with your film projects and show
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  Speaker 2: you how to turn your indie film into a profitable business.
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  Speaker 2: With case studies examining successes and failures. This book shows
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  Speaker 2: available in paperback, ebook, and of course audiobook. If you
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  Speaker 2: want to order it, just head over to www. Dot
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  Speaker 2: filmbizbook dot com. That's film bizbook dot com. Enjoy today's
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  Speaker 2: episode with guest host Dave Bullis.
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  Speaker 4: But on today's episode we have a guest who's not
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  Speaker 4: a filmmaker, but it's a person that helps with LCS.
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  Speaker 4: I know a lot of people have been sort of
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  Speaker 4: you know, messaging me and asking if I could get
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  Speaker 4: somebody who's more legal centric on just for an episode
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  Speaker 4: or two, just someone to talk about like the legalities
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  Speaker 4: of some things creating LLC's how do you stay safe
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  Speaker 4: when you're making contracts? So this is actually gonna be
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  Speaker 4: a pretty good episode because she not only you know,
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  Speaker 4: does all work on that, but she also is an entrepreneur,
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  Speaker 4: a small business expert, a speaker, and the CEO of
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  Speaker 4: corpnet dot com. With guest Nelly Acowp. Hey, Nellie, thank
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  Speaker 4: you very much for joining us on the show.
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  Speaker 5: Hi Dave, thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, you know, it's my pleasure. You know.
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  Speaker 4: You know, Nelly, you're the CEO of CORPNT and you know,
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  Speaker 4: I wanted to, you know, inquire more about your background,
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  Speaker 4: so I, you know, I see that you always have
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  Speaker 4: sort of had this entrepreneurial spirit, so I wanted to ask,
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  Speaker 4: you know, Nelly, how did you get started, you know,
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  Speaker 4: down the road to becoming the CEO of corporate Well.
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  Speaker 5: I've been in the industry for over fifteen years and
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  Speaker 5: got into entrepreneurship back in nineteen ninety seven, right out
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  Speaker 5: of law school when we found our first company, and
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  Speaker 5: have been in the same an industry ever since. We
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  Speaker 5: grew our first company and sold it back in two
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  Speaker 5: thousand and five to a publicly traded company, and then
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  Speaker 5: took some time off focused on my family and kids,
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  Speaker 5: and decided I was too young, too passionate, too motivated
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  Speaker 5: to take on an early retirement. So I got back
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  Speaker 5: into the legal document filing industry in two thousand and
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  Speaker 5: nine and started my company, corpnate dot com.
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  Speaker 4: So, you know, obviously, you know, the landscape of entrepreneurship
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  Speaker 4: has changed since you know, you first started in and
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  Speaker 4: I think believe you said ninety six. So you know,
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  Speaker 4: what are some of the things really you've actually seen
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  Speaker 4: 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 5: Well, I think we're in a different climate than what
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  Speaker 5: it was like back in nineteen ninety seven. In nineteen
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  Speaker 5: ninety seven, when I started our first company, my corporation,
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  Speaker 5: it was at the birth of the Internet age, so
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  Speaker 5: it was really easy to you know, put up a
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  Speaker 5: website and immediately start seeing orders come through online even
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  Speaker 5: without having any sort of a payment, get gateway. Whereas
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  Speaker 5: in two thousand and nine when I launched corpnet, the landscape,
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  Speaker 5: the economic climate, everything had changed, and now we're in
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  Speaker 5: this new age of social media. So in my opinion,
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  Speaker 5: there's a lot of difference between how I ran my
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  Speaker 5: business back in the nineteen nineties versus now, and I
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  Speaker 5: have never worked harder in my life than I do today.
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  Speaker 4: You know, it's funny because you know, that's what a
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  Speaker 4: lot I've heard it from a lot of other entrepreneurs
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  Speaker 4: because you know, they usually quit their day jobs to
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  Speaker 4: you know, inter follow their passion, follow their own desires
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  Speaker 4: to build their own company. And they always usually say,
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  Speaker 4: you know, we end up working even more, but they
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  Speaker 4: usually enjoy it a lot more because it's working for
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  Speaker 4: their own company, if you know what I mean.
