Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with business and corporate

Tell me why I should or should not incorporate in Ontario, Canada

maudlin — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 11:46:03 -0800

I'm a web developer in Toronto who is currently operating as a sole proprietor. A prospective new client would really like to hire me for a major new project, but they can only deal with incorporated companies and cannot hire a sole prop. I'm looking for advice on incorporating from a) people in Canada and especially Ontario, but also from b) anyone who has any relevant advice about the experience of becoming an Inc., even if you are not Canadian. Yes, I will be engaging an accountant or lawyer for specific advice if I do decide to move forward, so I'm not worried that some specific advice may not be appropriate for my jurisdiction: I'm just trying to get a broad picture of what it's like (and some recommendations for lawyers/accountants). My main concerns are the ongoing costs and complexity of running as a corporation given the kind of work I do. I would be the sole owner and employee, I don't anticipate hiring anyone as a sub-contractor, let alone an employee, and I expect to continue working out of my home office rather than a store front. I'll be paying taxes and CPP but no EI, as, of course, I would not be eligible for EI payments as owner/sole employee. If it weren't for this client, I'd probably be staying sole prop.

Arguments FOR incorporation: Are there any other advantages that I'm missing?

1) This project alone could bring in as much money over the next few months as I've made all year so far. The hourly rate will be the highest I've ever charged. The work is well within my comfort zone and I know that I can deliver something really good. I have worked with my main contact before and we got along very well.

2) This may open the door for further work with the same company, but it could also make me eligible to work for crown corporations and other companies who also require that you be incorporated.

3) The usual reasons why people say that incorporation offers advantages: you can offset income to years where you can take less of a tax hit and it protects your personal assets in case of legal action.

Arguments AGAINST incorporation:

1) Incorporating, a name search (if I don't choose to operate as a numbered corporation), consulting with an accountant and/or lawyer, getting accounting software and setting up a bank account and cheques could cost (I'm estimating) $500-1000. Are there any other start up costs that I'm missing?

2) I could do my own corporate taxes, but I'd feel more secure going to a good accountant, so that's probably another $500+ a year. (This fellow has been recommended here before: any other feedback or recommendations for Toronto accountants or lawyers?).

3) As a sole prop, tax writeoffs for software, other business purchases and use of my home office have been pretty straightforward. This may be best answered by a professional, but if you have experience in this area FOR CANADA, let me know.

4) Liability insurance: another client has asked that I get liability insurance to continue working for them as a sole prop already, so I expect that I should get this if I go coprorate. My first round of quotes (for a sole prop) put that at $800-1000, but from what I can see, a corporation doing the same kind of work would be charged closer to $2000. Canadian incorporated web/IT people: does that sound about right? And are there any insurance companies you would recommend?

I think that's about it. Thanks!

Marketing Plan

pakora1 — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:21:01 -0800

Existing Corporate Marketing Plans Hi

I am looking for a marketing plan of any corporation. I have templates but want to look at the real thing. Does anyone know where I can get such a plan? Doesnt matter if it is older (past 15 years is fine) but it has to be one that belongs to a corporation. Most likely the source would be something that was part of a student learning program etc.

Thank you!

Going too fast at work

reenum — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:46:17 -0800

I get data review and entry work done extremely fast with no discernible lack of quality. But, I also have a persistent feeling I'm doing things wrong or missing important details. How to fix this? I have a position where I review contracts and then enter relevant details into a database. The expected time for us to get a contract read and entered is supposed to be 1-2 hours. I've been getting them done in 15-20 minutes. I've also had this happen at other jobs.

My mind seems to instinctively look for shortcuts or ways to work faster. In the past, I have had some issues with missing key details. Those things happened because I would listen to music or podcasts while working. I don't do that anymore. But, I still always have a paranoia that my work is getting done too fast and that I'm doing a bad job. I go back and check my work for accuracy, and it's usually all fine.

How can I get over this paranoia or alternatively, learn to work slower?

How can I become a corporate drone?

stedman15 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:45:44 -0800

How do I get a job as a corporate drone? In many TV shows and movies, there are people who work for a large corporation doing some ambiguous task that requires them to sit at a cubicle all day. They will often be new college grads or a few years out of school. Supervision is minimal or non-existent.

What are these jobs? How does one get them?

Protection vs. patent trolls?

aramaic — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 10:02:58 -0800

How might one structure a company for maximum resilience against patent trolls? YANML.

Is it possible to develop a corporate structure that would let elements of the company survive, or even entirely ignore, an attack by someone like Lodsys/IV? The idea would not be to survive legitimate patent attacks, but rather to structure the organization such that it's a very "hard target" and thus not worth suing for troll purposes. It seems like this should be possible.

Let me re-emphasize: the idea is not to ignore genuine patent suits, but rather to be so obviously expensive to successfully sue that scumbags like Myhrvold look elsewhere for their next extortion target because the cost/benefit ratio just isn't there for them.

