Running a business is a complex task in and of itself. You have all sorts to focus on – everything from market research to product development, staffing, advertising, marketing and much more.
The fact that there are a number of rules and regulations you need to abide by doesn’t make things any easier. The good news is that, as long as you know what you’re doing and who to reach out to for help, you shouldn’t find yourself or your business in any trouble. Here are a few areas to focus on when you first start out!
Making Sure Your Business is Registered
All companies nowadays need to be formally registered. The good news is that registering your company is relatively simple and straightforward. Sure, there are a number of different types of company registration out there, but generally speaking, you’ll know which best suits your business after a little research.
You may want to form a limited company. This makes sure that your business always remains a separate legal entity to you as an individual. This process is also referred to as company formation, company registration or company incorporation – so don’t get confused if you hear these different terms thrown around – they all mean the same thing.
Try not to get confused with the terms as they all basically mean the same thing. Registering as a limited company will make sure that all money, property, assets responsibilities and agreements purchased by, owned by, or agreed by your company are legally separate from your own finances and your own belongings. If your business faces trouble at some point or another, you won’t have to sacrifice your personal home, personal vehicle, or other personal assets if you want to file company bankruptcy.
Making Sure You’ve Paid Your Taxes
If you’re making a profit, you have to pay taxes. Often, we get confused by taxes when we first start out as a business owner, as the majority of us will have been employed up until this point and our employers would have taken tax and other necessary costs out of our salaries before they ever even entered our bank accounts. But when you run your own business, you’ll find that you have to sort your taxes out yourself. This goes for your personal taxes and your company’s taxes.
Generally speaking, the best option is to use the services of an accountant. Figuring out accounts and taxes can be difficult, confusing and complex. An accountant can use their specialist knowledge and qualifications to work out exactly how much you owe, deducting any allowable expenses and potentially resulting in you paying a smaller bill than you would’ve if you tried to figure things out yourself. They can also recommend specialist bank accounts that will have better interest rates of business savings, or a current account that allows you to deal in multiple currencies, reducing fees and costs when engaging with overseas customers or clients.
Familiarising Yourself With Employment Law
At some point or another, you’re bound to take on employees to help keep your business afloat and to push your business forward. But before you do this, you need to make sure that you’re fully familiar with employment law. Employees entail a whole lot of responsibility and you need to ensure that you’re always being fair and looking out for their wellbeing in the workplace. Some areas of employment law that you should definitely look into include:
Let’s focus on discrimination to start off with. It is a legal requisite that you do not discriminate against any of your staff or anyone who may be applying to work at your company. There is a list of protected characteristics that you need to respect. These include age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy, or being or being a transgender person. Never treat any of your staff differently based on discrimination against these aspects of them as people.
There are so many different rules and regulations around running a business that we’ve only just focused on the tip of the iceberg here. But hopefully, the information above has helped to cover some of the basics and will get you off to the right start!
