How should I document my investment into a business for proof of transfer?

Yes. For USA based businesses – we consult on everything from conceptualization to completion, including federal, state, and local laws/regulations, etc. We even provide referrals for Branding (Logo/Product Packaging, etc.), Website Building & Security, SEO, Google Search, etc. If you know what you want to sell (and it is not prohibited by law), we are able to provide clarity to have you up and running within 30-days on average.

Assuming this is a search campaign, you should be able to see if any new competitors are regularly showing for your keywords. I would also investigate if CPCs have changed (or just conversion rate), how your impression share has changed, and how your average position has changed. If their campaigns are profitable, they will probably continue to run them. Your best bet in the meantime is to optimize your CPC, CTR (helps with CPCs), and conversion rate. You have the history and experience, which should be to your advantage against a new competitor.

If your concern is from an ethical standpoint or a concern over a segregation of duties, there is no problem at all having your tax person handling your bookkeeping. The bigger issue is something that few people understand about accountants. There are different specialties within accounting, and you should go to the right specialist for the right task. Tax accountants are experts in tax law, filling out tax returns and finding ways to minimize taxes. They must immerse themselves in the field to maintain their expertise. Financial accountants (which include bookkeeping) are experts in debits and credits and keeping all your transaction straight in your accounting software so that you can get good financials each month. Financial accountants have to immerse themselves in your day-to-day accounting so that they can keep it accurate and up to date. Full disclosure, this is the work that my firm specializes in, we don’t do any taxes. Because each type of accountant must immerse themselves in their individual fields of expertise, they don’t have the time to focus on the other expertise. Not that they are both not great accountants, they just have a different specialty. Here’s a good analogy. If you developed a heart condition, would you go see a neurologist? No, you’d go see a cardiologist. They are both outstanding physicians and know a lot about the human body, but the cardiologist spends all their time thinking about, studying, and treating heart conditions and is going to be the best equipped and most knowledgeable about treatments for your heart condition. The last point I’ll make is that tax work is very seasonal and requires incredible focus and incredibly long hours leading up to major tax deadlines. This is not only during the period from January to April 15th, but also leading up to major deadlines on August, September and October 15th. Companies I have worked with that used tax accountants in the past for their bookkeeping find during these periods their tax accountants are forced to put all other work besides taxes on hold until their tax work is complete. What often happens in these situations is that these company’s bookkeeping falls three or four months behind. This can be devastating for a small business that needs to know if they are making money or losing money on a very up to date basis. So my suggestion is to find yourself a good bookkeeper that can handle your books. Your tax person may even be able to suggest a good resource, and deep down may be glad to do so because her first love is taxes, not bookkeeping. My firm could likely handle the work as well. Hope my thoughts above are helpful and addressed your question, but feel free to reach out to me if you have any follow up questions.

If your looking for financing and not wanting to give up equity you could try to get venture debt. Check out Hercules http://www.htgc.com/ and their competitors these companies can provide big loans. Be ready to provide a lot of info on your company and your financial health. Be aware these companies exist to make money so make sure you end up with payments you can handle. You'll also have loan covenants which will outline certain financial performance metric you'll need to hit. If you miss covenants your loan terms will change for the worse and it can even end up with bank taking control of your company. Obviously a worst case scenario, but you need to be aware and make sure you are very comfortable with the covenants you agree to. - mike

A typical rule of thumb would be that an established company sets aside around 15% of the outstanding shares at any point in time for employee options. Those get split up among employees based on their contributions. Depending how key these VPs are relative to other employees you have (remember to give them something also) or expect to hire, you might give them 2-5% each. This assumes that you are an established company. If one of the VPs is going to quintuple the size of the business, they might push for being more of a 'partner'.