Who we help
Start the way you would like to continue.
The decisions taken in the first few months shape the next few years. We help new UK businesses choose a structure, complete the right registrations and build habits that will still work at ten times the size.
- Structure decided before anything is filed
- Company formation and registrations
- A first-year deadline plan in writing
Overview
What a new business actually has to do
The administrative side of starting up is smaller than most people fear, but the order matters. Choosing a structure comes before incorporating. Incorporating comes before registering for corporation tax. Setting up a bank account and a record-keeping method comes before the first invoice, not after the fiftieth.
Doing it in that order costs almost nothing extra. Doing it out of order tends to mean correcting things later, which does cost.
What you get
How we support new businesses
Practical help through the first year, without treating you as a smaller version of a large client.
Structure advice
Sole trader, partnership or limited company, based on your expected profit, risk and how your customers prefer to contract.
Formation and registrations
Incorporation where appropriate, plus corporation tax, PAYE and VAT registrations as required.
First-year deadline plan
A dated schedule of every filing and payment obligation in year one, issued in writing at the start.
Record-keeping set-up
A method proportionate to your size, with a clear separation between business and personal money from day one.
Cash-flow habits
Setting money aside for tax, watching the VAT threshold and knowing what the business can actually afford to pay you.
Somebody to ask
Routine questions in the first year are included, because that is exactly when they arise most often.
More detail
The first-year checklist
The specifics depend on your structure, but a new business typically needs to work through the following.
- Decide on a structure, and register the business appropriately
- Register with HMRC for the taxes that apply: corporation tax, Self Assessment, PAYE or VAT
- Open a bank account used exclusively for the business
- Choose a record-keeping method and start using it from the first transaction
- Understand which filing dates apply to you and put them in a calendar
- Set aside a proportion of income for tax from the outset
- Check whether you need insurance, licences or registrations specific to your sector
Advice we give more often than any other
Separate the money. A dedicated account for the business, used consistently, saves more time and money at the year end than any piece of software. It also makes it far easier to see whether the business is genuinely working.
Do not over-buy at the start. New businesses often subscribe to more tools than they need. Start with what your volume justifies and add more when the volume actually appears.
Ask early. A question asked before a decision is usually free to answer. The same question asked afterwards can involve unwinding something.
Questions
Common questions
If something is not covered here, ask us directly and we will give you a straight answer.
Before you incorporate, if you are considering a company. The structure and share decisions are much easier to get right at the start than to change later, and the conversation itself usually takes less than an hour.
Not at all. The pre-trading stage is the best time to plan, and pre-trading expenditure can often be treated properly if it is recorded from the outset rather than reconstructed later.
We can prepare the financial information investors and lenders typically ask for, and explain how funding will appear in your accounts. We are not investment advisers and we do not raise finance on your behalf.
Fees for a pre-trading or early-stage business are usually modest, because the work is small. We would rather start with a proportionate arrangement and grow with you than quote as though you were already established.
Starting a new UK business?
Tell us where you are up to and we will set out what you need to do next, in order, with a fee to match the size of the job.