E-commerce starting out help

[Yoro35i]

Hello everyone

I tired to search for answers but with no luck and google has pointed me this way.

I am about to start a online shop importing goods to sell imports from asia aiming at a small market. I have done all the research and planning for the start up however when I did my degree I never took e-commerce as a subject (only did management related studies)so I am not quite sure on a few procedures.

1. Registration - I know I need to register my company but is there a specific place to register an online shop? Or would I just register it like a normal company via companieshouse.gov IN01 form?

2. If I registered my online shop to my home address will that make my home a business address? Reason being is that I am living at home and I don't want to mess up my parents council tax or other related stuff from paying a personal rate to business rate.

3. I have contacted some freelance web creator for my project which consist of a fully tailored design of the website and implementing stocks,weight,payments , unlimited items etc etc starting at 1600 Gbp does this seem right? I want to be able to customise my web page background and update stuff by myself ...would u guys recommended someplace I can look?


Thanks in advance

[amac]

1. Registration - I know I need to register my company but is there a specific place to register an online shop? Or would I just register it like a normal company via companieshouse.gov IN01 form?

Companies House is where you register your company.

2. If I registered my online shop to my home address will that make my home a business address? Reason being is that I am living at home and I don't want to mess up my parents council tax or other related stuff from paying a personal rate to business rate.

Register at home is fine, you might want to register it elsewhere in which case you'd fine premises or even a mail box routing service.

3. I have contacted some freelance web creator for my project which consist of a fully tailored design of the website and implementing stocks,weight,payments , unlimited items etc etc starting at 1600 Gbp does this seem right? I want to be able to customise my web page background and update stuff by myself ...would u guys recommended someplace I can look?

That sounds reasonable - assuming it's a fixed price. You can also hire by the hour, might be a better option for you. There are plenty of third party marketplaces for talent e.g Elance, oDesk where you can see going market rates for programming work.

[Fred_the_frog]

Originally Posted by Yoro35i

Hello everyone

I tired to search for answers but with no luck and google has pointed me this way.

I am about to start a online shop importing goods to sell imports from asia aiming at a small market. I have done all the research and planning for the start up however when I did my degree I never took e-commerce as a subject (only did management related studies)so I am not quite sure on a few procedures.

1. Registration - I know I need to register my company but is there a specific place to register an online shop? Or would I just register it like a normal company via companieshouse.gov IN01 form?

2. If I registered my online shop to my home address will that make my home a business address? Reason being is that I am living at home and I don't want to mess up my parents council tax or other related stuff from paying a personal rate to business rate.

3. I have contacted some freelance web creator for my project which consist of a fully tailored design of the website and implementing stocks,weight,payments , unlimited items etc etc starting at 1600 Gbp does this seem right? I want to be able to customise my web page background and update stuff by myself ...would u guys recommended someplace I can look?


Thanks in advance

amac has it right for a limited company, but you could start up as a sole trader, which means you wouldn't have to register your business, you register yourself on HMRC. You can find the differences between Ltd and sole trader on the accounts (I think) section of the forum- It's a sticky thread.