Hoping to build a successful, flourishing business like The Hershey Company in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania? Follow the business formation checklist of lawyer Tom McGlaughlin of North Star Legal Services LLC.
In 1894, Milton S Hershey created a company that would go on to define the American palette and help put Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, on the map. Once a small confectionary company and now a global leader in the field, it is a success story on a number of fronts and an example for all founders, entrepreneurs, and business creators, especially here in Dauphin County.
Obviously, few businesses are launched with the intention of becoming such successful giants, but for anyone looking to build a business in Dauphin County or anywhere in Pennsylvania, there are certainly lessons to be learned about how to create and build a company.
As a local small business formation lawyer and founder of his own company, North Star Legal Services LLC, attorney Tom McGlaughlin works with entrepreneurs, founders, and individuals from across the County, State, and Country. He provides crucial business formation services and guidance, some of which have been drawn from the occasionally surprising history of Dauphin County’s own Hershey’s.
Now the largest private employer in the county and one of the most successful businesses in Pennsylvania's history, it is sometimes difficult to imagine Hershey’s as a small business venture and Milton Hershey as an entrepreneur. Yet before it had a town named after it and became a tourist attraction in its own right, most people know, or guess, that the Hershey Company must once have been far smaller than it is today.
But did you know that the Hershey Chocolate Company (as it was called at the time) was not Mr Hershey’s first commercial venture; it was not even his second? In fact, it was not even its own distinct entity but a subsidiary of Hershey's first (moderately) successful company, the Lancaster Caramel Company, which he then later sold to get the funds needed to help Hershey’s chocolate take off.
Lancaster Caramel, however, was not his first company either, only his first successful one. He left a string of unsuccessful ventures behind him in New York, Chicago, and Denver, tracing a path back to his humble beginnings in Dauphin County. A child of immigrants who did not grow up speaking English as his first language, Milton Hershey had not even finished middle school. Nevertheless, he knew candy and chocolate, and when he spotted the right techniques and trends, he united them to build what would become an empire.
While you would have to dig through a lot of records from the Hershey Museum to get all the details about the company’s founding and the creation of Milton Hershey’s earlier businesses, a few key principles can be derived from its story. Especially when combined with extensive business creation experience from company formation lawyer Tom McGlaughlin.
Tom McGlaughlin is not just a lawyer with business advisory experience; he is a successful businessman himself with an MBA and a combination of small and large corporate experience. He doesn't just know the laws and regulations at work in business formation but the values, perspectives, and competing incentives and interests at work in the creation of every single business, from Hershey’s to yours.
To that end, he has put together a checklist of key decisions, concepts, and principles that you can use to build your own business in Dauphin County. While we won’t share the whole list here (like Hershey, Tom McGlaughlin knows the importance of trade secrets and protecting your intellectual property; hey, that's a free checklist item), here are three closely connected to Dauphin County’s emblematic chocolate confectionary giant.
Hershey spent a long time working out the perfect recipe for his chocolate bar, but he may have spent even longer getting the company’s creation just right first. While he was fond of (and skilled at making) wondrous and fancy confections, he settled on a simple, cost-effective bar designed to reach the masses and make chocolate accessible to even the most modest of American families, and he succeeded.
Your business structure needs to follow similar principles. Start with something that is efficient and works within your means, but that is designed to optimize the output you want to be delivered, whether that is a small service-based business or a start-up that aims to take a piece of software globally. To that extent, you will choose one of the following: Sole Proprietorship, Partnership, Limited Liability Company (LLC) or Corporation, and build from there with the help of your lawyer.
When looking for where to launch what would ultimately be his most successful business, Hershey chose his native and very small town of Derry Church for the affordable land and ready supply of the key ingredient, milk. The rest of his ingredients were chosen with equal care to balance costs, quality, and room to grow.
For your business, while physical ingredients are certainly important, the metaphor is more applicable to the legal ingredients that create the structure and foundation of your business. From contracts to insurance policies, real estate acquisitions, and more, these documents and pieces of paperwork are vital ingredients to your success, which you can bet Milton Hershey once had to worry about and consult with lawyers over, as you should too.
While he did not always do so successfully, Hershey was always trying to head off potential problems and was generally proactive about both his business and even the environment it was in. To avoid distractions, his factory was built without windows, but to keep workers happy, he built an entertainment park for them (now a Dauphin County theme park).
As you set out to start and then run your business, you will have opportunities to make similar decisions, anticipating problems and reacting to them as soon as possible when they emerge to prevent them from getting worse. But better still is the ability to prevent them from ever emerging in the first place, which is why you should seize every opportunity possible to create legal protections that will prevent them. For example, liability shields, legal and regulatory compliance, disclosures, insurance, and more.
Even the lawyer you choose to assist you through the business formation process is a crucial building block, which is why you should choose someone like Tom McGlaughlin, who knows both the law and the practical realities of creating, running, and working in business.
North Star Legal Services LLC | Pennsylvania law firm providing Dauphin County entrepreneurs with business foundation services.
Hershey’s success was a product of a number of factors, from his personal skill and spirit to salesmanship and technology, to timing and everything in between. But there is no denying that it was built on a solid foundation of planning and a legal and financial foundation that enabled its success and growth.
No one can promise you that you will be the next Hershey; you might not even want to be, but if you do want to build a successful business of any kind that thrives and maybe even outlives you, you need to start by working with a skilled attorney to make sure your legal foundation is strong and efficient.
In Dauphin County or anywhere else in Pennsylvania, business formation lawyer Tom McGlaughlin can help you get your company started and structured. Find out how, and get the rest of the checklist by calling (717) 990-7178 or going online to set up a consultation with Tom McGlaughlin today!
The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.
