New Businees..advice please.

[speedcop]

i am hoping to start a small business which will be run part time around my current employment. the business will be training and assessing people who drive for a living to a standard in line with the institute of advanced motorists and Rospa advanced drivers association. i will also be trageting private individuals who wish to become better drivers. i have a business name sorted out and have checked that its available to use through companies house. However. this project is in its very early stages and i know a lot of work is required before i can trade. i wish to register the company name to prevent others from using it. What's my best option? and what will it cost me? Is it possible to register now as a private limited company even though i am not ready to trade? If i just register the company name do i have to pay an annual fee to retain it??
Any help or advice gratefully received.

Graeme.

[roy]

I'll leave the business legislation to someone else but, at the risk of getting the reply 'Of Course!', I guess you are a qualified ADI?

If I remember from my own teaching days the regulations state you have to be an ADI to offer driver training for reward. It doesn't specifically state just provisional licence holders. If this might affect you please check the current regs in case it has changed in the last 15 years.

[wecando.biz]

Yes, you need to register the business with Companies House - this is the only real way of ensuring no one else takes the name first. I have used these guys before to help me set up companies:

http://www.madesimplegroup.com/ - Made Simple Group

As well as registration online in minutes they can also offer other services you might find helpful.

When you register HMRC will be told and send you the corporation and VAT stuff by post, but you don't have to submit these until 3 months after you have started trading.

Regards

IH

[roy]

Further to my ADI comments I can offer a little advice on the business name. If it's good, then protect it. Not just with companies house. Talk to Michael Flynn, an independant IP specialist and a long standing friend of mine. He will be able to advise you.

http://www.flynn-IP.com

[tdmoggy]

Alternatively, to register your company yourself should not cost you more than £35 if you do it yourself.

£20 for the company registration which you will pay to companies house, plus £15 for the memo and articles of association, which you can download from an online stationer like oyez.

tdm

[CanzDesign]

And buy your domain name right now, even buy 2 or three names that aren't maybe your business name, but names that have keywords in them that people might use to search for your business..... then just let them sit and mature, say in a year or so, when you are ready to build your website, the search engines will consider them good mature websites, and worth ranking.....

I gave this advice to someone 4 years ago, they brought the names they wanted, left them for two years, then came back to me and asked me to build their site, you just do whats called park the other domains on top of the main one.

Anyway, within a few days their domain names were showing in search engines, and have only gotten better ever since.... but then I'm a darn good SEO and that didn't hurt either.

But no, buy the domain names and just park them.... it will be worth it, would also pay to start a blog as well, just a free blogspot or similar one, and start blogging once a month, you won't regret it.

Hey, and best of Luck.

[OscarM]

Hey Speedcop,

If you do go with themadesimplegroup, specifically companiesmadesimple.com you'll find that you can register your company for about £25. That will include the filing fee to Companies House along with the memorandum and articles of association. It is all done online as well, so its a lot easier than dealing with all the paper forms.