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Henry Ford knew a thing
or two about how to make cars efficiently. But when customers
asked him about having their Model T in different colors, Ford
is said to have replied, "You can have it in any color so long
as it's black."
In the spirit of Henry Ford, INC Business Lawyers
is pleased to offer our package for basic incorporations. We
call it the "any color so long as it's black"
BC corporation ("ACSLB", for short) package.
We'll be the first to admit that the ACSLB Package
is not for everyone, but we do think it will attract notice
and be useful for a large number of people, just like the Model
T was in its day.
Here's what you'll receive by ordering the ACSLB
Package from INC Business Lawyers:
- A properly formed and incorporated British Columbia corporation,
having the corporate name, shareholders, directors, officers
and registered office location of your choice.
- One class of an unlimited number of "common" shares; that
is, shares having equal rights as to voting, dividends and
capital growth. If you prefer, you can set a maximum number
of such shares (for example, 10,000 or 100,000 or 1,000,000).
- The new 'Table
1' articles (think of the articles as setting out some
of the basic rules for corporate actions).
- A corporate records binder containing your incorporation
documents, share certificates, the register of directors,
the central securities register, and post-incorporation
resolutions.
- Prompt, efficient service, by a full-fledged law firm
- INC Business Lawyers.
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Because we form a lot of corporations, we're able
to offer the ACSLB at a low price. But,
as with most things in life, while you get a low price, you
do give up some services. In particular, our ACSLB Package doesn't
include the following items (these items are available if you
order the Standard
Package or the Professional
Package):
- Up to one hour of consultation with a business start-up
lawyer about choosing a corporate name, share structure,
or other matters related to creating your company.
- A Canada-wide name search (called a NUANS search) to check
whether your corporate name might infringe on someone else's
trade name or trade-mark. (You can do a free search yourself
at the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) Canadian
trade-marks database. Just be aware that the CIPO search
engine won't necessarily pull up all relevant marks, nor
does it search corporate names registered federally or in
any province.)
- Our more comprehensive, standard form articles of incorporation,
customized for your share structure or to meet the requirements
of a professional's regulatory body.
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The ACSLB Package is designed for people who meet
one or more of the following criteria:
- Whether by previous education or experience, you know
what you're doing, and you're raring to go.
- You have already decided that incorporation is your best
choice of business structure. Here's a brief description
of five
main reasons to incorporate.
- You're forming a one person business and want the security
that a properly formed British Columbia company can give
you.
- You're forming a business with more than one person, but
you and your partner(s) know that you'll all be content
with a simple, straightforward corporate structure, where
all shareholders have equal rights.
- You've had companies before, and you just want a "no muss,
no fuss", easy, affordable solution.
- You're starting a new business and money is really, really
tight. If this is you, a word of warning: Be careful not
to be penny wise and pound foolish. If you're starting a
business and can't afford the extra couple of hundred dollars
that our Standard Package would cost, consider whether you'll
be able to afford to carry out your business plan at all.
Better to count the cost of a new venture ahead of time,
rather than pressing ahead to create a corporation and then
finding out that the business idea wasn't well thought out.
It's easy to incorporate (especially through us!); making
your business a success is hard, and that's going to take
some money and probably more effort than you would guess
up front.
And there's this good news, too: With companies,
almost anything can be changed after incorporation: name, share
structure, directors, officers, shareholders, you name it. Sure,
it will come at a cost, probably a higher cost than if you had
chosen one of our other packages, but that's the price of experience.
It's like that saying: "How do you get good judgment? By
having had bad judgment, and learned from it."
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The ACSLB Package should not be purchased by people
who fall into these categories:
- You're brand new to starting your own business, and want
to incorporate just because a friend said it was a good
idea.
- You're starting a company with one or more other people
(whether or not they're members of your family), and you
need to set up a share structure that allows for different
rights for different people.
- You're uncertain about some of what this page talks about.
- You're in a business situation where a half hour or hour
with a business start-up lawyer would be a really good idea,
and help you sleep better at night.
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We could perhaps ask, what is it worth
to you to have a properly formed BC corporation, ready to be
set to work as you go about creating your dream business? But
we won't. The total price for this package is $599,
all in: legal fees, government filing fees, expenses, and taxes.
The package price includes: legal fee of $99 plus GST of 7%
and PST of 7.5%; government filing fees of $380; and expenses
of $98.73 plus GST of 7% for BC Online charges, name reservation,
corporate records book, share certificates, resolutions and
registers, and copywork, courier / postage. A number name company
will save you an additional $41.50 plus some GST. (Prices are
subject to change without notice.)
For that price (most of which goes to the government,
note), we will:
- Take your instructions about your choice of corporate
name, the names and addresses of all directors, shareholders
and officers for your company, and the location of the registered
office for the company.
- Reserve the corporate name at the Corporate Registry in
Victoria, BC.
