If you decide to start a business in Ontario and you choose a corporation as your legal form of ownership, you can either incorporate your company federally or provincially. If you choose to incorporate your company provincially, there are three methods of incorporation for the do-it-yourselfer.
- Articles of incorporation can be filed electronically through one of the contracted service providers.
- Articles of Incorporation can be filed directly at the Toronto office of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services or at one of the offices that endorse Articles submitted under the Business Corporations Act.
- Articles of Incorporation can be submitted by mail to the Companies and Personal Property Security Branch, 393 University Ave., Suite 200, Toronto ON M5G 2M2.
It will cost you $300 to register Articles of Incorporation online plus any fees that the contracted services providers charge for their service. If you choose this route you will provide everything they need in digital form. The service providers’ websites will walk you through the process.
Submitting Articles of Incorporation in person or by mail will cost you $360. Those of you choosing the paper route, can download forms here. You will need to either provide or mail your:
- Articles of Incorporation
- Ontario-biased NUANS
- Fee of $360
- A covering letter which includes your contact information
- Any other support documents
Name Search
Unless you choose to have your company given a numbered name (known as a “numbered company”, ie. 123456789 Ontario Ltd.) you will need to conduct an Ontario-biased NUANS name search through a third party provider as only federal name searches can be conducted directly on Industry Canada’s website. A list of online NUANS name search service providers can be found here. The cost for this name search will be about $25 but the price may vary as service providers add their own fees on top of the government’s fees for providing this service. This search is only good for 90 days so don’t do it too far in advance of submitting your Articles of Incorporation.
Your corporation cannot have the same name as another company so if someone has already used the name you’ve planned to use, you’ll have to pick another. If the name you have chosen is not being used in Ontario, it doesn’t mean you are necessarily in the clear. From the provincial government’s website:
Please note that although a Federal corporation with an identical name to a proposed Ontario corporate name may not be currently operating or active in Ontario it is entitled to commence activities in Ontario at any time in the future. Incorporators who incorporate with the same or similar name are therefore assuming the risk of an objection to their corporate name, which may result in a name hearing under section 12 of the Business Corporations Act.
For this reason, you may want to consider incorporating federally. A federal corporation provides name protection Canada wide, except in the Province of Québec, which does not provide data to the NUANS system.
Consider Using A Lawyer
Which it is possible to incorporate your business by yourself, unless you have a lot of experience in this, I wouldn’t recommend it. Filing the Articles of Incorporation is easy enough but creating good documents that include all of the information you need can be very difficult for a layperson. I recommend hiring a lawyer to do this for you (You can search for a lawyer here.) Lawyer’s fees are normally worth the expense because doing things right at the beginning can save you a lot of money later on. If you are on a tight budget and don’t feel you can afford the fees, I recommend using a service like Legal Zoom.ca. They won’t give you service and advice tailored to your personal situation like a lawyer would but they’ll give you a good set of basic documents. A lawyer or an online incorporation service can also do the name search for you.
Incorporating a company can seem like a big, complicated process if you’ve never done it before but it really isn’t that difficult, particularly if you use a lawyer or a service to do it for you.
I often see questions from people who want to start a small business or work from home asking how they can make money online. It’s an interesting question because it has a central premise that there is something different or magical about making money “online”. There isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong. There are methods of making money using the internet, There just isn’t anything special about it that makes money magically appear. The internet allows you to reach more people. It allows you to collaborate with people on certain types of work without having to leave the house. It doesn’t pay you well for doing tasks of little value.
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk will pay you a minimum of 5¢ per task for simple, repetitive tasks you can do online. This isn’t a scam, you’ll do the tasks and Amazon will pay you the money, but unless you’re super human fast, you won’t make a living doing this.
Moving up the pay scale, it’s possible to earn a more reasonable wage doing projects that can be found on sites like oDesk, Elance, or Guru. The jobs on these sites range from simple data entry jobs to highly skilled software developer jobs. When you bid on projects on these sites, you’ll be competing with workers from around the world. So while it might be possible to earn a living wage for someone living in China or India, it will be much more difficult if you live in Toronto.
The sites I’ve listed above are ways to get low paying jobs online. Doing projects on these sites makes you an employee not a business owner. There is a big difference between having a job and having a business. Don’t confuse the two.
Starting an online business is not all that much different from starting a traditional bricks and mortar business in many respects. Your delivery channel is the internet instead of a face to face interaction and that has a lot of implications but the fundamentals for profitability are the same. You must have a sound business model that delivers value for your customer. All the planning and work that goes into starting a traditional business applies to starting a business that is based online.
