Matt James <mailto:[email protected]> wrote (Thursday, June 24, 2010 8:31 PM -0400):
>1) Does anyone have experience going from a personal Apple Developer account >to a business one? Ideally, I'd like to pay the $99 and get started right >away testing my app on my iPad and worry about upgrading to a business >account later. Is it possible to upgrade my account at any time or do I >need to create another one for my business and throw down another $99 at >that point? I'm going through this process right now. As others have mentioned, contact developer services and they will migrate your personal account to a company account. >2) Other than the obvious benefits of separation between business and >personal finances, is there a clear advantage to selling your app on the App >Store as a business rather than via a personal account? I'm leaning toward >starting an LLC in my state, but didn't know if I could dip my toe in the >App Store water before investing even more money into my app which I'm not >sure will even sell well enough to be sustainable. The primary advantage, for me, of having a company account is that iTunes Connect will display your "Legal Entity" name as the seller/artist for your app. For a personal account, this is your name. For a company account, it's the name of your company. Trying to get a company account as a sole proprietor, however, has been be problematic... - Minor tale of App store woe - I have an app that I've written, beta tested, and has been ready to go for a month. I discovered about the "Legal Entity" name jazz while setting up my ITunes Connect contracts. I contacted iTunes Connect and they said I needed a company iPhone developers account and directed me to contact developer services. No problem. I sent a message to developer services and waited. And waited. And I sent another message. And waited. (To be fair, the first message was a week before WWDC; but the delay has been frustrating nevertheless.) After about three weeks I finally got a reply telling me to send documentation of my company and they would expedite the transition from a personal to a company account. Easy ... or so I thought. I got a form message stating that I should send documentation of my company's existence. It included a list of standard documents (article of incorporation, etc.) that are acceptable. Since I'm not a corporation, I sent the kinds of documents I always use to establish myself as a sole proprietor (tax ID, my Trade Name registration, etc.). Nothing. After a several days I contacted developer services again to find out what the status was, ask if they got the documents I sent, etc. Received the same form message. Called, found out they never received (or lost) the original documents, could I please send them again. I sent them again, and waited. Received the same form message. Contacted them again, "we'll look into it." Got another message that the documentation weren't sufficient and I should send them my articles of incorporation, etc. This has gone on for over a week. I finally talked to someone in developer services that seemed to be sympathetic to my problem and is now trying (I hope) to get my company account established. But the take-away lesson is that it seems that Developer Services and/or iTunes Connect has no experience (or interest) in dealing with sole proprietors. I personally find this shocking, as sole proprietors are the most common form of business entity in North America. Anyway, I genuinely hope to have this all sorted out by next week, but it's been far from a smooth transition. If you have serious plans to convert to an LLC or sub-chapter S corporation, I'd encourage you to do that now, before you try to get a company iPhone developers account with Apple. -- James Bucanek
