How to Setup a Limited Company and Become Your Own Boss
There are many countries across the globe that have great opportunities and wonderful locations to start a business. There is always scope for a bigger market and success there. In some countries, the laws of the state will consider your company to be a separate entity and your personal assets will be safe in case something goes wrong with your company in future. Company formation is not a very difficult task, but you should know the proper way to setup a limited company. When established through the proper legal procedure, your new company will be an asset for you in the future and the process will help you become more financially responsible.
When starting a new business in the UK there are a number of ways for would-be entrepreneurs to go about setting up a company. The most popular two being to set up directly with Companies House (the UK body responsible for company registration) or using a company formation agent.
Regardless of how you go about limited company formation, you’ll need the same information:
A registered office address – This is your new company’s official address. Part and parcel of company registration is that some of your information is placed on the public register and this includes the registered office, so select yours with care. It can be any UK based address that you have permission to use (ie from the landlord), the only caveat being that any official mail from official government bodies such as HMRC is forwarded on to the directors. Residential addresses are allowed but not recommended because of the privacy issue.
At least one director – The director is the person tasked with the day-to-day running of the company and is normally the person taking care of the limited company formation. The amount of company directors you can have is unlimited, but for each one you will require:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Occupation
- Nationality
- Service address (the director’s ‘official’ address)
- Residential address
Other companies can also be a director but your company must have at least one person in the role.
At least one shareholder – This is the person who owns the business. A shareholder does not also have to be a director but in the majority of cases, they are. Again, you can appoint as many shareholders as you want (shareholders appointed during the limited company formation stage are known as subscribers) and other companies can be shareholders. For each shareholder (an unlimited amount can be appointed) you will need:
- Full name
- Service address
- Number of shares held
- Currency of shares held
- Value of shares held
- Type of shares held
At least one person with significant control (PSC) – A relatively new addition to the information that’s required to setup a limited company, this is the person who really owns the company. In the overwhelming majority of cases this will be the same person as the shareholder but was introduced to increase transparency in company registration. For each PSC you will need to supply:
- Full name
- Date of birth
- Occupation
- Nationality
- Service address (the director’s ‘official’ address)
- Residential address
There you have it, the information you’ll need to hand when starting a new business. Everything else (such as the memorandum and articles of association) is normally provided as part of the company registration process, regardless of who you are using for the limited company formation.
Author Bio – Hi, I’m Vincent Jones a professional making weekly articles, PR and Video’s. I have been working with CMS for the last 10 years and have experience in a wide range of business disciplines including Business Management, Financial Services, Company Formation, Travel (by passion) and a few other areas.