Legally, who needs to be made aware when you start an online business?

[Dannydee]

When you're starting an online business from home, who are the right people to update?

I called my mortgage provider to let them know, and after checking with their admin team, they said it should all be fine to go ahead with, but that I should tell my local council and get approval from them. Then I need to send my mortgage provider, by post, the business details and the approval from the council.

Is that normal procedure? I don't mind doing it, in fact, I've already made a call to the council (didn't speak to the right person yet), but what exactly does the council have to do with it? They just collect the bins

 

[Mark T Jones]

Your council will have absolutely no interest if its just you sitting at a desk.

Your insurers might need to know, especially if you are holding stock or receiving visitors.

Obviously HMRC

 

[Dannydee]

Your council will have absolutely no interest if its just you sitting at a desk.

Your insurers might need to know, especially if you are holding stock or receiving visitors.

Obviously HMRC

None of these is likely to happen. I don't see myself holding meetings or anything here. Maybe if we (I) grow into something big, but I don't think any of that is going to come into consideration for quite some time, if ever. Nothing physical is planned. All digital.

I've registered on Companies House, I don't need to inform them until within 3 months of beginning to actually trade, correct? So, when I make my first sale, I have 3 months?

 

[DontAsk]

The council might be interested if you start getting lots of visitors or deliveries, and someone complains.

 

[Dannydee]

The council might be interested if you start getting lots of visitors or deliveries, and someone complains.

Nothing like that will be happening; it's a completely online, fully digital business proposal

 

[DontAsk]

In that case, crack on.

Another interested party is your bank. You should setup a separate bank account (doesn't have to be with the same bank), even if operating as a sole trader, as many personal accounts prohibit their use for business.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

It's no different than a self employed trades person who registers their self employment

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

None of these is likely to happen. I don't see myself holding meetings or anything here. Maybe if we (I) grow into something big, but I don't think any of that is going to come into consideration for quite some time, if ever. Nothing physical is planned. All digital.

I've registered on Companies House, I don't need to inform them until within 3 months of beginning to actually trade, correct? So, when I make my first sale, I have 3 months?

What do you expect to turnover in a year?

 

[Dannydee]

What do you expect to turnover in a year?

Honestly no idea. Which I agree sounds like I don't know what I'm doing but the market I'm jumping into is booming. I want to get my website polished and published, then we can zone in on that stuff with more focus.

Why do you ask?

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Honestly no idea. Which I agree sounds like I don't know what I'm doing but the market I'm jumping into is booming. I want to get my website polished and published, then we can zone in on that stuff with more focus.

Why do you ask?

I wondered why you are registering a limited company with Companies House and giving yourself other things to think about if your just starting out?

I had a rolling start in business. Set up in the dining room, had occasional deliveries and customers calling, waited until turnover reached a certain point, went Limited and moved into premises. Apart from advising our mortgage provider and house insurer and making some covert enquiries about the councils position, which as a sole trader with no employees wasn't an issue, just cracked on.

 

[fisicx]

@Dannydee - you don’t really need to tell anyone right now. Just launch and see what happens.

 

[Dannydee]

I wondered why you are registering a limited company with Companies House and giving yourself other things to think about if your just starting out?

I had a rolling start in business. Set up in the dining room, had occasional deliveries and customers calling, waited until turnover reached a certain point, went Limited and moved into premises. Apart from advising our mortgage provider and house insurer and making some covert enquiries about the councils position, which as a sole trader with no employees wasn't an issue, just cracked on.

I have a vison for the future whether this particular idea works out, or if I need to pivot in a different direction. So I figured I may as well get some of these things in place from the offset so I can hit the ground running and essentially be able to focus all my energies on what I'm doing rather than having to think about company setup, etc, at some point later.

Since 2018, I have attempted a few online businesses, and been building websites and using different CMS's since then. I'm not new to this stuff, I had a limited company from 2018 to about 2021. Granted, things didn't work and I never made any money (it was a half-a$$ed attempt), but that's why I'm going all-in now. A lot of this stuff is not entirely new to me, although I know a lot more now than I did then. I'm also halfway through a masters in business.

So yes, I'm currently a start-up, but I have experience of failure behind me and I've decided this is the one I'm going to make work.

EDIT: One of those business failures was technically a success. The website I had at the time gave me more credibility when applying for the job I'm in now. I have my current career thanks to that last business "failure", at least partly. My boss appreciated my entrepreneurial spirit. His words.

 

[fisicx]

In which just do it. Don’t register for a limited company, you can do this at any time in the future.

Get marketing and generate some leads and see where it takes you.

 

[Dannydee]

In which just do it. Don’t register for a limited company, you can do this at any time in the future.

Get marketing and generate some leads and see where it takes you.

It's already registered as a company, on September the 1st. I wanted to get it out of the way but I also wanted to secure the name so that no-one else did.

So now I can just get on with polishing my website and move onto marketing/generating interest/leads.

 

[fisicx]

Don’t bother polishing the website. If it functions start marketing. You will be reworking the site in response to user behaviours so don’t delay launch and evaluation.

I started with a pretty naff site but the offer had value so it generated leads from day 1. I refined, adjusted and updated over the following 5 years until I moved on to something else.

 

[Dannydee]

Don’t bother polishing the website. If it functions start marketing. You will be reworking the site in response to user behaviours so don’t delay launch and evaluation.

I started with a pretty naff site but the offer had value so it generated leads from day 1. I refined, adjusted and updated over the following 5 years until I moved on to something else.

Thanku that gives me a much needed boost of encouragement. Why? Because, whilst my site currently looks pretty good if I do say so myself (last weekend I completely scrapped the website I'd spent a month on and started over from scratch ), I keep trying to perfect it by adding more. I need "XYZ" section, and a "use cases" section. And then when I've done those I'd probably think of something else.

You're right I need to get it live, once I've connected email capture and products etc (after testing).

Like you said I'm undoubtedly going to be refining the site anyway, so why wait any longer.

 

[fisicx]

Upgrade your UKBF membership and get the website reviewed. There are a lot of members here with all sorts of background who will point out all the bits you have missed.

 

[Scalloway]

It's already registered as a company, on September the 1st. I wanted to get it out of the way but I also wanted to secure the name so that no-one else did.

You don't need to use the limited company straight away. Just leave it dormant and activate it when the business is shown to be viable.