1. You can incorporate a business on your own.

2. Hire a business lawyer experienced with incorporations.

3. Pay for an incorporation service to do it for you.

The remainder of this article goes through the pros and cons of all 3 incorporation options.

1. Incorporating On Your Own

Advantages:

i. You save money. Note, however, you’ll still have to pay state or provincial fees (the amount varies depending where you incorporate).

ii. Doing it on your own provides an education. You learn a few things about incorporating. If you’re a real hands-on person and like doing everything yourself, then you’ll add “incorporating a business” to your list of experiences. When you can do more of your business on your own, you retain control over processes.

Disadvantages to incorporating on your own:

i. Incorporating on your own is the approach that will probably take up most of your time. You need to spend time doing it yourself. Filling out the forms takes time, but the real hassle is figuring out what it is you need to fill out. Also, when incorporating a business, there are steps you must do in a particular order. The number of steps involved and the order to do them depends on which state or province you incorporate. Regardless in which jurisdiction you incorporate, there will be some learning involved.

ii. You could make mistakes. You may do it wrong and have no recourse. By no recourse, I mean you have no lawyer from whom you can make a negligence claim. Don’t undermine the consequences of an incorporation mistake. It could be bad.

2. Hire an Attorney

Advantages to hiring a lawyer:

i. You simply hand the job over to the professionals. You go through little hassle other than instructing your lawyer and signing documents. Note that hiring a lawyer for an incorporation may be more work on your part than you expect. The lawyer needs to be properly informed and instructed about your business situation. But with that time invested, you get legal advice as well.

ii. An attorney is good to use if you have a more complex incorporation situation. You get a customized incorporation – which may be necessary if you have a complex business situation. Moreover, you can get legal advice about setting up your company. This advantage cannot be overstated.

iii. You have recourse if something goes wrong – lawyers are insured. Note, however, if a lawyer acts on your instructions, then you reduce or eliminate your recourse. This is a professional negligence area which is very fact specific.

Disadvantages to hiring an attorney for your incorporation:

i. It’s generally the most expensive option of the 3 options presented in this article.

ii. Time-consuming visits to your lawyer’s office and/or on the telephone.

3. Pay for an Incorporation service to Incorporate your Business

Advantages to paying for an incorporation service:

i. Lower cost than hiring a lawyer, yet your documents are prepared and filed for you based on a questionnaire you complete.

ii. It’s relatively fast. An online incorporation service can quickly prepare your documents and file them for you. Note that processing documents at the government end may result in a delay. You get your incorporation done while you see about your business.

iii. Minimal hassle. You don’t have to figure out the incorporation forms you need, how to complete the forms, or where to file them. I can tell you from personal experience it’s not fun trying to figure out what’s required to incorporate a business.

iv. Best of both worlds: you can have a lawyer review your completed incorporation documents by an online service. This saves you the cost of having a lawyer draft them. Yet, you get legal advice.

Disadvantages to paying for an incorporation service:

i. Using an incorporation service costs more than incorporating entirely on your own.

ii. You need to take the time filling out a questionnaire to provide to the online service. If you don’t know the answers, then you need legal advice and/or advice from an accountant.

iii. You don’t get as much protection as hiring an attorney. You have limited recourse if something goes wrong. If something goes wrong, you aren’t actually hiring a lawyer so there is little recourse. In other words, there isn’t any professional negligence claim you can make. You can avoid this by hiring a lawyer to review your prepared incorporation documents.

Next, read about incorporating in Canada, and specifically about incorporating in Manitoba.

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