CONVERTING YOUR BUSINESS NAME TO A COMPANY; The Flow...

Last year, I assisted a client to register her business name. She was into fashion designing and she wanted to legalize the name. I registered it for her and she was happy.

Fast forward to last week, she reached out to me that she wanted to Incorporate a company as her business had expanded and she wanted to start a fashion school.

Woow. I was really happy to hear that. I love to hear my client's success stories. I want all my clients to excel in their business and expand.

But then she asked it was possible to "delete" the business name and then incorporate the company.

Imagine her surprise when I told her, she doesn't need to delete the business name. I advised her to just convert the business name to a company.

She was really surprised...

I was also surprised because I believed everyone should know this already...

Well, if you are part of the business owners that do not know about this, then read this article to the end...

First thing I would say is that, it is very possible to convert your business name to a company and expansion is not the only you should consider this conversion.

The other reasons includes but not limited to the following:

1. Bringing in a partner to the business.
2. Foreign participation
3. Regulatory requirements.
4. Insistence of Investors to the business.
5. Personal Interest.

There are however certain things you should keep in mind and comply with before you could start the conversion process:

1. Annual returns of the business name must be filed up to date.
2. Status of the business name must be active on the portal.
3. Get the regulatory requirements for the specific types of business. Example required for 2 directors or shareholders, Foreign participation etc.
4. Minimum share capital for the business operations. etc.

Now when you have compiled with these mentioned requirements. The application can be filed in the following steps.

1. Getting a reservation code. This is basically getting approval from the Registrar-General for the conversion of the business name to a Company.
2. Completing the registration. After getting the reservation code, the next thing is to fill the portal with all the remaining required information.
3. Paying the filing fees depending on the share capital of the proposed company.
4. Get your Incorporation documents.

Note:

The filing fee for a conversion is more than that of incorporating a company from the scratch.

You can be the sole shareholder of the new company except required otherwise by regulations. You can also be the sole director.

Your child of 8 years cannot become a director in the company. But she can be a shareholder in as much as there are two other adult shareholders.

The cost of application is not fixed and it depends on the share capital of the company.

If you have a partner, please get and sign a co-founders agreement.

Send me a dm for more information to convert your business name to a company..

I hope this helps.

My name is Omolayo Olorunsola and I am your go-to Business lawyer.