Although my company had technically outgrown individual ownership, I put off corporate business formation for as long as possible. It may seem sort of old fashioned, but I really enjoyed having full ownership of my business. I know that when you make your business corporate, it gives you a lot of advantages that private companies don't enjoy. Corporate businesses have limited personal liability, greater resources for investing, greater legal protection than privately owned companies – the works. Nonetheless, when you incorporate a business it is no longer completely yours. You can, of course, keep the majority of shares in the company for yourself, but even so you are now responsible to the shareholder's. I have always been raised to value personal property above all else. That is why business incorporation was such a tough decision to make.
Nonetheless, I knew that the corporate business model had too many advantages to ignore forever. Finally, I put aside my hesitations and went for it. I am glad that I did. I was amazed at how easy it was, and how much the whole thing helped me. Nowadays, you can incorporate your business online for God's sake! Of course, I didn't do it that way. I wanted to do everything correctly, so I hired a lawyer. It took a good bit of time and money, but he helped me to come up with the perfect corporate business model for my needs. Working everything out ahead of time, I already knew how to take advantage of our new economic power before incorporation. I appointed a board of directors, went public, and in no time we had twice the financial resources of our private ownership days.
Nonetheless, there are some things about corporate businesses that I still do not like. One of them is the oft lamented corporate culture. I don't know if it is an ironclad rule, but it seems like as soon as you incorporate, the number of memos, faxes, e-mails, rules and regulations become exponentially greater. Keeping everything running efficiently in a corporate business is a top priority, one that you cannot afford to ignore. Basically, the longer you wait, the harder it can be. Bureaucratic methods of doing things can become so entrenched so quickly that it is almost impossible to sort out. Nonetheless, I was on top of it from the first day. Being independently minded, I wanted to keep as much power consolidated in my hands as possible.
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