EPICentre presents; The Ins and Outs of Incorporating Your Business

To incorporate or not to incorporate? That is a question that every entrepreneur or business owner must ask themselves and will be the subject of this upcoming session in our EPIC LAW Series. We will explore a variety of different corporate structures including incorporation, partnerships and sole proprietorships. We will also be discussing the key differences in your legal name vs. your business name, the importance of setting up share structure and we will take you through the process of incorporating with a focus on the more difficult issues that may arise. In the course of the workshop, we will, among other things:

• Review some preliminary planning considerations such as potential obligations to current employers and business associates
• Canvass the typical ways of carrying on a private business in Ontario with a review of differences between sole proprietorships, partnerships, joint ventures, corporations, etc
• Look at some of the factors that go into deciding what structure is the best one for you – jurisdiction, residency, tax considerations, risk and liability, regulatory regimes, etc
• Outline how you set up the business – picking a name, branding and marketing the business, establishing a hierarchy of control and decision-making
• Review the usual financial reporting and corporate compliance requirements
• Describe some of the more critical documents and agreements that are used in business arrangements, such as partnership agreements, articles of incorporation, shareholder agreements, employment contracts, etc
• Consider some ways of getting access to capital like debt financing or taking on private investors and how those arrangements can be made.

Special guest Barton J. Seguin, Partner with Shibley Righton LLP, will be leading the session. Bart is a partner with Shibley Righton LLP at the firm’s Windsor office. Bart’s diverse business law and estates practice focuses on establishing new and emerging businesses, corporate reorganizations, professional corporations, business agreements, business succession planning, commercial leasing and licensing, franchising, financing transactions for chartered banks and other lenders, will and estate planning, estate administration, as well as purchases, sales and financings of residential, multi-residential, commercial and industrial properties.