“Other reasons to start a company when you have a good idea” was how I planned to title this brief reflection, but it didn’t seem entirely appropriate because, after all:
“There are no truths, only hypotheses with an expiration date.”
Every idea is good until proven otherwise. It is true that there are always doomsayers and people who see the drawbacks before the advantages, but these drawbacks, however numerous they may be, do not make the idea better or worse; they should simply compel us to be more or less cautious. I had also thought of calling it ” Other reasons to form a company in uncertain times” to adapt to the situation, which we hope will be temporary everyone, in which we are living these days, but I also did not think it was appropriate to refer to what is currently at the center of our daily concerns. On the other hand, for those who are starting a business venture or putting an idea into practice and launching it on the market, Are there times that are not uncertain? If uncertainty did not exist, it would most likely not be a novel project and perhaps not even an idea, good or bad. In these circumstances, it is better to leave things as they are and forget about embellishing titles.
And for what other reasons? The reasons for forming a company are well known and have been written and discussed at length, so there is no need to delve into them here. The reasons can be of all kinds and all relevant: limitation of liability, separation of assets, contracting, a better calling card for the business community, tax or labor reasons, greater opportunities for financing, protection of tangible or intangible assets, know-how or R&D, as well as a good way to allow others to get involved in the project.
All these reasons justify the incorporation of a company at the start of any project, throughout its development, or when it is nearing maturity, without forgetting that once the project is sufficiently mature, the establishment of a company ceases to be a recommendation or an option and becomes “almost” a necessity (and that ‘almost’ is important because, as Elias Canetti said of Pascal, “its forcefulness always leaves a door open.” When one writes, and even more so when one reflects, having a door open or simply ajar is essential).
In any case, and regardless of the reasons mentioned above, I believe there is another, even less compelling reason that deserves to be mentioned and which, for lack of a more evocative name, we will call “professionalism.” In a world of entrepreneurs, innovators, and creators, sometimes resorting to professionalism is an option that should not be dismissed. Having a company, an instrument, ultimately separate from oneself (separate in the sense of being able to separate oneself from it) can be very useful and should not be dismissed out of hand. Now that all of us who find ourselves confined and dedicated, willingly or unwillingly, to teleworking, are asked to adopt a certain “behavior” to cope with these days, that is, the creation of habits through which to structure the day, the creation of a company—and it certainly has a not inconsiderable cost, especially initially—is nothing more than often nothing more than the implementation of a tool to create the necessary discipline in our professional activity. A company sometimes allows us to separate our professional life from our personal life, it allows us to organize ourselves in a tangible way in terms of who we are when we are professionals or when we are people—which, despite what may be said, are not necessarily the same thing— it sometimes allows us to differentiate between personal decisions and those that must be governed primarily by professional criteria, and it allows us to organize ourselves, to organize our activity by separating everything (including expenses and income) that is part of our professional environment from our personal environment.
I could go on, of course, but the most important points have been made. It may not seem like a very compelling reason, nor does it need to be, but I do believe it is worth considering.
In Madrid under lockdown, March 19, 2020.
