INCORPORATING YOUR BUSINESS

Whether you are starting a new business, or already have a business venture up and running, we are pleased to offer quick and affordable legal assistance to get your business incorporated, if that’s the next step for you. There are a number of matters to consider before taking this step, and we’re happy to review with you some of the basic issues, including the following:

Where to Incorporate?

You can incorporate your business either federally or provincially – depending on the nature of your business. If your business has interests or conducts business in several provinces, for example, you may wish to consider incorporating federally – but you still need to register your business in all provinces in which you transact business. If your business is primarily local or regional (typically within the boundaries of one province), you may wish to consider incorporating provincially to keep things simpler.

Company Name

In considering naming your company, you have the option of a numbered company or an actual name. If you wish to have an actual name for your company, you must complete a corporate search of names, called a Nuans Report, to ensure that the one you’ve selected doesn’t conflict with any existing corporate name.

If you wish to have a numbered company, no corporate “number” search is necessary, because corporate numbers are assigned to prevent any duplication. Remember that if you choose a numbered company, you are always able to change it to a named company or assign a trade name to your numbered company any time down the road.

Professional Corporations

Many professionals such as lawyers and doctors choose to incorporate their practices into a professional corporation, which typically contains the name of the professional person incorporating, such as: Christopher Stephan Professional Corporation. There are all kinds of professional practices that are frequently conducted as a professional corporation, including the following professions for example:

  • Law
  • Medicine
  • Dentistry
  • Optometry
  • Chiropractic
  • Accounting

Nuans Reports and Trade Name Searches

If you wish to have an actual name for your corporation, we would be pleased to order a Nuans Report on your behalf, which provides a list of all known businesses with similar names throughout Canada. We would then provide our best advice regarding any potential conflict with existing corporate names, so you can be informed as to potential objections from other companies with similar names. Of course, the simplest way to avoid any such potential problem is simply to choose an entirely unique name, but that may not always be your preferred choice.

Business Corporation Structure

Once you’ve decided upon a suitable name, we can then advise you in determining how best to structure your business for the type of goals, enterprise, and long-term strategies you envision. Some fundamental issues to consider in this respect include:

  • Shareholders: what types of shares best suit your corporate environment, and how many shares will each shareholder receive?
  • Transferring Shares: what sort of guidelines do you wish to implement to govern how your shareholders are permitted to transfer shares among themselves, if at all.
  • Directors: you will need to decide whom to name, how many to have, and what sort of responsibilities will each director carry.
  • Nature of Business: what type of business do you wish the company to conduct? Do you wish to impose any restrictions or limitations on the scope or nature of activities that the business may carry out?
  • Other Considerations: there may be a whole host of other issues related to the conduct of your business that you might wish to include in your company’s incorporating documents, depending on your individual circumstances.

Filing

Once you’ve had a chance to review with your lawyer all of the issues identified, you are ready to file your application for incorporation. We would be pleased to assist you in this regard, and can help facilitate a quick, affordable, and stress-free process to get your business incorporated. It is likely you will have your certificate of incorporation within a couple of days, after which we will compile a Minute Book for you, which can be safeguarded and maintained by our firm for your convenience.

Questions?

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions that aren’t answered on our site, or to schedule an appointment. We’re always happy to chat with you about any of your legal needs.