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  Speaker 5: Absolutely, I think the greatest thing about being an entrepreneur
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  Speaker 5: is just being able to shoot as high as you
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  Speaker 5: want and really do it within your own climate, within
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  Speaker 5: your own creative box, without having any limitations, and being
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  Speaker 5: able to spread your wings as far and loud and
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  Speaker 5: high as you'd like to reach them. And I think
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  Speaker 5: that was one of the biggest realizations for me after
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  Speaker 5: selling my first company, because when we first sold, really
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  Speaker 5: there wasn't any notion of us wanting to leave. But
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  Speaker 5: after the sale, it really lost its culture, its entrepreneurial
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  Speaker 5: spirit for us, and we thought it's perfect time for
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  Speaker 5: us to take some time off and really focus on
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  Speaker 5: growing ourselves as individuals, as entrepreneurs. Focusing on my marriage
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  Speaker 5: with my husband and business partner of over nineteen years
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  Speaker 5: now and really focusing on our children and had another
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  Speaker 5: kid on the way. And you know what it made
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  Speaker 5: me realize is that I really love being my own boss,
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  Speaker 5: and I really don't enjoy corporate America and really like
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  Speaker 5: to start from scratch, create something out of nothing, and
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  Speaker 5: really create that culture that I m envisioned wanting to
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  Speaker 5: be a part of on a daily basis.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people in
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  Speaker 4: America have become burned out on corporate America. I think
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  Speaker 4: they've really just gotten burned out on the inner office politics,
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  Speaker 4: you know, on some of the other practices in you know,
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  Speaker 4: corporate America. And I think that's why you're seeing a
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  Speaker 4: lot of entrepreneurship now, of people sort of you know,
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  Speaker 4: starting their own stores, like you know, you mentioned you
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  Speaker 4: started near you know, the the dot com boom. When
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  Speaker 4: I look around today, I see a lot of businesses,
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  Speaker 4: you know starting up, and you know, there's not a
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  Speaker 4: brick and mortar store at all most of the time.
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  Speaker 4: You know, they're you know, sort of like an they're
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  Speaker 4: an online store. And then if they're at like a
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  Speaker 4: T shirt company, they then just farm it out to
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  Speaker 4: another company, and then of course they farm it out
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  Speaker 4: to another.
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  Speaker 3: Company that ships the the the the goods.
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  Speaker 4: So it's just, you know, I think this is we're
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  Speaker 4: going to that now where more people aren't going to
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  Speaker 4: have the traditional nine to five. It's going to be
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  Speaker 4: an entrepreneur job where you know, you make your own
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  Speaker 4: business and you or even become a freelancer, you know,
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  Speaker 4: and you sort of start and you sort of start,
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  Speaker 4: you know, getting your clients and building it from there.
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  Speaker 5: Yes, exactly, And frankly, I think in this day and age,
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  Speaker 5: it's really about the relationships and the reputation that you're
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  Speaker 5: creating out there and you're setting out there for yourself.
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  Speaker 5: Because to me, with this age that we're currently in,
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  Speaker 5: which is the social media, digital era, it's really about
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  Speaker 5: that personal engagement and that client nurturing and cultivation and
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  Speaker 5: the relationships that you build with the client that's going
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  Speaker 5: to determine the success of your business in the long run.
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  Speaker 4: That's very interesting as well, because you know, as we're
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  Speaker 4: talking about entrepreneurship, you know, I actually, up until a
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  Speaker 4: few months ago, I actually worked full time at a college,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, when we were actually talking about, you know,
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  Speaker 4: creating a new course all about business. You know, a
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  Speaker 4: lot of the professors were they they there was nothing
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  Speaker 4: about this, about this new age about digital and social media,
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  Speaker 4: and I obviously I said something about that and we
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  Speaker 4: ended up not making the course. But it got me thinking.
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  Speaker 4: You know, I've read a book a while ago about
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  Speaker 4: you know, college and where it's at today, and this
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  Speaker 4: guy basically said he thinks that a lot of college
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  Speaker 4: degrees and a lot of people going out and gout
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  Speaker 4: in the real world now they don't have the necessary
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  Speaker 4: tools to succeed. Rather than if you just fresh out
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  Speaker 4: of high school went right in doing what you want
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  Speaker 4: in entrepreneurship.
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  Speaker 3: You know, I kind of see his point. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I don't know, do you have a thought about that.
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  Speaker 5: Here's the thing is, I think personally, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 5: I think anybody who wants to become a successful entrepreneur
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  Speaker 5: and if they really want to go through entrepreneurship, you
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  Speaker 5: can straight out of high school go into it. But
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  Speaker 5: in my opinion, I think it's super important to have
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  Speaker 5: education under your belt and get a college degree. Why
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  Speaker 5: because I think all of those junctures in our lives
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  Speaker 5: are again extra experience, and the courses that you're taking
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  Speaker 5: in college are geared towards somehow helping you becoming a
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  Speaker 5: better entrepreneur. For me, it has helped me a ton.