The internet provides certainly provides a big opportunity, but you still can’t get rich quick for doing next to nothing. Anyone who promises you differently is running a scam.
For all you eBayers out there, the 2011 eBay Entrepreneur of the Year Awards have launched. The contest is open to any adult resident in Canada. A contest entrant must
- Sell $1,000 per month through eBay
- List at list 10 items per month.
- Have a feedback rating of 98% or better.
The entry process is fairly straightforward. Go to the entry form and provide your information. There is a requirement for a short (500 word maximum) essay. There are three categories in the competition:
- Entrepreneur of the Year
- Service-preneur of the Year
- Newcomer of the Year
The Entrepreneur of the Year will win $3,000, the Service-preneur of the Year will win $2,000 and the Newcomer of the Year will win $2,000.
Entries have to be in by 11:59 PM ET August 19, 2011. If you have a business based on eBay and meet the above criteria, this could be an opportunity for you.
There is a difference between having a job and owning a business. Unfortunately, when many people start or buy a business they don’t make the proper distinction.
Let’s use an example. Bob has a job where he earns $50,000 a year. He wants to be his own boss so he buys one of the smaller fast food franchises where he takes home $50,000 in profits every year. He is his own boss and he makes the same income as before. Sounds good right? Not so fast.
To have a business where he earns that same $50,000 he had to:
- Pay a franchise fee of approximately $25,000
- Pay $150,000 for equipment and leasehold improvements
- Pay $20,000 for inventory and working capital
You might be thinking that this isn’t a big issue. He financed the equipment and leaseholds under the CSBFP so it costs him $60K out of pocket. He had money saved up and it’s an investment.
The problem is that the return on his investment is nothing. He works 50 hours a week and earns his $50K through his labour alone. The money he has invested is earning nothing because the business doesn’t provide a return beyond his salary. Even though he works 50 hours a week, he is constantly on call because he is the business owner. If some employee doesn’t show up for a shift, he has to jump in to fill the gap. He is working harder, longer hours than when he had a normal job.
Bob has increased his risk considerably. He is now responsible for a six figure bank loan that must be paid every month. His revenue isn’t guaranteed. It varies with the economy, the intensity of competition, and other factors largely out of his control. Because he is not earning a return over and above his wage, he is getting paid nothing for taking these risks. Bob should be compensated for making an investment. He should be making a return beyond his salary in line with the money he has invested and the risk he is taking.
My point isn’t to try to talk you out of starting or purchasing a business. It’s to make sure that you do your homework and plan appropriately. When you write your business plan, you should be calculating return on investment (ROI) to make sure that you are projecting a return that is in line with the risk you are taking. If you do your projections and you are just able to take a salary out of the business, you are better off keeping your job and finding a more lucrative business opportunity.
The producers of Dragons’ Den are looking for Canadian companies that are struggling financially. Top Canadian investors will give their time and money to help make the chosen businesses a success. To apply a company should have the following attributes:
- Must have been in operation for at least three to five years or more
- Gross revenue of $500,000 per year on average
- More than 5 employees
- Privately held business, family business, partnerships, limited partnerships
- Must be willing to commit to being filmed on camera for up to a two-week period
- A business registered in Canada
- Fluent English speakers
The selected businesses can benefit from:
- Free top-notch business consultation
- Experts who will visit your business, no travel is necessary on your behalf
- A chance to get an investment or a loan for your business when other sources have been exhausted
To apply email your name, company name and contact information by August 12, 2011 to bigdecision@cbc.ca
The exact description of a small business varies depending on which source you consult.
The Canadian Bankers Assocation defines small businesses as those having authorized credit limits of $500,000 or less, while medium-sized businesses have authorization levels of up to $1 million.
The Export Development Corporation defines small exporters as having sales of less than $1 million.
For the Canada Small Business Financing Program, Industry Canada uses a definition of $5 million in revenue or less. Industry Canada also has an employee based definition where businesses are considered small if they have less than 100 employees or less than 50 employees if it is a service based business. A business that has between 100 and 500 employees is considered medium sized. Businesses with less than 5 employees are called Micro Businesses by Industry Canada.
The term small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) is a commonly used term by many organizations. Industry Canada defines it as a business having less than 500 employes, while those with more than 500 employees are considered large businesses.
To provide a point of comparison, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines a small business as having as much as $21 million and 1,500 employees in annual revenue, depending on the product or service being offered.
As you can see, the SBA definition of a small business is considerably larger than the Industry Canada definition. It’s important to undersand this difference because if the small business you are starting is going to sell products and services to other small businesses, a Canadian small busines with 50 employees might have very different needs than a U.S. small business with 1,500 employees.
