If you are serious about turning your social media influence into a lucrative business, it’s important to start thinking more strategically about your operation – especially when it comes to incorporation.
Sure, there are plenty of social media influencers that are still making a good go of it as sole proprietors.
But a lot of social media influencers (especially when they start to bring in some serious revenue) are warming up to the idea of incorporating, securing their financial future, and building a legitimate business with all the protection and benefits incorporation brings to the table.
If you’re still trying to figure out whether or not incorporation is right for your influencer operation, consider these five reasons when making your decision.
Personal Protection
One of the biggest benefits of incorporation versus running your influencer business as a sole proprietorship (or even as a general partnership) is that you dramatically improve personal protection for your own individual assets.
Without incorporation, everything you own as a “regular person” could be up for grabs if you were ever sued. Since we live in a super lawsuit friendly culture right now, the potential for getting sued always exists This opens up a lot of opportunities for your personal assets to be on the hook.
Enjoy more personal protection with smart incorporation.
Smarter Deductions and More Tax Options
Another reason influencers are deciding to incorporate is because they are then able to take advantage of smarter business deductions and a lot more tax options, often dramatically increasing the amount of money there able to “take-home” compared to what they send to the IRS.
This is a conversation you’ll want to have with tax professionals that specialize in working with influencers and freelancers in general, but the odds are pretty good you’ll be able to get some serious tax savings by incorporating.
Streamlined Accounting
Separating your business finances from your personal finances without incorporation is particularly difficult.
Because of that, a lot of sole proprietorship influencers end up having bank accounts that are mixed together – business and personal transactions coming out of the same place – and that makes tax time a real nightmare.
By incorporating (and having separate bank accounts) you’re able to streamline accounting significantly. That makes tax time a lot easier to handle but it also makes tracking your income, your revenue, and your tax responsibilities almost effortless, too.
Security for Your Brand
Social media influencers are their own brand but it’s really hard to protect and secure your name unless you go down the incorporation road.
By incorporating, you’re going to be able to “lock up” your name and your brand identity and protect it from being used by other influencers and other businesses that want to capitalize on the equity you’ve built for that brand, without ponying up any cash to do so.
Easier Exits
Finally, incorporation separates you from your business in a way that makes it a lot easier to exit later down the line.
Perhaps you want to build something that you can pass down to future generations, or maybe you want to build an influencer operation that you can sell to someone else for a big windfall payout.
At the end of the day, no matter how you see your exit going – or even if you don’t necessarily intend to exit at all right now – having the ability to “pull the parachute” effectively with an incorporated business is a huge benefit you don’t want to overlook.
For help incorporating as a social media influencer, reach out to Robert Hall & Associates today for more details. They have a mountain of experience helping influencers incorporate, and can provide the kind of inside information and insight into this process you won’t find anywhere else!
References
5 Reasons Your Business Should Be Using Influencer Marketing This Year
https://www.trovebusiness.com/resource-library/why-should-i-incorporate
https://www.corpnet.com/incorporate/benefits-of-incorporating/
https://www.lightspeedhq.com/blog/benefits-of-incorporating-your-business/
https://www.calcpa.org/public-resources/ask-a-cpa/small-business-entity-structure/entity-choice/five-advantages-to-incorporating-your-business