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  Speaker 5: I mean, I got my degree in business and marketing,
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  Speaker 5: and some of the classes that I took.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Really will be right b back after a word from
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: our sponsor and now back to the show.
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  Speaker 5: Help me in my daily operations of running and growing
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  Speaker 5: my business. I'm not saying that every class I took helped,
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  Speaker 5: but I think again there geared to be a tool
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  Speaker 5: and a resource to make you a better person in
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  Speaker 5: life and a better entrepreneur. If that's really the way
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  Speaker 5: you want to go. Others may have a different outlook
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  Speaker 5: on it, and others may have a different opinion on it.
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  Speaker 5: You may have those people who really have that vision,
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  Speaker 5: passion and determination to really write out of high school
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  Speaker 5: want to start a business. And again, by all means,
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  Speaker 5: but I think it's really important to always better yourself
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  Speaker 5: and always you know, improve yourself as a person in
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  Speaker 5: an entrepreneur. And if you choose not to go to college,
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  Speaker 5: then at least you know, take some online courses to
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  Speaker 5: really you know, strengthen your skills as as a business person,
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  Speaker 5: if that's the route you want to go.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, there's a lot of online courses now
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  Speaker 4: and I see, you know, with the massive online open
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  Speaker 4: courses go a coursia on you to me on skill share,
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: and I sometimes wonder, you know, if that's the future,
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  Speaker 4: if there would be basically you could just take what
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: you want to take, meaning there would be we would
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: have to redefine what degrees are. But you know what
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  Speaker 4: I mean, Like so it wouldn't be you taking like
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: a traditional bachelor's degree, you know, course or curriculum you
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  Speaker 4: would have you would take the courses that you were
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  Speaker 4: interested in and they would either give you a certificate.
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  Speaker 4: What I've seen them do now is there's like a
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  Speaker 4: mini program. MIT for instance, had their their micromaster's course
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  Speaker 4: and basically it was like you know, five or six
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  Speaker 4: online courses that you had to pass and then you
• 11:56
  Speaker 4: could you would be getting this what's called MicroMasters and
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  Speaker 4: it would be about a year's time rather than the
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  Speaker 4: traditional you know two years for a master's degree. It's
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  Speaker 4: just it's just then interesting, uh, you know, time to
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: be alive because of all these different changes. And you know,
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  Speaker 4: I always look to get different people's you know, feedback
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  Speaker 4: about this, and you know what they're you know, experiencing
• 12:14
  Speaker 4: and you know in the quote unquote real world.
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  Speaker 5: Well, here's here's my take on it. I have four children,
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: and two of them are teenagers, and obviously they see
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: me on a daily basis in my work, attire and
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: just juggling and trying to balance life with work, and
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: they see my successes, and obviously it's good enough reason
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: for them to be all amped up and excited about. Hey,
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  Speaker 5: I want to become successful like you, mom, and I
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: want to go into business for myself. But the one
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  Speaker 5: thing that I always tell my kids is that, well,
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: you know, success, it comes with experience. And my path
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  Speaker 5: for success was not only going and you know, through
• 13:00
  Speaker 5: high school, getting good grades, at listening to my teachers,
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: going and getting my four year college degree, but I
• 13:08
  Speaker 5: also decided to go to law school because for me,
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: every you know, every ounce of education that I received
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: both through my college years and my graduate years was
• 13:21
  Speaker 5: again experience underneath my belt. And this is from somebody
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  Speaker 5: who not only went to college and graduate school, but
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  Speaker 5: at the same time maintained the job through college and
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  Speaker 5: grad school, and every one of those experiences, in my opinion,
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  Speaker 5: has led and paved the way for me to be
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: a better person, a better entrepreneur, and really has paved
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  Speaker 5: the way to my success today because those were all
• 13:47
  Speaker 5: experiences and those interactions, to me is what really led
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: me to be who I am today. So I think
• 13:55
  Speaker 5: the more you can expose yourself to tools and resources
• 13:59
  Speaker 5: that can make you a better person, a more rounded person,
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: by all means, go for it.
