We were lucky to catch up with Marcus Hammond recently and have shared our conversation below.
Marcus, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Early in your career, how did you think through the decision of whether to start your own firm or join an established firm?
I decided to start my own firm because I wanted to do things my way: I wanted to make sure that I provided a valuable service, in a way that didn’t come with all of the traditional dysfunction of many businesses. The main driving force was to provide access to knowledge/information to persons who were having trouble finding it or lacked access altogether. Have you ever noticed that when you ask someone how to form a business entity they really respond with specific or sequential steps? My goal is to break down how to form a new business entity step-by-step, complete with things to consider with in each step.
I started my business in March of 2009 after getting laid off from the Kansas City law firm I worked at, due to the economic recession in 2008/2009. Getting laid off was heartbreaking, because it required me to eventually drop out if school, working on my Paralegal certificate and I eventually had to give up my apartment and move in with friends. Despite all of this, I felt it was the right time, because I had nothing to lose and now possessed the free time to pursue it 100%, in a way that I didn’t have while working a full-time job.
The first 6 months were decent business-wise, but being on unemployment and living with a friend helped keep me afloat. As the recession dragged on, sources of revenue and new clients quickly dried up. Later that year, I moved to the Washington DC area, which most people thought was crazy, because I was only receiving $1,200 a month in unemployment from the state of Missouri and the DMV (as they call it) has a much higher cost of living than Missouri. Moving to a new area, I initially struggled to gain traction with my business. As I made connections in the legal field via various contract positions and a part-time job with the Washington Wizards & Washington Mystics, I was able to gain some consistent traction & revenue.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Marcus Hammond, and I am the owner of LLC 4 Me. We provide new business entity formation and compliance services, as well as document review and Entrepreneurship Education services. That’s pretty much just a fancy way of saying we help you with taking care of the legal/regulatory portions of starting a business, so you can focus on your product/service/craft. I’m originally from Kansas, but after living in Washington, DC for 7.5 years, Los Angeles has been my home for just under 4 years. I got into my industry because I was working at a corporate law firm. I started out as a Records Clerk in the file room, before moving on to doing conflicts checks, before moving on to a different firm as a Document Specialist for the corporate finance department of said firm. I enjoyed it because it gave me a chance to really utilize the knowledge and skills I had worked on in my degree for my minor in Legal Studies and my Paralegal certificate.
Going through those classes and working under the corporate attorneys and paralegals at the firm, I quickly learned that the steps to set up a new business entity were truly not that difficult for the majority of businesses. Through my research, I also discovered that most people who wanted to start a business didn’t really know the steps or where to go to find the answers. I saw this as my opening to solve this problem by creating a business that would help others handle the legal regulatory portion of starting a new business entity. Once I was laid off from the firm, there was no longer a conflict of interest preventing me from forming a business that would provide the same services as said firm, so I was in the clear.
After going through a few names over the years, the one that has stuck is LLC 4 Me. We provide new business entity formation services and entrepreneurship education services. This is pretty much a fancy way of saying we help you with all of the steps to legally form your business entity, so it stays in compliance with basic business requirements, assist with on-going compliance requirements, and offer various mini courses/seminars over specific areas of business.
I figured I could offer a wide range of services (from those who just need a little bit of help all the way up to those who want their hand held throughout the entire process) with the same high quality that corporate attorneys and paralegals in law firm provide, for a fraction of the price. Starting my company with an attorney at the law firm I worked at cost me just under $2,000. Our most expensive package clocks in at just under $1,000, and we also throw in additional free or low-cost services that law firms aren’t going to offer. Additionally, we offer the face-to-face personal touch that large companies like Legal Zoom can’t/don’t offer, and unlike those companies, we have clear, unambiguous, transparent pricing, that doesn’t nickel and dime you for things that are actually free.
What I’m most proud of is my ability to make connections and provide a service of value that can be utilized across a myriad of industries. This ability has led me to be able to help individuals, as well as enter into partnerships with organizations such as professional sports organizations, fitness gyms, government entities (both civilian and military), and nonprofit organizations.
