Business Formation Project: Final Paper

In this assignment, youll turn your Module 6 building blocks of your concept, entity comparison, draft formation documents/screens, compliance notes, and risk/ethics snapshots, into a polished, decision-ready 46 page analysis. Doing this will sharpen your academic skills (clear writing, evidence-based reasoning), give you credible talking points for interviews and networking, and prepare you for real-world conversations with co-founders, advisors, or lenders.

Complete Your Work

Your final submission builds directly on your Business Formation Project from Module 6. Youll take your artifacts including your business concept, your entity comparison, your draft formation documents/screens, your compliance notes, and your risk/ethics snapshots, and turn them into a cohesive, decision-ready analysis. Start by using your Module 6 work as the foundation. Confirm (or revise) your business description, finalize your entity choice with clear reasoning tied to your liability tolerance, taxes, control, and growth, and translate the forms you found into a brief what/why/when filing plan. Be sure to expand your governance outline into a practical startup checklist with your owners, roles, and timelines. Work to evolve your compliance list into an ongoing maintenance calendar (annual/biennial reports, tax filings, license renewals, recordkeeping standards), and turn your preliminary risk notes into a concise risk-and-controls analysis that names the triggers in your workflow and the specific policy, contract clause, training, audit, or insurance you will use to prevent issues. If your thinking has changed since Module 6, explain why (new facts, better fit, updated assumptions) so you demonstrate growth in judgment, not just repetition. In short, Module 6 gave you the building blocks; Module 8 is where you assemble them into a polished, defensible plan you could hand to a co-founder, advisor, or lender.

Instructions

Your final submission must be a 46 page written analysis that addresses all required components of the assignment. Format your paper double-spaced in 12-point font with standard margins, and upload it as a single Word (.doc/.docx) or PDF file. If you use outside sources, include APA-formatted in-text citations and a separate References page; the References page does not count toward the page minimum. You will be evaluated on both the number and relevance of the business-specific legal issues you identify and the quality of your analysis for each, so aim for specific, tailored risks and controls rather than generic lists.

In your paper, clearly describe your proposed business – what it is, what it sells or does, whom it serves, and where it operates, and justify your chosen legal structure (sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, or S corporation) by explaining how it aligns with your goals, liability tolerance, tax treatment, and growth plans. Identify the ethical dilemmas you may encounter at launch and explain how you would address them, naming the key stakeholders, the options you would weigh, and the policy or practice you would adopt. Finally, analyze the legal risks you must monitor; for each issue, specify what the issue is, when it could arise in your operations, how you will prevent or mitigate it through policies, contracts, training, controls, or insurance, and the consequences if it is missed. Proofread carefully before you upload.