Going ltd

[wispafish]

I running several small businesses, one a trade and two small ecommerce businesses as well as a goldfish farm. They are all fairly new but bringing me enough income to live on. Each of these have seperate accounts. The trouble with that is i seem to be spending a long time on the accounting and there are things that cross over such as trailer hire for the trade i will sometimes tie it in with a delivery of fish. Im considering setting up a limited company to basically protect me as i expand. Can i put all these businesses under one trading ltd name. Is this possible? and will it save me time on accounting and also give me protection if something goes wrong?
Many Thanks.

 

[Scalloway]

I don't see anything wrong in putting them all into one limited company. I would keep a certain amount of separation in the accounting for each business so you could see if one sector was losing money.

 

[wispafish]

Thanks for the reply. What about things like paypal accounts. At present im running three accounts. Would it be better to set up one in the ltd companies name and have everything go into that.

 

[Scalloway]

Yes Paypal should be in the name of the ltd co.

 

[Socio South West]

Certainly nothing wrong with running them under one company umbrella - they needn't lose their current trading style either: They can trade as a division of your company.

As Scalloway says, its very wise to be able to separate the accounts for each division so you can quickly see how each is performing: Quickbooks is one package that would allow you to do this reasonably quickly and easily from one set of financial information

 

[1st Formations]

You can certainly put all of the businesses under a limited company, and may be better off doing so. Combining the income you're generating from all three businesses under one company may make it more beneficial tax-wise - though you'd be best to advise the specifics of your situation with an accountant of course.

You can still keep the identity of each individual business by just using a trading name for day to day business activities too. We offer a range of limited company formation packages you may find helpful.