Minimal legal work & cost for 2-person startup

Hi,

These are just suggestions that all have to do with minimizing your liability. This isn't legal advice, but is general information applicable to your question.
Depending on your business entity you want to have, e.g. corporation or partnership, you will want to hire an attorney for that entity setup and instructions on how to keep the formalities to protect against liability. Although some services like Legal zoom offer it, I don't recommend using them. I've had to help clients who used such cheap services out of legal issues and it ended up costing them thousands of dollars more in mistakes than just hiring an attorney from the start. Most attorneys offer flat rates from $1000-$5000 varying on complexity and type of entity etc.

You will want to consult with an attorney about labor laws and employment laws before hiring. A basic employment contract written well can save you a lot of heartache. You have to comply with state and federal laws about hiring, insurance, etc. So you will want to do this and not skip it. Again, I'm guessing between $3000-$8000 depending on your type of business. For example, you may have to conform with OSHA standards. An HR specialist may be able to offer some of these services as well.

If have intellectual property, you will want to consult with an IP attorney about protecting your IP via copyright, trademark, trade secret, or patent. Copyright is typically cheap $500-1500, Trademark from $1000-4500, and patent filings in US from (design) $1500-$5000 and utility from $2500-12,000. Again it depends on the practitioner and complexity. Also, please remember you get what you pay for, and the tempting online patents or trademark filings for "$100" is not a good idea.

Consider getting involved in incubators. They specialize in helping new startups be ware of all these issues and launching them successfully. Many incubators have legal service providers lined up for the startups as well.

Hope this helps!
Mary