Licensed and Bonded: What's the process for controls consulting?

[Mikemikemike]

I've started a new career recently but have a handful of good jobs being tossed at me and the opportunity is too good to sneeze at. Plus I'm a glutton for punishment and I just miss screaming at a controller to behave for half my day.

Anybody here know the process for going legit and getting licensed and bonded, aside from establishing the LLC and getting a sick logo designed?

[orion242]

Wouldn't expect much licensing is required for consulting in controls. That's a local issue anyway.

Bonding (bid, performance, payment) is likely going to be a challenge for a fresh biz with no financial history, wad of cash in the bank or track record of completing work. Wouldn't be surprised if they require securing any sizable bond with your personal assets at the start. At that point the "limited" part of the LLC wouldn't seem so limited.

Our CPA was helpful navigating the nonsense in the beginning. Would seek legal advice before securing anything the LLC is doing with your personal assets.

[CraftyNRingwise]

It sounds like you're looking at a few select opportunities while pursuing a new career and not looking to become full time self employed? Having been on the hiring side for this kind of situation you might want to consider going through a temp agency like Manpower. Yes, it will cost somebody some more money but you can avoid the hassles and expense of becoming a business. Alternatively, quite often your end customer may have a service contractor that they do business with that could put you under short term contract.
If you do decide to go the self employed route I would advise that you avoid using the word "Engineer" in any way shape or form. In some localities that may incur the wrath of all those PEs out there....

[kontrolphreak]

I would concentrate and prioritize on getting the sick logo designed. Everyone knows that perception and knowing the TLAs is 90% of the game.

kontrol out

[stanbyyourword]

I would concentrate and prioritize on getting the sick logo designed. Everyone knows that perception and knowing the TLAs is 90% of the game.

kontrol out

yep totaly agree, its not what you know its who you know , but thta can run out eventualy, nedto provide the goods at some point. Ive been lucky starting in controls here on hvctalk s you know

[numbawunfela]

knowing the TLAs is 90% of the game.

What's a TLA?

[JCIman]

It’s and acronym for other acronyms (I’m not kidding)

[numbawunfela]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/diction...mp/english/tla
See now, I knew all sorts of Three Letter Abbreviations, just not that particular one.
Hehe looks like I need to up my game.

[JCIman]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/diction...mp/english/tla
See now, I knew all sorts of Three Letter Abbreviations, just not that particular one.
Hehe looks like I need to up my game.

You didn’t spend enough time at JCI...you might remember how fond the company is of their TLA’s
I remember a time many years ago when I had a 3rd year mechanical engineering student interning for the summer.
He was pretty smart, and he called me one day because he was helping do some NCM to NAE cutovers.
There was some VAV controllers that were doing way more than they should and it was in a hospital so he was concerned about interruptions. I remember the phone call went like this....
I said:
For the time being, since we have to get them off of PMI, You’re going to have to turn the NAE into an NIE and bring it into the ADX that way so the GPL in the NCM can keep controlling the VAV until we can replace the VAV and the DX with a VMA and an FEC and IOMs and convert the GPL to LCT .
It might have even went on longer than that until he started laughing and said “this is ridiculous, I don’t know what any of that means”

[numbawunfela]

You didn’t spend enough time at JCI...you might remember how fond the company is of their TLA’s

Oh so true. In the first week I made a conscious decision to do only the technical acronyms. All the ones referring to positions were useless to me until I had my technical feet under me... then I left and never learned them.

[orion242]

I would advise that you avoid using the word "Engineer" in any way shape or form. In some localities that may incur the wrath of all those PEs out there....

Ditto. State here will not allow it unless your submitting licenses.

[Houptee]

A LLC is not mandatory.
If you are not going to have employees you can form your business as a Sole Proprietor. This allows you to use your SSN and file your business income on separate schedule attached with your federal and state tax returns.
If you do have employees you can still be a sole proprietor business but then you need to get a FIN Federal Taxpayer ID from the IRS and also withhold SSI, pay workmans comp insurance, disability insurance, and unemployment taxes on the employees salaries.
Each state is different for the employees taxes and insurances.
Self employed no employees is simplest form of business.
What state licenses might be required just for controls consulting is the question. Since you are not an electrician you should not need an electrician license unless you plan to actually do the wiring at the customers locations (or are you offering that?).
What state are you located in?

[orion242]

You can have a sole proprietor LLC pretty much anywhere. They cost nothing to form.

The legal benifit is typically shielding your personal assets from the biz. One still needs to follow the rules to maintain that shield.

If you want to run on your own, spend a few bucks and seek some legal advice from folks that work in your area. If that's much to be bothered with, your probably not ready to make the switch.

[numbawunfela]

https://www.bizfilings.com/starting-...bility-company

They can help giter done. They charge to help guide you through the process. I would reccomend it.

[Houptee]

You can have a sole proprietor LLC pretty much anywhere. They cost nothing to form.

The legal benifit is typically shielding your personal assets from the biz. One still needs to follow the rules to maintain that shield.

If you want to run on your own, spend a few bucks and seek some legal advice from folks that work in your area. If that's much to be bothered with, your probably not ready to make the switch.

A sole proprietor form of business is not a LLC its totally different.
A LLC requires forming a LLC and declaring a board of directors and keeping records of yearly meetings and most importantly filing a separate tax return under the LLC as the filer.
A sole proprietor form of business does not require any of that.
It's a fallacy that your LLC shields your personal assets.
Good liability insurance policy is more important than the LLC.

[orion242]

A LLC requires forming a LLC and declaring a board of directors and keeping records of yearly meetings and most importantly filing a separate tax return under the LLC as the filer.

Well that's not the case in the states I have operated in. Yep you need to declare a few things. Minimum wouldn't fill more than a paragraph or two. Your the board, your going to meet with yourself, etc. Keeping records, yup. Kinda required regardless. Taxes requires a bit more but not a separate return at its minimum.

Spend a few bucks and find some local legal advice that deals with small biz. Its well worth your time.

[Houptee]

This is NJ but describes the different forms of business structures.

https://business.nj.gov/pages/choose...ness-structure

The federal SBA Small Business Administration has a program called SCORE that helps small businesses get started.
SCORE is a resource partner with the SBA. The SBA administers a Congressional grant which provides SCORE with funding. SCORE volunteers work with the SBA to provide small business mentoring and training to entrepreneurs through SBA offices.
You can look on this website and see if they have local chapter by zip code.
https://www.score.org/us-small-busin...nistration-sba

[orion242]

most importantly filing a separate tax return under the LLC as the filer.

https://business.nj.gov/pages/choose...ness-structure

Limited Liability Company (LLC)
An LLC is a hybrid between a corporation and a partnership. Similar to a C-Corporation, business owners in an LLC are not responsible for the debt of the company. In other words, they have limited liability. However, unlike a corporation, the business does not file separate taxes. Instead, each partner (called members) includes their profits on their personal tax return.*

Few extra forms, still one return.