Legal Question in Business Law in California

Yes, indeed! As a practical matter, you should probably have a reasonably good idea in mind as to what your business activity will be, since at the time you form a corporation or LLC, you'll be committing to a name and a few other details in your application (but not much). Further the name can be changed later, if necessary. One advantage to an early filing is that the Secretary of State's corporate filings office is so backlogged that it can take a couple of months before you get your paperwork back with proof of incorporation or LLC formation. A drawback is that the filing date will be the day the papers were received, and your fee payment and your tax liability will run from then. I have formed several corporations for clients who had business ideas but, to the best of my knowledge, never proceeded beyond forming their corporation. Kind of a waste of money, but maybe better to abandon a business idea in the early stages than to invest money in a losing proposition.

Yes. I fully agree with Mr. Whipple's excellent answer.

Yes, I agree.