Whether you are an entrepreneur who wants to incorporate his business or you want to carry the family business legacy forward with your education and skills, you would still need to know the ways of incorporating your business from sole proprietorship.
Advantages of Incorporation
Most people choose to incorporate their business so that they get limited liability. Corporations can raise money easily through borrowing from banks. They can also sell corporate shares to raise equity which is usually free of interest and a good investment options. However, the more you issue shares the less becomes your stronghold in company ownership. For the purpose of tax benefit, corporation ids are very effective as you can determine when to receive your income.
As general public put in their shares in your company they get dividends in return as ‘shareholders’ in your company. Although they are not involved in daily managerial processes and decision making of your company, but in case of bankruptcy your assets will be liquidated to make up for public loss.
Ofcourse, the main reason to incorporate a business is to see an increase in business, sales, and profits. Your company lends a trustworthy connotation to its standing and perception in the minds of customers. Big companies usually hire contractors from corporations rather than sole or partnership businesses.
Work from home businesses
Here are a few ideas on work from home which can be started as small businesses and turned into partnerships (if you wish to grow gradually) and finally corporations. It will take patience, perseverance, hard works, and some years in any case.
* The most popular way to start work from home program is buying Data Entry which encompasses different modes of writing styles. For example, you can write articles on different topics and post them on websites. Most companies want fresh content to update their websites and would pay you extra cash for this .You can start your own blog on some creative, artistic subject where you can educate people with your knowledge and experience that you have gathered over time. However, you need to constantly update your blog to keep it active.
* Computer repair services- if you are a computer geek you can have your own repair business and apprise your neighborhood or some authoritative contacts of your skills. You can start by rendering service to local people and offices with minimal charges and then increase your rates when you get satisfied customers who can lend credibility to your work.
* You can work from home by making use of your sister or wife’s skills and start a business based on their skills. Culinary skills can go into a cooking business; painting skills can go into designing, painting pictures, items etc; aesthetic sense can be used for suitable decorative items, ideas for room setting, organization etc.
* Fashion designing skills can bring monetary benefits by taking orders for clothes. Baby sitting, music classes, and home tuitions; stitching, cooking, baking classes and driving lessons are some other ideas, as the list goes on.
The process of incorporation
There are many ways in which you can incorporate a business. Incorporations are usually sought by men who have had experience with sole proprietorship for a long time in the physical market (offices) or through online work. Women who are more into creative selling by making things at home don’t go for incorporation as they have chosen the home-bound work for their own comfort.
Starting a corporation is a big responsibility which requires the time that was a constraint initially with office jobs. Make sure you assess your abilities well. Weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of taking your work at home business to the next Big level. Preliminaries such as document filings, registration in government offices, IRS forms for tax purposes, certificate of incorporation, stock exchange listings etc. all need to be handled.
You will need to gather your skilled people in your family, from previous work place or even your partners (and other like-minded people) to serve as different department heads. The departments need not be big and can even work mutually like marketing, Finance, Admin. It’s not unusual for new incorporations to start with 10-15 trust worthy people. Make sure the ‘line of authority’ is clearly laid out, who should report to whom and who is responsible or accountable for company policies needs to be set out.
If you had ‘not’ been the typical 9-5 worker and want to laze around to spend time with your family etc. then incorporation is not for you. This life style suits a free lancer more as incorporating a business needs you to be more efficient, smart, and organized and hard working than even a full time office job.