Should I accept financing from the seller to buy my business?

If you would like to buy a business but are having difficulty securing a traditional loan from a bank or credit union, you might consider negotiating with the seller for vendor financing. Vendor financing is an arrangement where the seller agrees to loan some or all of the purchase price to the buyer, and it [...]

Incorporating (Part 5): Your first meeting with a lawyer

Once you have gathered the necessary information, and if you have decided to incorporate, the next step is to meet with a business lawyer who will start-up and help maintain your corporation with the best interests of your business in mind. To streamline and tailor your experience with your lawyer, it is helpful to prepare [...]

Incorporating (Part 4): How and when?

How do I incorporate? If you would like to incorporate your business, enlist the professionals who will guide you through starting up, maintaining, and operating your corporation. A corporate accountant can work with you to uncover potential tax benefits, develop a suitable share structure, and, once your business is incorporated, he/she can produce annual financial statements, [...]

Incorporating (Part 3): Extra considerations

To plan for the creation and future maintenance and operation of your corporation, there are some important issues to consider, such as: (a) the impacts of pre-existing contracts on your new corporation, (b) using and registering trade names, (c) transferring your personal assets to your corporation, (d) having a secondary will, (e) entering into a [...]

Incorporating (Part 2): The obligations

In Part 1 of this blog series, we discussed what it means to incorporate and the potential benefits of incorporating a business. Incorporating also comes with one-time and recurring legal obligations, some of which require money, time, and attention, such as (a) filing annual income tax returns; (b) filing annual information returns; (c) registering a federal [...]