How to get into business in San Jose

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(FORTUNE Small Business) -- Dear FSB: My best friend and I are starting a small business and wanted to talk to someone about all the necessary legal and other setups that are required to kick off. Any references in our local area, San Jose, Calif., would be great. Thanks in advance.

- Sangeeta, San Jose, California

Dear Sangeeta: San Jose has a heap of resources for entrepreneurs. Start by checking out the Cisco Systems (CSCO, Fortune 500) San Jose Entrepreneur Center's web site, suggests Gary Marshall, public information officer for the San Francisco District Office of the Small Business Administration.

In a collaborative effort between private industry, nonprofit organizations and the public sector, including the SBA, the center provides extensive online resources and loads of classes through the Entrepreneurial Development Institute. The Institute offers classes on topics from "How to Start and Manage a Small Business" and "Harnessing the Internet for Profit," to "Designing and Furnishing Your Office."

The Entrepreneur Center can also help connect you with a business counselor with the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), a program that provides one-on-one meetings between counselors and small business owners. "It's especially useful for people just getting started in business," says Marshall. He also recommends checking out businessownerspace.com and work2future.biz for more information about starting a business. The Silicon Valley Small Business Development also has a helpful website.

The City of San Jose offers many resources to entrepreneurs through its Office of Economic Development. There's a ton of information on their website: a good place to begin is http://www.sanjoseca.gov/development/smallbusiness/, where you'll find information about resources for small business owners and an overview of permits and fees.

More information about registering a new business with various city, state and federal organizations can be found on the city's finance department web site. To help guide you through the myriad of resources and requirements, San Jose has created a Small Business Ambassador Program which provides small business owners with a single point of contact to help tackle starting a business in the area.

The Legal Necessities

As for legal requirements, one of the first decisions you'll need to make is what type of business structure to form, says Berkeley attorney Scott Pesetsky who specializes in working with small business owners. Most small business people don't know much about business entities, or structures.

"They have heard of corporations and that's what they'll tend to form. Often, that's a bad choice," he says. "If you can have an LLC, you probably should," he says, as LLCs are far simpler to operate.

Picking a name for your new business also requires some legal know-how.

"You have to be careful picking a name," says Pesetsky. "Make sure it doesn't already belong to someone else. You don't want to put a whole lot of money into marketing and signs and later find out that you need to change them."

He recommends having an attorney conduct a search for officially trademarked names as well as perform a common-law search for a name. A business can still have common law rights to a name even if they haven't trademarked it.

"For example, if Barney's Burgers in the next town over has been doing business for 30 years as Barney's Burgers, they have a right to use the name," Pesetsky says.

You'll also need to have legal contracts and agreements for customers, suppliers and fellow business partners, potentially more work for your attorney. Many people download free forms from the Internet without reading them carefully.

"Be wary of free, one-size-fits-all agreements," says Pesetsky. "It's best to have one specific to your needs."