- Obtain from each director a signed Consent to Act as Director.
- Prepare the initial Agreement to Incorporate and Agreement
for the Company Articles.
- Prepare and file at the Corporate Registry the Incorporation
Application for your company.
- Prepare the corporate records book, including the initial
share certificates, register of directors, central securities
register, and post-incorporation resolutions.
- Send the original, or if you choose to leave the registered
office of your company with us, a duplicate corporate records
book to your address.
In addition to the incorporation cost, if you
wish to use our address as the registered office location for
the company, there is a charge of $99 plus GST of 7% for each
year, payable in advance. In the second year, the invoice will
include the government filing fee of $45 for the annual report
that is required to be filed on each anniversary of the incorporation
date. The benefit of using us as the registered office is that
we can handle enquiries about the corporate records of the company,
and prepare the necessary annual general meeting consent resolutions
that the company will need each year.
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With the new system in place at the Corporate
Registry, the turnaround time is quite fast. Typically, if signatures
and payment are provided to us promptly, we can have most corporations
formed in two or three days. In some cases, where signatures
and payment can be obtained quickly and any name reservation
result comes back early enough, it is possible to form the company
on the same day, but you can't count on that happening. In either
case, be aware that the actual certificate of incorporation
won't be available for about one week after the date of incorporation.
If your circumstances require the certificate sooner, you'll
need to order the Standard Package and pay for any required
(additional) priority filing fee and agent's costs.
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This section is here only to say that there isn't
any catch. The ACSLB Package is a darn good deal. We hope that
this page explains clearly what the package includes and what
the package leaves out. But we mention the point for this reason:
We deliberately price even our Standard Package below what many
other law firms charge for incorporations. And, even so, on
occasion someone will ask, "What's the difference between
what INC Business Lawyers offers and what I get from the other
law firm that wants to charge me $1,000?" We're Scottish
by heritage, so at first we didn't understand why someone would
ask that question.
But after a while we understood. As buyers,
people sometimes rely solely on price to measure the quality
of what they buy. The saying "you get what you pay for" is an
example of this way of thinking. Another example is given in
Robert B. Cialdini's book Influence:
the psychology of persuasion. Cialdini tells of a store
that had some turquoise jewellry that wouldn't sell at $99 but
sold out quickly once the price was raised to $199. This kind
of thought process (measuring quality by price only) is a way
of keeping things simple in a world full of spending choices.
We can offer these prices on incorporations because
we're set up to do so. We don't a large staff. We don't drive
Porsches. And we don't have condos at Whistler. We do hope,
of course, to sell enough of the ACSLB Packages, and other services,
to obtain those items. But that's how we'll get there, not by
charging $1,000 for a straightforward British Columbia corporation.
If you'd like to pay more, of course, we won't
stop you. Our banker will appreciate your generosity. But you'd
probably prefer to have this ACSLB Package or our Standard Package
and spend the money you save on developing your own business
and not ours.
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We'll need this information from you, in order
to get going. You
can send us an e-mail or give us a phone call or send a fax:
- Up to three choices, in order of priority, for the company
name. Note that the name needs to be in the format like
"Joe's Dogwalking Ltd.". Instead of Ltd., you can use Corp.
or Inc., or the words spelled out in full: Limited, Corporation,
or Incorporated. Or if you wish a number name (for example,
12345 B.C. Ltd.), let us know, and you'll save the cost
of the name reservation.
- The full names (first name, middle name, last name), home
address, office address (if any), and phone numbers, for
each person who will be a director in the company. If a
person does have an office address and is usually at that
location between 9 am and 4 pm on weekdays, the person can
use that address in filing the Incorporation Application.
Please let us know if this applies in your case.
- The full names and home address of each person who will
be an officer in the company. It is no longer necessary
to have company officers, but we recommend that one person
be appointed as the president of the company, and you may
wish to name other people to other offices in the company
(such as vice president, secretary-treasurer, CEO, CFO,
and so on).
- The full names and home address of each person who will
be a shareholder in the company and, if there's more than
one shareholder, the number or proportion of shares that
each person will have, along with the issue price per share
(such as $0.01 per share).
- The street address (and, if different, mailing address)
for the location of the company's registered office.
- The address where you would like us to send the corporate
records binder once the incorporation is done.
- An indication of how you wish to pay. We accept Visa.
Payment can also be made online with other credit cards
through PayPal or directly from an account at most major
Canadian banks through CertaPay.
Or you can mail us your cheque or money order. In any event,
we'll need your payment in hand before we start work.
Once we have your information and payment, we'll
prepare and send out to you the necessary consents to act as
a director and the initial agreement to incorporate. Once those
documents are returned, and your corporate name is reserved
at the Corporate Registry, we'll attend to filing for your corporation,
and report to you on the incorporation in due course.
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