As this article drops, we’re a few days away from Mother’s Day.  Over the years we’ve seen the idea of “mom” expanded to a much broader group of “descendants”.  A walk down the greeting card aisle is ground zero for this expansion - mom’s, grandma’s, aunt’s, wives, fur-momma’s…it’s a lot.  But I get it! This is a day that we want to celebrate and honor those wonderful people in our lives that have cared for us, shaped who we are, and continue to guide and support us every day.

So in true Hallmark style, I propose we add in another “baby” that needs to say thanks to us on Mother's Day: your Corporate Baby. There are three main players in this weird mother-child relationship:

The Corporation (your baby)

When you incorporate your business you are literally creating a new “person”.  This person is a business, of course, but the minute you incorporate, it is its own stand alone entity. Humans get Social Insurance Numbers when we’re born, Corporations get Business Numbers. It can outlive you, and if you raise it right, it can survive without you.

Shareholders (the parents)

Calling you mom or dad to an inanimate object would be weird (though I’m confident it would catch on!).  Instead, the owners of a corporation are called Shareholders. There are as many different shareholder setups as there are family types - you could be a single parent (100% ownership and responsibility), regular old nuclear family (50/50 ownership), shared custody (you have majority ownership, but there are 1 or more partners with minority shares), or a big old blended family with step-parents, partners, weekends on and off (shares are all over the place with different percentages and responsibilities).

Directors (the village)

Parents, Grandparents, Godparents, BFF’s - many of us are fortunate to have a village around us as we muddle through raising our kids.  Whether it's babysitter, advice, or sanity support, these go-to people help us out over the years.  In our corporations, Director’s are this village.  Directors help to guide a company.  They provide advice and support so the company can succeed.  

For businesses of our size, oftentimes the shareholders and the directors are the same people, so it can be confusing to know what the difference between them is.

Simply put, shareholders own the company, directors manage it.

Now that we’ve got an understanding of our new names and roles with our corporate baby, let’s talk about how we need to care for these kiddo’s

Necessities of Life

Food, water, air, and shelter.  There are basic needs that every parent/guardian must meet.  If you do nothing else, you HAVE to do these things. Your corporation also has some non-negotiables.  Regardless of whether you made money, lost money, or did nothing in your corporation, you HAVE to do these things each year:

1. File taxes

2. File your annual return (which is NOT the same as your taxes)

3. Have a directors meeting (or at least sign a paper saying you did!)

That’s it…not a huge list, but to be a legit corporation you have to do these things.  Now if your business is active and you’re making/spending money then that whole “file taxes” becomes a much bigger undertaking.

Regular Check Ups

Whether it's the 2 week follow up, 3 month shots (anti-vaxxers just stay with me), or emergency fever, that kid’s going to see the inside of a doctor’s office over the years.  Who knew that as a mom, I would also throw on a little RN cap now and then?! Over the years, I’ve nursed my share of fevers, slept sitting up so my babies could sleep with their stuffy noses, and kissed my fair share of scrapes, boo boos and ouchies.  I could handle a lot, but sometimes I need reinforcements and in come the doctors!

Same applies to your business.  There's some things that we need to do to make sure our corporate babies survive the day to day.  Unless you’ve got a full-timer, you can’t be running to the professionals every second! No, when you’re flying solo most of the time, you need to learn to do a few things yourself.

1. Save & Store your Receipts - if you’re part of the Clear Eyes family, you know this means to get your stuff saved DIGITALLY to Dext.  Your receipts are the bread and butter of what we need to track and prove what you’re spending and no one can do this except YOU!!  You’re making the purchases; You’re processing the payments; You’re the one who has to keep your papers together.

2. Create an Invoice - You need to get paid, so knowing how to create and send your own invoices is important.  You might use some kind of online store for this (i.e. square or shopify) but ultimately that’s no different than sending a regular old invoice…you just program it into the website instead of in a word doc, or in an old-school invoice book!  However you make them, getting them out and getting paid is priority #1.

3. Use the Right Accounts - Did you have a grandma that had to go through 3 or 4 names before they were correctly calling you? First your cousin was in trouble, then your brother, only to finally land on you! The same thing can happen when you’re at the store and trying to pull out the right bank or credit card?! Sometimes we screw up. I know it’s not intentional but just like Grandma, we need to focus on making sure we’re using the right cards for the purchases we’re making.

If you can deal with those things, you’ll save a TON of headache when it comes to calling in the professionals for tax returns and such!

Report Cards

While most of what we’ve talked about has kept our corporate baby alive, now we need it to thrive! And the number one thing that sets our kids up for success is their momma’s love.  We teach them how to walk, how to talk, how to be a decent human (hopefully!), send them to school and help them with their homework.  Sometimes love involves the not so nice things, like curfews, and groundings, and going through report cards and helping them get back on track.  

Our corporate babies get report cards too. And like with our kids, it's our job to look at these and help to steer things in the right direction when things have come off the rails.  The difference here is that there isn’t always someone sending these reports to you, and even less likely to have parent-teacher conferences to help you go through and understand what the reports are telling you.

But just like having to learn trigonometry alongside your kid to help with their homework, it just takes a little determination and scrappiness to dig in and figure it out.  And don’t be shy to call the teacher! Chances are they’ll be impressed that you opened the report in the first place, and ecstatic that you want to talk about it!!

So as you celebrate mothers day, let’s hope that little corporate brat remembers to thank you for all you do!

Trying to decide if incorporation is right for you? Join me May 13, 2024 live to dive deep into what it means to take the plunge.  SAVE MY SPOT!