If it helps, assume the primary (but not only) target market for this company is the US, and that it does not presently exist. You can also assume familiarity with Nolo-book level concepts, as well as prior-but-not-useful posts on similar topics (e.g.). And, seriously, not interested in "well just don't steal!" answers. Assume good faith on the part of the operators, who just want to avoid being sued because they use the internet. Again: protection from trolls is the attribute being sought, not some kind of fake legal immunity. All locks can be broken, I know.

Relative protection from trolls; the hardest target on the block, so that they go bust up someone else instead. That's all.

Corporate Dysfunction

jasondigitized — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 06:10:26 -0800

Is your company as dysfunctional as mine? From the outside looking in, everything seems great. From a customers point of view our product is quite polished. But....if you sit where I am, everything is a mess. Procedures that make no sense. Technology infrastructure that looks like spaghetti. Horrible data. Broken lines of communication. Inability to book a simple meeting room. People bitching about leaving stuff in the refrigerator. Meetings that go nowhere. I have seen this at other companies. Is this par for the course or do I need to get a new job? If this isn't the case in your company, what things ( process / procedure / software / behaviours/ etc. ) have made the biggest positive impact? If your company is as messy as mine, what things make you say WTF? Learn me about what happens in your corporate black box.....for better or worse.

Should we stay or should we go?

hamandcheese — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 18:33:45 -0800

Life choices-filter: What should my wife and I do next? Hi all,

My wife and I are both well-employed and relatively successful mid to late twenty-somethings. We're currently in a mid-size Canadian city, but have aspirations to a lot more travel and work internationally. We'd like that to be soon, but could also pursue some pretty good opportunities here...

My wife works as the education manager at a decent size museum, and loves her work, but is not liking her job. The museum is owned by the government but largely operated by a non-profit society that does all of the fundraising, marketing, volunteer coordination, events, and education programs. Her society is in the midst of a major power struggle with the museum itself and her entire organization may quit or be kicked out before its all over, so she has no job security at all, and the work environement itself has turned into a rumor mongering, us vs. them, hellhole. Things are in arbitration right now, without the possibility for resolution until September (although they keep pushing the dates back, so there is no guarantee).

I work for an engineering company doing editing and graphic design, but find the soulless money-making focus and ridiculous stipulations put on my work by my corporate masters takes all joy and sense of purpose out my job. I want out pretty bad, but have managed to pay 3/4 of my student debt off in the past year, and know that I could get the last $6,500 paid within another 3 months. That would mean we'd be debt free, which of course would be awesome. On the side, I also have my own freelance editing, graphic design and photography business that has been growing fairly well without a whole lot of effort on my part. That said, it's still a pretty small-scale affair, but I feel confident I could do well with it if I had time to throw myself at it. I really enjoy this work because it is for myself and my clients, and because the projects are all very diverse. Photography has become my major passion, and my emotional side is telling me to quit my job tomorrow and throw myself into my own business to see if I can really grow it. I'm pretty sure I could make a go of wedding photography as well, and with all of these diverse things, could make enough of a living to get do reasonably well within a few months, and quite well within 1-2 years.

Now here's the complicated part: we've been talking about going overseas to work since we finished university 1-2 years ago. We don't really care where. If our debt was paid, we could take jo-jobs anywhere we could get work visas (such as British Commonwealth countries), and have a great time. With no debt, we could also look into volunteer opportunities in places like Africa. If we still carry some of this debt, we would probably be better off teaching english as a second language somewhere in Asia, but this would be cool too. I think we'd be happy to do pretty much any of these things.

Soooooo, with all of that as background, here's the dilemma: If my wife's society survives the museum meltdown, her job will be something worth sticking with a while longer. She's quite young to have a position like this and it is a really great opportunity for her if she sticks with museum or interpretation work, or if she gets her teaching degree (long-term goal). If this is the case, and we're going to stay here longer, then my choice would be to quit my job tomorrow (I dislike it that much), debt or no debt, and try to do the work I like doing. But we have no certainty that her job will last, and if I do quit my job to focus on the freelance work, and then she loses hers, we'll be a lot worse off financially than if I stick it out until they resolve it. (but I hate it!)

Should we stick it out, or should we start selling our belongings and looking into work visas?

Should I quit my job? Or would that be stupid? Should I throw myself into my own business, or would that be extra stupid since we plan to leave the country and travel within a year? (I really want to do both!)

Should we go teach english? Or do something else?

I'm not looking for definitive answers; I know we need to answer these questions ourselves. I'd just love some opinions. So lay it on me Mefites. Don't be shy.

Should we stay or should we go?

