{"id":538,"date":"2015-07-09T11:01:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T15:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelsmithlaw.com\/blog\/?p=538"},"modified":"2023-11-28T13:37:35","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T18:37:35","slug":"benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-v","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-v\/","title":{"rendered":"Benefit Corporations and Small Businesses &#8212; Part V"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is the final installment in a series of articles dealing with Indiana&#8217;s new benefit corporation statute in general and its applicability to small businesses in particular, and we now arrive at the ultimate question: \u00a0Is it\u00a0a good idea for a small businesses to incorporate as (or to convert to) a benefit corporation?<\/p>\n<p>In our opinion, the best choice of entity for most small businesses is a limited liability company, not a corporation, and the new benefit corporation statute does not change that opinion. Although we think the benefit corporation statute is an excellent\u00a0addition to Indiana corporate and business law, we believe the Indiana LLC statute\u00a0already has enough flexibility to permit LLCs to adopt the same governing principles, policies, and procedures that are pre-packaged in the benefit corporation statute without giving up the other advantages that LLCs have over corporations in general.<\/p>\n<p>First, the Indiana Business Flexibility Act\u00a0allows LLCs to be organized for \u201cany business, personal, or nonprofit purpose,\u201d which certainly seems broad enough to include the combination of business and public benefit purposes for which benefit corporations are created. Second, all of the governance, transparency, and accountability provisions of the benefit corporation statute can be incorporated into a limited liability company\u2019s operating agreement. Finally, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcorporation.net\/become-a-b-corp\">certification as a B-Corp<\/a> is not restricted to benefit corporations \u2013 essentially <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcorporation.net\/become-a-b-corp\/how-to-become-a-b-corp\/legal-roadmap\">any form of business entity<\/a> is eligible to be certified as a B-Corp, including<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bcorporation.net\/become-a-b-corp\/how-to-become-a-b-corp\/legal-roadmap\/llc-legal-roadmap\"> LLCs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-v\/\"  title=\"Continue Reading Benefit Corporations and Small Businesses &#8212; Part V\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> In our opinion, the best choice of entity for most small businesses is a limited liability company, not a corporation, and the new benefit corporation statute does not change that opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporations","category-limited-liability-companies","category-small-businesses"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Benefit Corporations and Small Businesses -- Part V &#8212; Indiana Business Law Blog &#8212; July 9, 2015<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In our opinion, the best choice of entity for most small businesses is a limited liability company, not a corporation, and the new benefit corporation statute does not change that opinion. &#8212; July 9, 2015\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-v\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Michael R. Smith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Benefit Corporations and Small Businesses -- Part V &#8212; Indiana Business Law Blog &#8212; July 9, 2015","description":"In our opinion, the best choice of entity for most small businesses is a limited liability company, not a corporation, and the new benefit corporation statute does not change that opinion. &#8212; July 9, 2015","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.hpindiana.law\/business-blog\/benefit-corporations-and-small-businesses-part-v\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Michael R. 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