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Setting up a company 101

We have stepped into 2021, with the push of a New Year some of you might be considering to go it alone and open your own small business.

 

Now there’s lots of different types of businesses that you can open, endless possibilities. A physical shop, restaurant, coffee shop, bar, food delivery service, micro bakery and so much more.

 

And if making food isn’t your thing how about an e-commerce site to sell your favourite wines, an app aimed at streamlining restaurant budgeting or maybe you want to be a private chef either in people’s houses, corporate or digitally via zoom.

 

We want you to know that it’s all 100% possible.

 

So what do you need to know if you want to start your own small business? Come up with a name! This doesn’t have to be it forever; you can always change it in the future.

 

Take a piece of paper and map it out. Don’t psych yourself up into thinking you need an immediate business plan, you don’t.

 

Start writing all about this business, what is it, why are you starting it, what will it do, what will it become, what do you need to make it happen.

 

When you start your own business you don’t need to be at 100% when you launch, the beauty of this day and age is that we have more resources than ever. So if you’re in your very early stages, start drumming up interest on socials and testing your idea with friends. Do your research! Which businesses do you admire and what does your dream business look like? Even if you’re working full time somewhere else, use your free time to put the work in by doing your background work.

 

Have you considered reaching out to business owners that you admire and asking for 5 minutes of their time to ask them questions about how they started? If your dream is to start your own restaurant, bakery or food business how about using this time to road test your product on your local community? If you want to teach why not set up a few zoom classes for friends and family members to test it out?

 


 

The nitty gritty:

 

Once you’ve tested your idea out a bit and know what you want to do you have a few options, here are some useful pointers:

 

If you want to start making food in your home to sell you’ll need to register your business either with your local authority or here, registration is free and can take 28 days.

https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/register-a-food-business

 

Now, you don’t need to set your company up as a limited company to begin with, especially if you are just roadtesting your idea. However, if the business starts to take off and you want to separate the financials into a manageable business format you can set up a limited company. If you already have an accountant sometimes they can advise you on how best to do this and for a small fee could also do it for you. However you can also do it yourself pretty easily, here’s a useful step-by-step guide on how to do it:

 

Set up a limited company step by step
https://www.gov.uk/set-up-limited-company

 

https://couriermedia.co/product/courier-howtostartabusiness

 

Nowadays, social media can help your business take off without the need for traditional marketing and PR tactics. Once you’ve sorted a business name, set up an instagram page, a facebook page, tiktok/twitter, LinkedIn – whatever you feel is the most relevant to your business and go!

 

If you want to find out more about how to effectively start an instagram page watch this space, we’ll be hooking you up soon!


 

Words by Countertalk

Photos

Caitlin Isola

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