Job Opportunity Gut Check

thinkpiece — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 16:37:38 -0800

What questions should I ask myself in order to decide if I should take a new job in this economic environment? It's basically giant corporation vs. boutique consultancy. I have a stable middle-management job in a large corporation which, although while not exactly exciting, is secure and gives me a certain degree of responsibility and creative control in an area I'm not particularly interested in. The salary, benefits and growth opportunities are all average to good. The soulless bureaucracy, fizzled initiatives, office politics and general no-fun atmosphere leave my entrepreneurial, adventurous side cold. I've been there 18 months, like my boss, feel appreciated. I have recently been approached by a well-established, boutique UK consulting firm committed to building out the NY office. Their core competencies are much more closely aligned with mine, they seem to be on the move, they are well connected and have a dynamic client list with several projects on deck that would immediately fall into my area. Not to mention, more money, more freedom, better title, great events and projects, travel.

My question is: now that we have gone to the next level in discussions, what kinds of economy-related questions should I be asking about their business model? It's obviously a tough climate for strategy consultants -- I want to ask cogent, meaningful questions in order to surface their thinking about the economy and to find out what they're doing to stay strong during this recession.

Fortune 500 Company Strucutres

ashepp — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 11:54:45 -0800

Is there an online resource that describes the different business functions of Fortune 500 companies ? e.g. Sales, Marketing, Legal, It, etc ? I'm trying to write a paper on how large organizations structure themselves and was wondering if there's any official resource for this information. I've found SIC Codes and NAICS Codes but these seem to describe the company industry segments not organization.

Appreciate any help!

My head's about to explode...

Zé Pequeno — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:20:43 -0800

Can someone please point me in the right direction to find practice test papers for Financial Accounting? (Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Statements of Returns on Equity, Cash Flow Statements, Depreciation, Ratios, etc. etc.) Assorted business schools worries inside. Coming from a liberal arts academic background, I'm starting to really feel the pressure from my recently-started international business masters and get the impression I need to study ten times as hard as my classmates, most of whom have studied the subject at undergraduate level. At the moment, I'm fretting over Financial Accounting. Please help me to understand this subject!

Extra points for whoever can help me with Corporate Finance...

I was never strong at mathematics in school. Though I'm pretty good at mental arithmetic, I found the subject boring and didn't pay attention in class. Now I'm faced with the daunting task of getting to grips with Corporate Finance and have some decent books to help me, all of which cheerfully claim that the author needs no prior knowledge of Finance, just a knowledge of algebra! At the risk of appearing extremely dumb... I can't remember any algebra! What do I need to learn in order to understand the nimiety of equations by which I'm beginning to feel very overwhelmed?

Corporate Pandemic Planning

nancoix — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 13:01:58 -0800

Corporate Pandemic Flu Planning: I'm looking for model corporate planning guides that our company can learn and borrow from. The best I've found so far is this 3M Corporate Planning Guide -- and want more of the same. I'm not looking for general information (like CDC Checklists or HHS Plans). I want something produced by a corporation to meet business continuation planning needs. So either something like this 3M plan, or some type of template like it. My email address is in my profile, if that's helpful.

Tips on creating a viable business-to-business blog

Badmichelle — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:57:17 -0800

Do you know any really good business-to-business blogs? I mentioned to my employer that a blog might be an interesting way to generate interest/attendance at an upcoming multi-city event targeting advisors. (The employer is hosting the event, they want to attract advisors to attend, and to promote themselves as experts in the conference topic).

My employer said "Neat" and now I'm putting together a proposal. The problem is, I can find quite a lot of information about corporate blogs meant for the public, and internal blogs meant for employees. Not so much about corporate blogs that have a business audience. I'm starting to think that this idea won't work (and if so, I'll tell my employer that). But if you know of any busines-to-business blogs that you think work well (or info about them), please point me in the right direction!

Can choosing the wrong font affect the bottom line?

misteraitch — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 00:28:08 -0800

How might choosing the wrong font for its customer communications adversely affect a company? Let's say company X, formerly owned by company Y, has been acquired by company Z. As a consequence, X wants to redesign the bills and statements it sends to its ca. 1 million customers. Inexplicably, even though Z has a custom-designed corporate typeface that its other branches use for such communications, X has decided that its bills and statements should henceforth be printed using the Arial font. Could someone working for X, who sees this as an astoundingly bad choice, point to cases where similar design decisions have had real-life negative consequences for a company’s bottom line? Or would such a person be worrying himself over nothing, & does the choice of font really not matter that much, pragmatically speaking, provided it is legible enough?

Anyone know a good general reference page for corporate scandals?

rorycberger — Tue, 09 Mar 2004 04:10:22 -0800

Anyone know a good general reference page for corporate scandals? [more inside] I am looking for general summaries, i.e. the key players involved, what crimes they were charged with/convicted of, what it has meant for the company, etc. I am essentially looking for a list of things to search google for as I look for more detailed information. I am specifically looking for info on the following companies: adelphia, arthur anderson, enron, global crossings, healthsource, imclone, solomon smith barney, tyco and worldcom.