Startups.ie

[Andy]

Good Afternoon,

I am hoping that you may be able to help me or even point me in the right direction.

I am working full time but I am very interested in setting up my own online site/business which will sell goods to customers such as sporting equipment. I want to do this all the correct way and after much reading about this area am I right in thinking that I have to complete the following steps:

1) Register as a sole trader or self employed (Can I do this even if I continue to work full time?)

2) Register my business name as it will be different from my own name.

3) Open a business bank account under my business name.

4) As I don’t forecast to be earning a substantial amount in the first year I will not be required to register for VAT.

Are the above steps the correct steps to take, I have read much about this on your site but would just like to be sure that I am going in the right direction.

Many Thanks,
Andy

[Stephen]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the post!

Firstly, fair play on branching out from your current position, this is often the most sensible approach as you will still have a salary coming in so you will not put the new business under undue pressure to pay you while it gets off the ground.

1) Yep, register as a sole trader, no problem doing this while you work full time (unless your employment contract says otherwise but who is going to tell them? )

2)Yep, register your business name with the CRO online for €20, you can register as many trading names as you like. The IEDR .ie domain reg guys will want to see a copy of the trading name to prove that you are registering the domain to set up a legit business and not cyber squatting. Also the bank can only cash cheques etc. to registered business names so if you co. is Joe Blogs but a customer writes a cheque to Joes sports depot it could cause problems.

3) The bank will require the compang reg docuements, trading name certificate, proof of addredd (helps if u already bank with them)

None of the above is a big deal!

On another note try talking to bang ecommerce www.bang.ie they will put together an ecommerce site for a max charge of €50 per month (you only pay this amount if you have sales going through the site). You will also need a merchant account no. from the bank if you want to accept online sales.

Hope this helps, don't hesitate to ask any more questions and best of luck,

S

[Andy]

Hi Stephen,

I can not thank you enough for taking the time to send such a detailed response. I am not sure if you are involved in this site but this site and forum is like a breath of fresh air It is so helpful and makes what seems to be very difficult actually fairly easy as each part is broken down in great detail.

Just want to follow up with some more basic questions before I go ahead with this.

1) Do I have the correct order in relation to steps that need to be completed to setup my buisness?

2) Once I register as a sole trader do I need to fill out tax forms or something similar every two weeks or how would that work as it may take time from when I register to actually receiving money for goods?

3) If I do register for VAT even though I don't plan to make over the threshold would I then still be required to complete these returns or would I only need to worry about this once I go over the thresholds?

Many Thanks Again,
Andy

[Stephen]

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your positive comments, yes this is my baby! I felt that there was a need for a site by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs so I am delighted that you find it useful.

1) Yes you have the correct order, register as a sole trader with the CRO first then register the business name the open the bank account.

2) Once you register as a business you will need to register for VAT only if you intend to charge VAT on sales and claim VAT on purchases. Hold off on this until you are actually making sales unless you are spending a lot of money on setup costs in which case you may be due a VAT refund. You should get advice from an accountant at this stage to decide what is best for you. Don't worry about this until you have money coming through your cashflow forecast will tell you pretty quickly if you are going to surpass the treshold.

3) If you register for VAT you need to make the returns every two months even if it just a zero return. If you ignore the returns revenue get annoyed and may choose you for an audit.

Keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on, hopefully we will be able to profile your business in the Startup stories section soon!

Kind regards,
Stephen