Steps to putting together this small incorporated iPhone/iPad gaming business in Vancouver, BC, Canada
Let's document how I started from dream to small incorporated business in the wonderful city of Vancouver, BC, Canada. I have this in my Facebook notes, but I'll repeat and maintain it here anyways since it's really blog material.
1. Decide that you need to start a small business. My reason was that I wanted to do iPhone game development to start generating income.
2. Research about the difference between Sole Proprietor and Incorporated business. I chose Incorporated since it only costs $400 and offers you the highest protection for my personal assets and limits liabilities. Worth every penny to be safe.
3. Apply for name registration for corporation at https://www.bcregistrynames.gov.bc.ca/nro. I was careful to follow the naming rules and also to choose 3 different names. I chose Inc. instead of Ltd. since Ltd was an old style that's no longer needed in BC and Inc. is more accepted worldwide.
4. After 1 day, the registration was approved and I went to incorporate online at https://www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca
5. After submitting, I waited a few days for the official incorporation certificate to come in the mail, but it didn't come yet so I called in to the helpdesk phone number listed on the website. The friendly woman on the other end gave me my official business number.
6. 03.14.2011 - Purchased www.RosePearStudio.com domain and web hosting at Namecheap.com
Can now visit my new site: http://www.rosepearstudio.com/
Nothing on it yet, but when I have time there will =]
7. To get things rolling, I applied for a HSBC Business Direct no fee banking account for the business and used the required business number and business name during the online application.
8. 03.15.2011 - The next day, applied for and picked up a general business license ($123 prorated from $150 plus $50 one time fee) from City Hall which is required by Vancouver city bylaws for anyone who does any sort of work that results in profit.
9. 03.16.2011 - Got a call from HSBC to confirm my information but I missed the call. Then it took about 6 days calling in every other day or so to sort things out. 03.22.2011 - went into HSBC Cambie branch to show my company documents which I received in the mail during the week. Lesson learned: just go into the bank in person to apply for a business bank account, the turnaround time is much faster.
10. 03.18.2011 - Certificate of Incorporation comes in the mail.
11. 03.21.2011 - Start the process of changing my individual developer account on Apple to company developer account.
12. 03.22.2011 - Went into HSBC to show them my documentation and applied for a BMO no fee 1.5% cashback business Mastercard credit card in person.
13. 03.24.2011 - Received a request from Apple for my company documentation to be faxed. I tried faxing my Notice of Articles to them but apparently my fax machine doesn't work through VOIP phonelines or something didn't quite work. 7 days later after numerous attempt to get in email contact with Apple enrollment, I tried FaxZero.com which only allowed me to fax 3 pages at a time (scanned pdf), so I sent 2 x 3 page faxes with my Notice of Articles, Certificate of Incorporation, and documents showing my business number. This was now 03.31.2011.
14. 04.01.2011 - Received my HSBC business direct bank account package in the mail. Came with a nice security key generating device for use with the online banking.
15. My next steps are to finish the current iPhone app that I'm working on so that I can generate some income!
Still waiting for BMO mastercard to arrive and for Apple to approve my company application. I will update these steps with the results the next coming few days. Stay tuned.
Updated: My BMO mastercard arrived and Apple approved my company application after a few days. Now back to working on the gameRock Sliders Smart Target (formerly known as Rock Sliders).
1. Decide that you need to start a small business. My reason was that I wanted to do iPhone game development to start generating income.
2. Research about the difference between Sole Proprietor and Incorporated business. I chose Incorporated since it only costs $400 and offers you the highest protection for my personal assets and limits liabilities. Worth every penny to be safe.
3. Apply for name registration for corporation at https://www.bcregistrynames.gov.bc.ca/nro. I was careful to follow the naming rules and also to choose 3 different names. I chose Inc. instead of Ltd. since Ltd was an old style that's no longer needed in BC and Inc. is more accepted worldwide.
4. After 1 day, the registration was approved and I went to incorporate online at https://www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca
5. After submitting, I waited a few days for the official incorporation certificate to come in the mail, but it didn't come yet so I called in to the helpdesk phone number listed on the website. The friendly woman on the other end gave me my official business number.
6. 03.14.2011 - Purchased www.RosePearStudio.com domain and web hosting at Namecheap.com
Can now visit my new site: http://www.rosepearstudio.com/
Nothing on it yet, but when I have time there will =]
7. To get things rolling, I applied for a HSBC Business Direct no fee banking account for the business and used the required business number and business name during the online application.
8. 03.15.2011 - The next day, applied for and picked up a general business license ($123 prorated from $150 plus $50 one time fee) from City Hall which is required by Vancouver city bylaws for anyone who does any sort of work that results in profit.
9. 03.16.2011 - Got a call from HSBC to confirm my information but I missed the call. Then it took about 6 days calling in every other day or so to sort things out. 03.22.2011 - went into HSBC Cambie branch to show my company documents which I received in the mail during the week. Lesson learned: just go into the bank in person to apply for a business bank account, the turnaround time is much faster.
10. 03.18.2011 - Certificate of Incorporation comes in the mail.
11. 03.21.2011 - Start the process of changing my individual developer account on Apple to company developer account.
12. 03.22.2011 - Went into HSBC to show them my documentation and applied for a BMO no fee 1.5% cashback business Mastercard credit card in person.
13. 03.24.2011 - Received a request from Apple for my company documentation to be faxed. I tried faxing my Notice of Articles to them but apparently my fax machine doesn't work through VOIP phonelines or something didn't quite work. 7 days later after numerous attempt to get in email contact with Apple enrollment, I tried FaxZero.com which only allowed me to fax 3 pages at a time (scanned pdf), so I sent 2 x 3 page faxes with my Notice of Articles, Certificate of Incorporation, and documents showing my business number. This was now 03.31.2011.
14. 04.01.2011 - Received my HSBC business direct bank account package in the mail. Came with a nice security key generating device for use with the online banking.
15. My next steps are to finish the current iPhone app that I'm working on so that I can generate some income!
Updated: My BMO mastercard arrived and Apple approved my company application after a few days. Now back to working on the game
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