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  Speaker 4: And you know that's what we're to talk to you about,
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  Speaker 4: you know, really is your successes, you know, because you know,
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  Speaker 4: I see what you're doing at corporate and it's just
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  Speaker 4: you know, it's awesome, and you know, I wanted to
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  Speaker 4: sort of ask you, now, you know, if we were
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: going to let's just say, you know, let's let's just
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: say my friend and I just given an example, we're
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: going to create a business, and you know, we were
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: going to come to something like you know, comes come
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  Speaker 4: to corp net. You know, what would you recommend? I mean,
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: you know, should we you know, you know what I mean,
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  Speaker 4: I know that's a very open into questions. Sycher probably
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: probably probably we were that. So you know, let's just
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: say we came and we wanted to ask you, you know,
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: the question of LLC versus like s corp and stuff
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  Speaker 4: like that. You know, uh, because you know, with film
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: projects they're a little bit different than say some other
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: entrepreneurships because me because you know, a movie in itself
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  Speaker 4: is is its own entity, so you know, you know,
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: you build upon that. So if I was going to
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  Speaker 4: come to you with like a film project, you know,
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  Speaker 4: what were some of the things that you know you
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: would say, and you know what would you recommend between
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: a LLC or maybe even something different than an LLC.
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: You know, I'm always interested to hear about that.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: So let me back up for a minute and just
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: give you a two second version of what corpnet does,
• 15:17
  Speaker 5: and then I can provide you with the differences in
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: the business structures and what we see and would recommend
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: as a resource to your audience. Our company, Corporate provides
• 15:29
  Speaker 5: business filing services to startups, entrepreneurs, movie film producers, anybody
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: who's looking to start a corporation or LLC or any
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: other type of business filing, or they have an existing
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: business and want us to help them maintain the business structure.
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: We provide the services online in all fifty states, and
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: really what makes us different from all the hundreds of
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: thousands of other competitors out there is our level of
• 16:00
  Speaker 5: personal service and really the dedication we have to our
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: clients from start to finish. So you can visit us
• 16:08
  Speaker 5: online at www dot corpn dot com. We have live
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: chat experts standing by at any time of the day
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: Monday through Fridays from six am until five pm Pacific
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: standard time. But specifically what makes us different is that
• 16:23
  Speaker 5: we have a very very large customer base of dealing
• 16:29
  Speaker 5: with the entertainment industry and movie and film producers. So
• 16:33
  Speaker 5: we probably have about thirty percent of our clients are
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: in the film industry, and really we consider ourselves experts
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: in the field of really guiding your audience as to
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: what's necessary, what type of legal document filings are required,
• 16:52
  Speaker 5: and to be able to assist them and guide them
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: into getting what they need. So, in answer to your question, really,
• 16:59
  Speaker 5: for and a person in the entertainment industry trying to
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: set up a business structure for their movie or film,
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: you can go either way LLC or S corporation. Because,
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  Speaker 5: as you mentioned it, dave a movie, it's like an
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: entity of its own. So one of the things that
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  Speaker 5: we recommend because we deal with a ton of producers
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  Speaker 5: is that they come with several different movies. Well, each
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  Speaker 5: movie should have its own entity, And as far as
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  Speaker 5: it being an LLC or an S corporation, it really
• 17:32
  Speaker 5: really depends on the level of formality that you want
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: to deal with as far as that particular movie. With
• 17:40
  Speaker 5: the S corporation, there's stricter requirements as to who can qualify,
• 17:46
  Speaker 5: whereas with an LLC it's a much more lax type
• 17:50
  Speaker 5: of entity. Anybody can be a member of an LLC
• 17:54
  Speaker 5: and it's much less formal as far as the filing
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: requirements that are to bring the LLC into existence. In addition,
• 18:06
  Speaker 5: the only piece of document that really controls the LLC
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: is the operating agreement. So if you are trying to
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: set up a movie and the people backing the movie up,
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: some are in state, some are out of state, the
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: LLC may be the better way to go because there
• 18:26
  Speaker 5: are no requirements with the LLC that bar and out
• 18:30
  Speaker 5: of state or to be a member of the LLC.
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: But as far as the protection as to which one
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: will afford you greater liability protection, et cetera, both the
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: es corporated the LLC offer liability protection they both offer
• 18:45
  Speaker 5: the double taxation avoidance, whereby you would otherwise have to
• 18:53
  Speaker 5: pay by forming a SC corporation. So it really depends
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  Speaker 5: on again the level of format that you want to
• 19:00
  Speaker 5: deal with, whether all the shareholders or members of that
• 19:05
  Speaker 5: particular film are you know, residents of the US, are
• 19:09
  Speaker 5: citizens of the US. If they are, then S corporation
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: is a great way to go. Otherwise, the LLC is
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: a great type of entity and the most favored within
• 19:22
  Speaker 5: and amongst uh the film industry and the entertainment industry.
