DISCLAIMER: I’m not a lawyer and this obviously isn’t legal advice. This article is about our experiences on incorporating in the State of Maryland.

A smaller disclaimer: We incorporated Jumptree back in 2007—so the procedures might have changed a bit since then.

Also, we worked on Jumptree Project for a long time before we actually incorporated.

In fact, we already had a working alpha version before we decided to start up. Basically we wanted to be sure there was something tangible and not waste money starting something we couldn’t complete.

1. Decide on a corporate structure

There are several corporate structures to choose from—such as a regular corporation, an LLC, a partnership, etc…

If you have no idea what you’re doing then you really should talk to a lawyer or accountant. Or at the very least get one of those legal books or something.

This article deals with how to start a C corporation.

2. The Maryland Checklist for New Businesses

Every state should have an online resource of what’s needed to incorporate. Here’s the Maryland Checklist for New Businesses.

This will give you a basic overview of the requirements for starting a business in Maryland.

3. Check if the name is available.

The first thing is to see if your domain name is available. If example.com is taken, you could try examplecorp.com or example.net but you’ll probably always be upset that someone has the real domain. So take your time on this and find something memorable.

Once you’re sure, call 410-767-1340 to check if the name is available.

Also be aware that this name check only tells you if the name is available in the State of Maryland. It’s entirely possible that another company has this name in another state.

4. Decide how fast you want to apply

As of March 28, 2008 the total cost to startup in Maryland is $120 (a $100 fee + $20 organization & capitalization fee).

The regular application process takes 7-8 weeks while the expedited service is done within 7 days but costs $50 more. If you’re in a super-hurry you can go in person and get it done that day for $70 more.

If you go in person, be sure to bring checks as that’s the only way to pay. Since we were in a hurry we decided to just go.

5. Prepare the Articles of Incorporation

Go to Maryland’s State Department of Assessments and Taxation Forms and Applications page to download this form:

Articles of Incorporation for Stock Corporation form and instructions

Follow the instructions and fill out the form.

DISCLAIMER AGAIN: Seriously, these tips might not suit your business. So if you’re totally unsure what to do, please consult a lawyer or an accountant.

6. The actual day we went to file the papers

The directions are:

Stuff to bring:

1. Photo ID
2. Checks (or cash) — And just to be safe, bring several checks because you don’t want to mess up and only have one check on hand.

When you get there, you’ll have to first get a name tag by signing in, showing the guard a photo ID, and telling them you’re going to incorporate a business.

Then go to the eighth floor and wait in line to see the receptionist. As I was waiting, I leaned against the wall and accidentally turned off the lights…yeah, that was embarrassing. So just be careful…

Next tell the receptionist what you want to do:

1. Incorporate a business
2. Get a certified copy of the articles of incorporation

The receptionist will then give you some forms to fill and tell you to wait in another line.

One form is the expedited application form and the other is an order form. Both of them ask for the mailing address and who’s applying.

Once you wait your turn, an inspector will examine your Articles of Incorporation and tell you how much you need to pay.

In total we paid:

• Base Fee — $100
• Org. & Cap Fee — $20
• Expedite Fee — $70
• Copy Fee — $22

Total $212

Then you just wait until they call your company’s name. We only waited about 20 minutes and we were done!

So that’s it. Now you’re legally incorporated!

Stay tuned because in my next series of articles I’ll discuss how to open a corporate checking account, applying for your Employer’s Identification Number, and some other stuff that we learned along the way.

Well I’m not sure if we’re considered cool enough, but we choose ASP.NET over Java for a variety of reasons.

ASP.NET is easier to setup and deploy

Since Jumptree Project is download software, we needed to ensure that we could readily support our customer’s installation and deployment process.

Have you ever run into problems deploying a Java application and then having to spend hours going through your configuration files and resolving library conflicts? Fun!

Java may be multi-platform, but there are numerous middleware implementations of J2EE—each with its own quirks. So instead of spending time improving your application, you end up having to answer support calls on why your Tomcat application doesn’t work on IBM Websphere.

With .NET, the environment is pretty much standard—so it’s a lot easier for us to provide support.

It’s easier to develop in ASP.NET because it’s just so RAD

The .NET platform supports a vast array of libraries that makes a developer’s life a whole lot easier compared to traditional ASP and Java.

There are a few Java frameworks that stand out, like JSTL, JSF, Struts, Spring, etc., but to make them work together is a painful and convoluted process.

ASP.NET isn’t that expensive

Yes, Java is free. Java Editor Eclipse is free. Java runtime is free. Apache/Tomcat web/servlet server is free.

Free is good.

And this may be the biggest reason why a lot of startups choose something other than .NET.

However, for US $375 you can join the Microsoft Empower for ISVs program and get a whole lotta software, including Visual Studio, Windows Server, SQL Server, Office, MSDN Premium Subscription…

Of course $375 vs. Free isn’t really much of a fight, but do consider the hidden costs—like how much easier it is to setup a .NET environment.

Great community support

There are a lot of great .NET blogs and resources such as The Code Project, 4 Guys From Rolla, NetFx3, and CodePlex—a site hosting open source projects.

And if you run into any problems, just check out the asp.net forum where Microsoft actually has employees answering your questions! Gotta love it when a multi-billion dollar company is trying to promote something…

One platform, multi-language

What happens if your C# developer decides to leave halfway through a project?

Don’t worry because you can just as readily hire a VB.NET developer to continue the work because the .NET platform can interpret both languages.

And if you don’t like C# or VB.NET go ahead and try Ruby or Python.

The whole product

In Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey A. Moore describes the concept of the whole product:

The concept is very straightforward: There is a gap between the marketing promise made to the customer—the compelling value proposition—and the ability of the shipped product to fulfill that promise. For that gap to be overcome, the product must be augmented by a variety of services and ancillary products to become the whole product.

Page 108, 2002 Edition

Essentially, the whole product is the sum of the product plus anything else that might benefit the customer, such as technical support, add-ons, and system integration.

So by choosing .NET, we can leverage all the work that Microsoft has done to promote it. And when the time comes, we can more easily integrate our project management software with popular Microsoft products, like Outlook, Excel, and SharePoint.

What are you good at?

Ultimately, you should choose a language that you are familiar with and good at. I could have spent time learning Ruby on Rails, PHP or any of the other trendy languages, but I just needed to get started.

And so when I had to choose between Java and .NET—well…that was an easy choice.