The Articles of Incorporation for Microtek Incorporated where filed by the State of Michigan on August 18 1998.
Starting my own company was a suggestion by the office manager of a now defunct company for which I worked. This was in 1992. His idea was that he could save his company money by paying all his employees as sub-contractors.
The office manager left his position before this
plan had been put into action. His plan did give me reason to
think about starting my own computer consulting company however.
I had a falling out with the owner of the company over some
actions of the company which I found either poor business practices to
even unethical.
While hired as a programmer, I did little programming.
Instead PC assembly and repair where the typical job duties of the day
(a good experience not withstanding issues with the employer).
One day I was preparing an invoice to be delivered with 5 new
PC I had just assembled and included charges for 5 copies of the
software installed on each machine (1 copy per machine). Upon
reviewing the invoice the employer was very displeased, wanting the
invoice amount to be lower since the buyer was his friend.
The employer set the prices he charged, my "invoice" to him
was a parts list from which the true invoice would be generated.
Telling the owner that I could not be a party to selling 5 copies of
software where only 1 (his internal copy) had been purchased I found
myself unemployed.
Having followed the directive of the company's office manager
the paperwork was started to begin my own company.
I was not sad to leave that employer, however not having and
income was a scary thing to contemplate.
I tried to start my own company with the help of an outfit
called "The Company Corporation", they promised to make things very easy
and would do all the leg work. It turns out all they did was
resubmit the forms I filled out to the State of Delaware (where I do not
live but was told had the best laws to protect corporations). When
the name I had chosen for the company they wanted me to pay more to
re-submit the paperwork with a different company name.
I chose to submit Articles of Incorporation my self in the
state in which I reside. Again my chosen name was unavailable and
had to think of another.
All of this took time and by then it was 1993 I had found an
entry level PC repair position in another local company (also now
defunct). They too wanted to pay me as a sub-contractor.
I had received a letter from the Michigan Department of
Commerce telling me that if I wanted to start a Michigan corporation I
would need to contact them within 30 days or forfeit my filing fee.
I called and after a frustrating (for me) conversation with the very
helpful Corporate Document Examiner at the Michigan Corporation &
Securities Bureau, Document Review Section, Corporation Division the
name Microtek was chosen.
I must say the fine representative of the bureaucracy of the
state of Michigan was helpful and somewhat understanding (not
withstanding his title and that of the
department for which he worked).
He looked up names as I thought of them and had such winners
as Computec Corporation rejected, then Microtech, then spelled Microtec
finally Microtek was not a Michigan corporation. We probably went
through 15 name and variations of their spelling before I found one not
already registered.
I resubmitted the Articles of Incorporation for use by
Domestic Profit Corporations with the new name choice on July 26 1993
and they were filed by the state on August 18 1993.
Thus came into being the corporation with right to due
business for the purpose of doing business with "any activities for
which a corporation may be formed" (from the Articles of Incorporation)
under the name of Microtek Incorporated in the state of Michigan.
I will not say with which firms these lapses in ethics occurred but I witnessed each with my own eyes and tried to rectify them.
While the idea of starting Microtek Incorporated was not initially my idea, the above mentioned lapses (among others) where some of my motivations for following through on the idea.
Thedore Judd Jr.
President
Microtek Incorporated