odd ideas of mine...are they possible?

**mort2610** · 09-02-2010 07:54 PM

sorry if this is long....i have spoken to a CPA, lawyer and my bank with regards to business solutions...this post is not my first jab at information...

my day job leaves me with a flexible schedule. i am a funeral director that has been handed a mortuary with a full staff and a turnkey operation. im very much involved with all aspects but our staff is on point and our business is great! however i always have had an entrepreneurial side screams at me to venture into side gigs that seem possible in my head.

for starters, i was going to open a flower shop in our mortuary funeral home. also, i have my license to sell funeral insurance and i can solicit business to anybody withing the state of pennsylvania. next, i was interested in funding a start up small publication company that solicits ad space for a high end lifestyle magazine. (i was involved in something like this b4 and it paid me well). second to last, a sports handicapping website service that sells sports betting [B]advice[B] to our local degenerate gambling crowd.

just ideas i know. however they are based off of ventures i was involved in directly and indirectly in one point of my life. also i want to mention that i need to make more money because i want to purchase a property in the future. i have amazing credit and great ratios. my w2s could use some work. so i was thinking of going using some money i have saved to aggressively pursue one or more of the above ventures...

the structure of this "venture/business" is difficult to navigate. i would like to avoid different llc's and different business accounts and different merchant accounts if i could... i already have commission checks coming to my name and i just deposit them in my personal checking account and plan to pay taxes accordingly when tax time comes. is there any way i can set up an llc that will serve multiple purposes? one llc where i can open a business account and deposit all funds, whether the funds come from selling flowers or selling sports handicapping advice or selling insurance policy? i spoke to my state (nj) and i can register the llc with my home address...not a problem there. i spoke to my account and i was told i can form a "ABC Group LLC" with a general business purpose as "personal service" or "consultant".....butt when i spoke to the bank with regards to setting up the business account, i can only deposit checks made payable to the legal name on the account....if i had a bank account "ABC Group LLC" then all checks would need to be payable to that name....that is assumimg i was to deposit checks....i was under the impression that if i endorsed a commission check, i can deposit the commission check from my insurance sales, to the ABC Group llc ....i cant...i understand that.....

im guessing that if i wanted to aggressively pursue insurance sales i would need to keep things the way they are, take my commission checks, deposit them into my personal account and come tax time i would pay taxes accordingly....if i decided to venture into something else like ummmm selling flowers or selling magazine publications or selling sports betting advice and i needed a merchant account i can pretty much name my LLC anything i want to??? or would i need different llc to each venture and different merchant accounts to each venture as well???

i really dont even know why i want an llc considering the protection is only as good as the insurance that backs the business....if i started selling advertisement space and i needed customers credit cards for their ads...i dont want the customer to see "joseph malloni" billing them for 395....i dont want my name out there like that....i think the llc soes offer some protection but more so it looks professional...

**generationy** · 09-04-2010 05:43 AM

Seriously man. Shorten your post. If you need advice in LLC and other legal aspects of a business then check out the legal section above on this site. There are plenty of resources here to help you with all the aspects of starting, running and exiting from a business. Good luck and please lessen the content. Makes it easier to answer questions from the community. Thanks!

**mort2610** · 09-07-2010 12:11 PM

sorry. i will. thank you

**Ruman** · 09-08-2010 04:51 PM

I didn't think the post is too long. Background is helpful. My bank allows me to deposit checks written to my name, into my business account. I don't do it extremely regularly, but they don't complain about it. Now depositing checks written to my business, to my personal account, is a no-no.

Now you could possibly open up an account that is "ABC Group LLC" DBA(doing business as) "Mortuary Flowers", then deposit checks made out to either "ABC Group LLC" and "Mortuary Flowers" to the same account.

Also, as far as I know, you can make your merchant account show up however you want, LLC or not. Come up with a good naming strategy, such as "Mort's Flowers", "Mort's Gambling Advice", etc. and make your merchant account show up as "Mort's Companies"

**questeds** · 09-09-2010 07:45 AM

I think that you need to maintain some degree of focus. Chose an idea and stick with it. You will spread yourself too thin if you try to work on all of those areas. By the sounds of it, the flowers can compliment an already established and profitable business.