Accountants and lawyers are probably screaming “don’t listen to this lunatic.”
There are plenty of good reasons to incorporate your farm business. One damn good one would be because you don’t want to buy land in your own name. We’ll talk about that another time.
If you want to start a food hub, an urban farm or you don’t have money to buy a land, do yourself a favour, don’t make the same mistake I did.
Here’s why you probably shouldn’t incorporate your farm business too soon.
Starting is hard
You have to overcome inertia. You have to use your own energy and resources to get the ball rolling. The bigger the ball, the harder it is.
I suggest that you simply start small right now and worry about legalities later.
Don’t repeat my mistakes
I incorporated the company behind Farmwell one month after having the original idea. It was a great idea at the time. Plus, having a legal business behind the idea made me feel good.
I estimated that it’ll only take 3 months to build and launch Farmwell.
Was I ever naive… It took two years, full time!
That was two years of accounting fees, filing fees and legal fees. I did the books myself to save money, but please don’t ask how much time I wasted testing, choosing, configuring and switching accounting software. As an ex-SAP consultant it was important to do it “right”.
That corporate attitude nearly killed my small business.
The bottom line is…IT DOESN’T MATTER!
To start your farm business, you need to produce and sell something. Do this before anything else, even if it’s just veggies out of your mom’s backyard.
It’s easy to think that you’re working when really you’re just wasting time on unimportant details. They may be important later, but they probably aren’t now.
When legal costs and formalities steal precious resources away from your farm business, there might not even be a later.
If you have a similar story, or think I’m completely out to lunch, leave your comments below.
