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I Need to Incorporate

Here’s a question for the locals: I’ve got a couple of companies that I need to incorporate, and I want to pay somebody to do it for me. Can you recommend anyone? Leave a comment or email me.

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Darren Barefoot is an author, speaker and digital strategist. He’s the co-founder of Capulet Communications, and co-author of “Friends With Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook”.

9 comments

  1. A friend of mine is a tax and legal whiz who helps all kinds of big and small companies deal with this kind of thing. I’ll send him an email and point him to your post and he can contact you if it’s a good fit.

  2. Dude, you can incorporate online with the Government of Canada for about $200. You may need a name search, which costs about $80 per name. You get same day incorporation in most cases.

  3. Don’t do incorporation by yourself. You will probably want to set up a shell corporation, plus a corporation that leases assets to your other firms. When I was doing my EMBA, one of my profs, who’s a venture capitalist and former member of the Pattison inside management circle, said that you should always go for a three-tier incorporation. (Shell, second firm, third firm.) It’s the best way to protect yourself and your assets.

  5. I don’t think it’s all that complicated. The tax advantages will pay for the cost of setting up the tiers and your assets will be protected, in the event of a law suit or bankruptcy. Given that most small incorporated businesses have the owner-operators as a director, the business owner is liable beyond the initial investment. Setting up holding or shell companies and tiers can help protect your home and savings. You can have the holding company invest in your second business, thus protecting you. (They are very common. When I was a teenager working as a “sandwich artist”, the guy who owned the Subway in Nanaimo introduced me to holding companies.) However, you must be working only to minimize taxes, not evade them, and there must be a legitimate reason for the business. Minimizing risk and protecting one’s personal assets are good reasons to consider a holding company, though.

  6. I agree with Andrea – whether you require a holding company or not right now, having a lawyer help you is the right thing to do. At a minimum you need the lawyer to set up the appropriate share classes so that you can take advantage things like holding companies, etc., in the future. Just be sure to have a discussion with your lawyer first and outline your vision for your company so you don’t get stuck in a corner.

  7. Actually Incorporating is done provincially through the Registrar of Companies and costs about – rough guesstimate since I did mine about 3 years ago – $350 for the incorporation itself, about $30 for reserving the name and another $30 for the book and related forms required. I set it up mine as a straight limited liability with shares.

    ps: great picture when you preview a post, wasn’t expecting that.

  8. Hey Darren,

    Just make sure you really need to. Talk to an accountant first to see if it is merited. I did with my company and it turned out to be an accounting and legal pain. I have since unincorporated. Even when my work volume was six figures, being a small company, it was a pain. Just be sure it’s the right thing for your company(s).

    Once bitten …

    Cheers,

    David

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