• 19:27
  Speaker 4: You know, because my experience you know with LLC's came
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: when we had to start buying insurance because you know,
• 19:32
  Speaker 4: because when when when I was doing you know, student films.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: You know, you know, most student films are just you know,
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: running gun.
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: They really don't have you know, the doing it, you know,
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: the proper way. But when I started, you know, getting
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: into buying insurance because we started doing you know, riskier stuff,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: you know, whether you want to you know, blow up
• 19:47
  Speaker 4: a car or whatever, the LLC and then you you know,
• 19:50
  Speaker 4: I would get the insurance and then I could you know,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: go from there, and uh, you know that's was you know.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: And now back to the show a.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Couple years ago when I actually the last time I
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: actually produced something, that's what we did. We actually went
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: the LLC route.
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: Yes, LLCs are really really the favorite type of entity
• 20:18
  Speaker 5: these days. Again, as I mentioned to you, it's great
• 20:21
  Speaker 5: for a small business and literally anyone can be a
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: member of an LLC. It's very, very informal. I refer
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: to the LLC as the entity where you can have
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: your cake and eat it too, because not only it
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: provides you with all the liability and asset protection that
• 20:42
  Speaker 5: you want in creating a business structure, but with limited formalities,
• 20:47
  Speaker 5: with minimal formalities, so we can take care of it
• 20:52
  Speaker 5: for you. It's offered in all fifty states, and again
• 20:56
  Speaker 5: we can take care of filing the LLC for you
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: in any of the fifty states, and all of the
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: paperwork required to keep the LLC incompliance throughout the years
• 21:07
  Speaker 5: the LLC in it is in existence.
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: So you know, Neilly, I wanted to ask, you know,
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: if the filmmaker listening to this, you know, wanted to
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: come to you about starting an LLC, is there anything
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: they need to do beforehand before coming to you to
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: start the LLC.
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: Actually not really, I mean typically speaking for a film producer,
• 21:28
  Speaker 5: we normally use the name of the movie as the
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: name of the LLC, unless they have another, you know,
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: particular name that they'd like to use, such as they're
• 21:38
  Speaker 5: holding company, et cetera. But really, what we need before
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: they come to us is just the name, the members
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: of the people that are going to be as part
• 21:47
  Speaker 5: of the LLC, the business address, and then we take
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: care of the rest. I mean, really, we take the
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: hassle out of the movie producer doing all the legwork
• 21:58
  Speaker 5: and bringing the LLC into existence, and we become your
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: partner throughout the lifetime of the LLC and helping you
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: keep the LLC in compliance.
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: So what are some of the things you know, like
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: the LC you know, you know, I've been in my
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: experience with the LLC, some of the things like a
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: tax ID number usually comes up. So you know, what
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: are some of the things that about being in compliance?
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: You know that should you know, you know, we be
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: concerned about for the LLC to be in compliance.
• 22:22
  Speaker 5: So with our company corporatet we offer three different packages
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: and normally what I would recommend to any movie, film
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: producer or somebody in the entertainment industry is our deluxe
• 22:36
  Speaker 5: or all inclusive complete package, whereby one you know, not
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: only we take care of handling the name check, we
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: submit the paperwork to the state for filing for the LLC.
• 22:47
  Speaker 5: Once the LLC is filed, we actually obtain and assign
• 22:51
  Speaker 5: the tax ID number to the LLC, which is really
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: the Social Security number for the LLC that particular LLC,
• 23:00
  Speaker 5: where the IRS can identify all the transactions associated with
• 23:04
  Speaker 5: that particular LLC. And then once the tax ideas signed
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: and we have all the paperwork including the operating agreement
• 23:13
  Speaker 5: all drafted, we forward all the documentation to the particular
• 23:18
  Speaker 5: client for that LLC, whereby it allows them to go
• 23:21
  Speaker 5: open up the bank account and then start conducting business
• 23:24
  Speaker 5: under the LLC. And then within a year or two after,
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: depending on the state requirements, we can file all the
• 23:34
  Speaker 5: statement of information, annual report filings, all the compliance filings
• 23:39
  Speaker 5: that are due for that LLC within their state. In
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: addition to, for example, if the general principle of the
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: LLC likes to make any modifications to the LLC AD
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: members the leade members, we can help them throughout the
• 23:54
  Speaker 5: lifetime of the LLC with all those needs as well.
• 23:58
  Speaker 4: You know, that's something that I've learned that you need
• 24:01
  Speaker 4: on a film project is either you know, somebody who
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: knows the legalities of things, because you know, when you
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: get stuff like the tax id number and you start
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: getting you know, into into sort of like, you know,
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: lots of legal documents, I've realized that you do need
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: to have somebody who you can turn to and be like,
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: what does this mean?