What I most want potential clients/followers/fans to know about my brand and work is that starting a new business entity does not have to cost you an arm and a leg. Gone are the days where only a few gatekeepers hold the key to the knowledge/wisdom/answers to the type of economic freedom that comes from entrepreneurship. You can always start small, then scale up or down as your resources and clients increase or decrease.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
A story from my journey that illustrates my resilience is that I started a business after getting laid off in the middle of a recession, then 7 months later, relocated that business halfway across the country to a place I had never lived before and had few connections to. This was done while receiving only $1,200 per month in unemployment benefits from the state of Missouri and relocating to an area where the cost of living is significantly higher.
Most of the people in my life thought I was crazy. Looking back on it, I can see why they thought it was a bold/risky/brash move, but they were focusing on fear and “playing it safe”, while I was focusing on possibility and “taking a chance/stepping out on faith”. The main thing that kept me encouraged is that while my entrepreneurial spirit was not widely celebrated in KS & MO, the DC area is a complete 180. Having multiple streams of income, entrepreneurial ventures, and/or being ambitious/a go-getter are genuinely & widely encouraged and seen as great things in the DC Metro area.
The skills & attributes that were vital to building my business and being able to take calculated risks are (a) my ability to make connections and provide something of value, (b) living a very simple life when it comes to material things, (c) always having a plan, but being willing to pivot on a dime, if need be, and (d) be willing to work hard and sacrifice. This, combined with my faith and a cheerful disposition led to up-and-down fluctuations, where some years I’d finish in the red financially (have a loss), while other years finish in the black (turn a profit).
The most important takeaway from this time period was the understanding that if you offer a quality product or service, that is truly solving a problem, and build a quality, fine-tuned system to administer/dispense it, then all you have to do is replicate that system over & over to produce continued success. It’s what’s allowed me to move my business from Missouri to the Washington DC area, to the Dallas Fort Worth area, and now to the Los Angeles area, with my last year with a financial loss was 2015 and my year with the highest profit margin actually came in 2021. There were some very lean times where I was eating Ramen Noodles with chopped up hot dogs and renting rooms in questionable neighborhoods, but I just latched onto where I believed God was leading me, and two inspiration quotes: “Be stubborn about your goals, but flexible about your methods” and “Live your life like most won’t for a few years, so you can live the rest of your life the way most people can’t.” The former has been the story of my life and the latter has come true for me even more than I could have ever imagined!
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The best source of new clients for me has been my collaborative partnerships. When I first started my business, I was under the impression that charting my own course meant doing everything my own way and finding all of the inroads myself. Unfortunately, I fell victim to a bit of ego, pride, and childhood trauma, because I didn’t understand a notion expressed in another quote about progress that says, “If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far, go together”.
When you come from a large family and you’re a middle child, oftentimes, your voice gets lost in the shuffle. Once you start to chart your own course and find your path, you don’t always want to listen to the opinions of others. That can be helpful when you need to stay positive and not take in what the naysayers will say, but it’s detrimental when you’re not heeding the reasonable advice of those who have come before you and have been successful at what they are/were trying to do. Early on I was not very good at discerning between the two or truly utilizing the non-monetary resources around me, and it led to me struggling a lot more than I really needed to.
The idea of partnering with other business owners or other companies often floated through the back of my mind, but I was often too afraid of having to give up too much individuality or too much of the way I wanted to do things. It evoked the same kinds of feelings I had during the times that my voice was lost in the shuffle while growing up in a house with 11 people, so I shied away from it. Once I learned and understood that the concept of strategic partnerships was a true collaboration borne out of authentic negotiations on how things would work, and not becoming subservient or having my voice drowned out, it was like a new level was unlocked for me.
These strategic partnerships were the best thing to ever happen to my business! It opened me up to connections with a variety of organization types, such as professional sports organizations, fitness gyms, government entities (both civilian and military), and nonprofit organizations. These kinds of high-profile partnerships raise the visibility of your business, and the more eyes & ears that are on your business, the more people you can help with the problem that your business solves. It also doesn’t hurt that I’m passionate about helping to empower lower socio-economic groups to close the gap of economic disparities and support the flourishing of culturally marginalized groups and this is the very thing that my business allows me to do, by helping others launch a new business venture or keep an existing business venture in regulatory compliance.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://llc4me.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/llcforme/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LLC4Me
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LLC4Me
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@llc4me