Some months ago, I had the pleasure of having my morning coffee with a new customer at the shop. When I asked how she wound up in our little space, among other things, she explained that she was drawn to Kaladi because it isn't "a vast soulless corporation".
For a moment, I felt like a vampire on a day pass...because Kaladi is actually a DBA (Doing Business As) of a Colorado Corporation.
It's a common view: a corporation is a business entity that gets unfair tax breaks from the IRS, hires goons to break the knuckles of striking workers, and cheats employees out of their retirement savings. Jeff Skilling and his pals at Enron (or substitute Tyco, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, etc...) have colorfully reinforced the notion that "corporations are evil". Unfortunately, newspapers rarely report on the good things that good corporations do because...well...good stuff is boring. Nobody posts pictures of Britney Spears when she is captured being a tender and responsible mother, you know?
A decade ago, Mark and I incorporated because it made for a clear presentation of our responsibilities with respect to the business we do together, and because it made ownership (and Ownership's dark twin Taxation) a matter of boilerplate mechanics. Incorporation doesn't affect the nature of our shop, the coffee we buy, or the way we work with our customers. I like to think that soulless corporations are born of soulless people...and soulful corporations are born from soulful people.
Incorporation is kinda like getting married, or just about any other jumping-off in life: it is what you make of it. From soulless people come soulless endeavors, and likewise for benevolent people and good endeavors. Nobody would assume that their neighbor's new baby will turn out to be a disciple of Hannibal Lechter. Perhaps we shouldn't make assumptions about the vastness and soullessness of corporations either.
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