Incorporation Won’t Fix That by Larry Cooper

Incorporation can create a separate legal entity. It cannot repair weak records, inadequate pricing, inconsistent cash flow, poor contracts or unclear responsibilities.

So how do you determine whether incorporation fits your business?

Incorporation Won't Fix That helps Canadian business owners move beyond the broad question, "Should I incorporate?" and examine the specific risks, opportunities, ownership arrangements, expectations and responsibilities behind it.

The book follows Jordan Patel, a sole proprietor whose home-renovation business is becoming steadier and attracting larger opportunities. Prospective customers are asking whether the business is incorporated, project risks are increasing and future growth appears possible. Those are genuine incorporation signals, but they do not all point to the same answer.

The method also applies to pre-revenue businesses and ventures with current or proposed co-owners. Where financial history does not yet exist, it helps readers examine ownership expectations, founder contributions, intellectual property, planned contracts, financing, risk and the assumptions behind projected results.

Using Jordan's situation and a practical decision method, the book helps you:

•identify what is driving the incorporation question;
•distinguish financial, tax, risk, customer, ownership, growth and administrative considerations;
•clarify the specific benefit you expect incorporation to provide;
•understand the legal and practical boundary a corporation creates;
•recognize business problems that incorporation will not repair;
•compare available structures using the same business facts and assumptions;
•test whether the business is ready to operate as a corporation; and
•prepare evidence and focused questions for professional review.

A separately priced Incorporation Decision Toolkit is available for readers who want expanded worksheets and reference materials. It contains six downloadable resources:

•Save Your Should I Incorporate? Result;
•What You Need to Separate Early: Owner, Business, and Money;
•Problems Incorporation Will Not Repair;
•Sole Proprietor or Corporation: What the Choice Really Changes;
•Incorporation Decision Brief; and
•Questions to Bring to Your Accountant or Lawyer.

The book is complete on its own and includes a condensed Incorporation Decision Brief. The optional toolkit provides more space to record the assessment result, compare structures, identify ownership and readiness gaps, separate recorded facts from estimates, and prepare for professional conversations.

This is not a do-it-yourself incorporation manual, and it does not make the incorporation decision for you. It helps you organize the facts, expose unsupported assumptions and bring clearer questions to the appropriate accountant, lawyer, insurance professional or other adviser.

Incorporate because the structure fits a clearly understood business need, not because incorporation is being asked to fix something else.