Posted by Luca on June 23rd
Well since my post in January about the business side of things, nothing has really been done. We still have yet to register a business or decide for definate on a name, but I have been looking more into the business structure and what needs to be done to run it.
I think for now we are definately going to have a limited liability partnership structure as this is relatively easy to setup and run, and also has a number of benefits such as abbreviated accounts can be sent in rather than a full set. I also found out that as we are handling personal information we will need to register with the Information Commissioner’s Office under the Data Protection Act and pay £35 per year.
As for a business bank account HSBC looks good. They have an account that is near enough free (they only charge you for cheques and some other things I doubt we will need) and also provide online banking. We will probably end up going with Paypal for their merchant tools, to start with, as it looks relatively easy to setup and isn’t too expensive.
Another thing that I should probably note is that at the moment I am not really thinking about having anyone else (i.e. solicitor or accountant) to help with the running of the business as we start out. Having looked over all the information it doesn’t seem as difficult as I first thought, and I think managing the business side of things should be rather simple as we will have very few different things we are paying for or being paid for.
Anyway, for now nothing is set in stone, and we still have an app to finish before we need to set up a business so I shall let you all know how it turns out in due course.
Posted by Luca on March 9th
Not much to say really today, but I have come across some interesting essays about startups and the initial ’idea’ for your product. Paul Graham made his dosh by creating a platform for creating online stores (in Lisp, yes he must be crazy) and selling it to Yahoo! in 1998 for nearly $50 million worth of stock (nice!).
He then started writing a number of essays about various subjects on his website. In 2005 he decided to start his own startup funding firm Y Combinator which provides seed-stage funding for startups, specifically run by young people.
Anyway, onto the essays. The first is called How to Start a Startup a gives a nice insight into what things need to be done and how to get there (it also gives a nice overview of the various types of funding available if you are not sure on those). The second is called Ideas for Startups and discusses how to come up with the initial idea. One thing I like (and what we are doing with Juvely) is that he points out that a completely new idea is not needed, but just to do better than what other people are doing.
If you are remotely interested in how startups work or interested in starting your own I suggest you give the essays a read. Unfortunately essay is the correct term rather than article as they are rather long, but they do provide a lot of interesting information.
Posted by Luca on January 13th
Other than James asking me whether I wanted to set up a parent company, and then replying “sounds good” we haven’t actually done anything towards setting it up. My idea of how things are going to go are get the beta finished, set up a business, release, watch the money roll in. I doubt it will be quite that easy, so I started looking into it today.
The BusinessLink website hosts a wealth of information about setting up your own business, all the different types there are, what you need to do, and ideas of how much it is going to all cost. The don’t specifically (from what I can find) have any information regarding setting up an e-business but by looking around at different parts you can find the bits you need.
The two types of business that look suitable to us are a private limited company or a limited liability partnership. Both are registered limited companies, so any debts incurred by the company will have to be paid by it, not the induviduals involved within it. The main difference between the two is the a private limited company has to pay taxes on income, and on behalf of employees, where as in a limited liability partnership the profits are shared among partners who have to pay their own taxes.
To setup your own company you do not need anyone special such as a solicitor to do anything, but to setup a private limited company you need a couple of documents. The first is a Memorandum of Association which details what a company does and its name and address, and the second is a Articles of Association which says what a company does and how it is run. Both are legally binding documents and as such most are written up by solicitors, although you can do it yourself. There are a number of online companies that claim to provide you samples and do it for you at a much lower cost than solicitors. A couple of simple forms such as your names and addresses need to be filled in as well and then sent off with your cheque for £20 to Companies House. You can even get so called ‘company formation agents’ who will do all of this for you, but I expect they charge a lot.
Anyway, I shall keep you updated with what happens. If anyone knows of any other good resourses post them here or email me!
Other Stuff
Well for the next two weeks I have got basically no lectures (woo!) but unfortunately have to revise for exams. As or James I think he is in the same sort of position, but he is not having much luck with his internet connection at uni so we haven’t really had chance to discuss much. I will probably get the third (and final) part of my tutorial up sometime next week as well.