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: Exactly yes.
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: And here's the great thing about our business, Dave, is
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: that we assign you your own business filings expert, your
• 24:28
  Speaker 5: own dedicated account rep. And we deal with a tin
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: of high end movie producers who will call here and
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: for example, deal with our senior filings expert, Amanda Baron,
• 24:40
  Speaker 5: who is literally has been with the company since day one,
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to forming corporations
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: and LLCs in all fifty states. But she's also our
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: specialist in dealing with people who are within the entertainment
• 24:59
  Speaker 5: in this street and who'd like to form corporations or
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: LLCs for their movies. So we will assign you not
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: only to an expert, but an expert that has expertise
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: in your field.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: So you know, nearly.
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: I wanted to ask, you know, if we were talking
• 25:17
  Speaker 4: about entrepreneurship, you know, and I always wonder, you know,
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: where crowdfunding sort of comes into this because you know,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: with the equity based crowdfunding coming into law, you know,
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: I always wonder, you know, where that would fall within
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: the LLC because now you know, with people being able
• 25:31
  Speaker 4: to sort of buy into the project, I wonder if
• 25:33
  Speaker 4: does that add you know, a lot another dimension or
• 25:36
  Speaker 4: two to to your LLC.
• 25:38
  Speaker 5: I mean we deal with all sectors, all verticals, and
• 25:43
  Speaker 5: really we're here to service any type of clients filing
• 25:47
  Speaker 5: needs that they require. So you know, in my opinion,
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: whoever needs assistance with setting up a corporation or an
• 25:55
  Speaker 5: LLC in whatever business, vertical or sector they are, we
• 25:59
  Speaker 5: can them.
• 26:01
  Speaker 4: That's good to know because you know, like I was
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: saying before, you know, with you know, having somebody in
• 26:05
  Speaker 4: your corner, because I've been down that road before too,
• 26:07
  Speaker 4: and it's just you know, I've never done equity based crowdfunding.
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: So I was doing crowdfunding, it wasn't around. But you know,
• 26:12
  Speaker 4: even when you're doing perk crowdfunding, you know, I had
• 26:14
  Speaker 4: a producer on there, going is this legal should we
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: get a lawyer on here, And I said no, no, no,
• 26:18
  Speaker 4: I said, you know, it's through their own website, you know,
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: and they explained in their terms and agreements, you know
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: what is entailed with this crowdfunding campaign. It's perk based,
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: you know, et cetera, et cetera. But you know, I
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: just wanted to ask because you know, with with that
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: becoming nor be rolling out more and more, I just
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: wanted to ask if that would you know, entail something
• 26:36
  Speaker 4: completely different on top of the l'sy not at all.
• 26:39
  Speaker 5: And in fact, one of the notions and the lack
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: of awareness out there that I wanted to address, which
• 26:46
  Speaker 5: you just brought up, Dave, is the fact that there's
• 26:50
  Speaker 5: still this lack of awareness that a corporation or LLC
• 26:53
  Speaker 5: can be done on your own through a reputable on
• 26:56
  Speaker 5: online company. Said, just the services we provide here at
• 27:00
  Speaker 5: corporate and most often people think that they do have
• 27:04
  Speaker 5: to go to an attorney or an accountant to get
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: these filings done. Again, remember this company and our other
• 27:09
  Speaker 5: companies was found by attorney husband and wife teams. So
• 27:13
  Speaker 5: we've been through law school, we are within the industry.
• 27:17
  Speaker 5: My husband is admitted to the California State Bar and frankly,
• 27:21
  Speaker 5: you do not need a lawyer to form a corporation
• 27:25
  Speaker 5: or LLC and merely act as a scribner to file
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: documents with the state. You can take care of these
• 27:32
  Speaker 5: filings and more with the help of a company such
• 27:36
  Speaker 5: as ours for literally one tenth and iota of the
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: price and really save that money that you would otherwise
• 27:43
  Speaker 5: pay to a legal professional and really use it when
• 27:46
  Speaker 5: it comes handy when you actually need the assistance of
• 27:49
  Speaker 5: a lawyer. So we're very capable and consider ourselves experts
• 27:54
  Speaker 5: in the field and can handle all these filings and
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: more in all fifty states.
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: So you know, Nelly, that's a good point you just
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: brought up, and I wanted to ask, you know, when
• 28:03
  Speaker 4: it does come to time to dissolve the LLC, like
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: if it was a film project, you know, we we've
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: shot it, you know, we've we've know, it's in post production,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: it's being distributed, you know, and it's there. You know,
• 28:13
  Speaker 4: this comes up a point in time when you have
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: to dissolve that LLC. You know, is that a complicated process?
• 28:17
  Speaker 5: Not at all? In fact, again, we handled dissolutions in
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: all fifty states, and we can help you in dissolving
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: the LLC at the end of the film project. It's
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: just merely a document that needs to be filed within
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: the state, and obviously every state has different requirements. Some
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: dissolutions are much more tedious and require much more filings
• 28:42
  Speaker 5: than others. But again, we handled dissolution paperwork in all
• 28:46
  Speaker 5: fifty states and can help you in dissolving the LLC
• 28:49
  Speaker 5: as well.
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: So, Nelli, you know, now we you know, we've talked
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: a lot about LLCs and you know, and making companies
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: and everything like that. Is there any sort of challenges
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: you see, you know, in your daily, your weekly you know,
• 28:59
  Speaker 4: business us from entrepreneurs or filmmakers. Is there any sort
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: of mistake that you see a lot of that? Is
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: it almost like a common mistake that you see that
• 29:07
  Speaker 4: people make.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: I think oftentimes the most common mistakes that we see
• 29:11
  Speaker 5: is again the filmmaker, the entrepreneur not having the due
• 29:16
  Speaker 5: diligence or the information necessary, paying tons of money where
• 29:21
  Speaker 5: they otherwise they could have saved the money and come
• 29:24
  Speaker 5: to a company such as ours to form the legal
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: paperwork for them. Oftentimes not having the correct information and
• 29:33
  Speaker 5: filing the LLC in a state other than the state
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: where the movie is being shot, and not doing their
• 29:41
  Speaker 5: due diligence and making sure the name is available before
• 29:44
  Speaker 5: forming the LLC, and then after the LLC is formed,
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: not having the proper information to keep the LLC in compliance.
• 29:53
  Speaker 5: So these are all mistakes that we've dealt with and
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: oftentimes have to have fixed.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: We'll be right back after a word from our sponsor
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: and now back to the show.
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: So again, it could all be saved by having a
• 30:14
  Speaker 5: reputable company take care of these filings for you and
• 30:18
  Speaker 5: just calling us and having us do a free business
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: consultation over the phone with you, or taking advantage of
• 30:25
  Speaker 5: our live chat feature.
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: So you know, Neil, you brought up a funny you know,
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: grow up something, and it reminds me of a funny
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: story that happened to me.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 30:32
  Speaker 4: I have a friend of mine who's an attorney on
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: my you know, on my Facebook friends list, and when
• 30:37
  Speaker 4: I started my production company, she actually sent me an
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: email telling me that it was it was a bad idea.
• 30:42
  Speaker 4: I mean it was called Iron Fist Films, my my
• 30:45
  Speaker 4: production company, and she thought it was too close to
• 30:47
  Speaker 4: the Marvel superhero Iron Fist and I and I said,
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: but my Iron fist is based off of iron fist
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: training from Shallon kung Fu. That's you know, three thousand
• 30:55
  Speaker 4: years old. You know, I I you know, and I
• 30:57
  Speaker 4: was trying to go back and forth with her about this,
• 30:59
  Speaker 4: but I mean, have you you've seen something similar like
• 31:01
  Speaker 4: that happen where maybe a trademark was a little too
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: close to home.
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, we deal with that on a daily basis because
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: as part of our products and services, we offer trademark registration,
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: search and filing services. And oftentimes, people, as I mentioned
• 31:17
  Speaker 5: to you, do not take the time to check on
• 31:20
  Speaker 5: that name to make sure it's available before they start
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: the business, and they don't take an additional they don't
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: take the additional necessary steps to do a further research
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: of the name to see whether anybody has common law
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: rights to that name, whether that name has a potential
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: trademark right to it. And again we can help and
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: assist because we have all those tools on our websites,
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: such as the free name Search, the free trademark Search,
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: that can provide you with the necessary information so that
• 31:53
  Speaker 5: you are prevented on being on the wrong end of
• 31:57
  Speaker 5: a trademark infringement suit potential.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: You know, another funny story it's involves a friend of mine.
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: He actually was a private investigator and lawyers, trademark lawyers
• 32:08
  Speaker 4: would actually hide or hire him out to go and
• 32:10
  Speaker 4: investigate some different trademarks and he actually had won. One time,
• 32:15
  Speaker 4: these four guys started a company. They just start, you know,
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: open up a actual physical store and the name of
• 32:21
  Speaker 4: the store was called Apple. And literally they did. I
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: don't think they made an LC, but they just started coming,
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: you know, the business called Apple they had, they had
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: a logo outside their Their logo also was was you know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: a green apple.
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: And when he went in there to talk to him.
• 32:37
  Speaker 4: About it, they actually were like dumb they were attending
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: they were dumbfounded, like we don't know anything about this
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: other apple?
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about.
• 32:44
  Speaker 4: Needless to say, they actually decided to shut it down
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: when finally when the trademark lawyers were like, look, we're
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: gonna sue you if you don't stop.
• 32:52
  Speaker 5: Yes, exactly, and that will happen. And again, you can
• 32:55
  Speaker 5: save yourself a ton of headache and time if you
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: just go about and do your due diligence before you
• 33:02
  Speaker 5: start printing up business cards and letterheads and start using
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: that name in commerce.
• 33:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's uh yeah, I concur you know, that's when
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: when I used iron fist, I actually went through and
• 33:12
  Speaker 4: I actually made sure it wasn't going to be a problem.
• 33:15
  Speaker 4: But I know that, you know, when her and I
• 33:17
  Speaker 4: were talking, my attorney friend and I, she you know,
• 33:20
  Speaker 4: brought that up just because she thought it was you know,
• 33:22
  Speaker 4: too close. But uh but again, I mine is based
• 33:25
  Speaker 4: off something completely different. You know, that's a's a couple
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: thousand years old. So I don't really know if anybody
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: could actually trademark that, although you know, I hear Budweiser
• 33:33
  Speaker 4: is changing the name of their beer to America.
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: Uh, I heard that too.
• 33:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know how you would be able to trademark America,
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: but that would.
• 33:44
  Speaker 5: Be considered a generic term, so it's not a trademarkable
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: unless they do Budweiser slash America or something like that.
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: I'm sure they have a great team of legal experts
• 33:56
  Speaker 5: working on that as we speak.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: You don't know, we've been talking for about you know,
• 34:01
  Speaker 4: thirty minutes. You know, I wanted to ask, you know,
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: is there anything that we sort of haven't discussed yet,
• 34:06
  Speaker 4: or anything you wanted to to maybe mention that we
• 34:08
  Speaker 4: we didn't get a chance to.
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: Actually, I think we've covered it all and again we'd
• 34:13
  Speaker 5: love to assist any one of your audiences with any
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: of their business filing needs or helping them set up
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: a corporation or LLC in all fifty states. You can
• 34:23
  Speaker 5: visit us online at www dot corpnet dot com. If
• 34:28
  Speaker 5: you have any questions, feel free to email us to
• 34:31
  Speaker 5: info at corknet dot com or just pick up the
• 34:34
  Speaker 5: phone call one eight eight eight four four nine two
• 34:38
  Speaker 5: six three eight. You can follow me on Twitter at Corpnetnelly,
• 34:42
  Speaker 5: or follow the company at Twitter at corpnet. And then
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: we're also on live chat Monday through Fridays from six
• 34:50
  Speaker 5: am until five pm Pacific Standard time.
• 34:53
  Speaker 4: And that's awesome and everyone I will link to everything
• 34:56
  Speaker 4: all though links Nelly just said in the show notes
• 34:58
  Speaker 4: as well.
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: You know, Nellie, I want to say thank you very
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: much for coming on.
• 35:01
  Speaker 4: Thank and me you know, my pleasure, and you know
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: I want to wish you the best of luck with
• 35:05
  Speaker 4: everything with corp net and you know, for helping all
• 35:07
  Speaker 4: the future entrepreneurs.
• 35:08
  Speaker 5: Thank you so much, and thank you for the opportunity.
• 35:11
  Speaker 3: Dave, oh my pleasure, take care note, take care.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: I want to thank Dave so much for doing such
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: a great job on this episode. If you want to
• 35:17
  Speaker 2: get links to anything we spoke about in this episode,
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: head over to the show notes at Indie film huscle
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: dot com Forward slash eight fifty three, and if you
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: have it already, please head over to Filmmaking podcast dot com.
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: Subscribe and leave a good review for the show. It
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: really helps us out a lot, guys.
• 35:34
  Speaker 3: Thank you again so much for listening. Guys.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: As always, keep that hustle going, keep that dream alive,
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: Stay safe out there, and I'll talk to you soon.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the Indie Film Hustle Podcast at
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: Indie film Hustle dot com. That's I N D I
• 35:48
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• 35:51
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