Question

Starting a business

Asked by: Slothson

Its abit off topic but I couldnt find a more suitable section to put this in. Ive come up with an idea for a website and am wondering how you go about doing everything legally. I live in the UK.

So the questions I have:

1) Do you need to register the name of your business/website (trading name)?
2) Do you need a personal/business bank account to take online transfers ?
3) Are you allowed to promote/quote/link to information on other websites (lets say another website is selling a toaster at £15 can I put this information on my website)?
4) Any other things I should know about how to get started?

Thanks.

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Asked On
2003-09-22 at 02:32:20ID20744909
Topic

Internet Marketing

Participating Experts
4
Points
125
Comments
9

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Answers

 

by: duzPosted on 2003-09-22 at 04:24:27ID: 9404931

Slothson -

Q 1) - You need to register a domain name for your website and if you are running a business you may want to set up a 'trading as' or a limited company as well. Registering a .co.uk domain is easy once you have found one that is not in use and that you like. You can test to see if what you like is available here http://www.nic.uk/ e.g. type in available.co.uk and you will see that it is already registered, type in howabouthisone.co.uk and you will see it is not registered. You will need somewhere to put your website (hosting) and many hosting services will give you a free domain name registration when you sign up.

Q 2) - You need a bank account so people can pay there money into it. Banks will normally only allow you to collect money over the internet form a credit card purchase (merchant account) if you are well established. If you are not you have to go through a third party like WorldPay http://www.worldpay.co.uk/ and of course they charge more.

Q 3) - Yes you are and in some cases the website selling the toaster will pay you a commission, this is called affiliate marketing and is big business on the web. The Amazon website explains their scheme rather well http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/subst/associates/join/associates.html and there are a million company schemes like this.

Q 4) - Yes many things to learn if you are starting from scratch, begin by getting a few books out of the library!

- duz

 

by: SlothsonPosted on 2003-09-22 at 05:01:28ID: 9405091

Thanks for your advice duz, just to elaborate a bit more on my questions.

Q1) I have registered the domain names for my site and am still working on developing it. Is it sufficient to just have the name or should copyright/register that name.

Q2) Im thinking of using worldpay with personal bank account. So will I have to take money as my name or can I use the name of the website

My main concerns are am I allowed to use the name of the website without copyrighting it?
If someone were to trade under the same name could I get in trouble?
Can I accept payments into my personal bank account?
Do I have to keep a record of every transcation so I can show this to the taxman?
Can I accept money as my name or the company name?



 

by: duzPosted on 2003-09-22 at 06:16:42ID: 9405442

Slothson -

"Is it sufficient to just have the name or should copyright/register that name."

It is just sufficient to just have the domain, assuming no one is using the domain name off the internet in which case they will be after you!

"Im thinking of using worldpay with personal bank account"

I wouldn't use a personal account because your name would appear on your customers credit card statements. If you opened a bank account with someone like Royal Bank of Scotland (Free Digital Banking at the moment!) using your domain name that would be better. i.e. The account would be domainname.com T/A Joe Bloggs and domainname would appear on cc statements.

"My main concerns are am I allowed to use the name of the website without copyrighting it?"

Providing no one else can claim prior copyright - yes. (And of course it must be copyrightable not generic)

"If someone were to trade under the same name could I get in trouble?

Not if you were doing it first.

"Can I accept payments into my personal bank account?"

I think WorldPay require a trading or company account and I think it would be better. WorldPay are owned by RBS which is why I suggested them.

"Do I have to keep a record of every transcation so I can show this to the taxman?"

Yes but you can print these off from the WorldPay Admin Panel.

"Can I accept money as my name or the company name?"

Not sure what you mean by this but I hope the answer is above somewhere :)

- duz













 

by: KenAdneyPosted on 2003-10-01 at 10:57:43ID: 9468559

I very strongly recommend you speak with an accountant about setting up the business before you get in too deep.  One consideration is that you want protect yourself from any liability (i.e. don't let your assets be the company's assets).  This is critical before you tackle the method of producing and selling any product.

 

by: WitchazelPosted on 2003-11-18 at 17:03:40ID: 9775459

A trick you can do while your are developing (as your prolly dont have alot of money for business setup now) is write down your plan and your idea and mail it to yourself.  do not open it.  the post mark is kinda of a notory of the time,  this is a poor persons copywrite :)  as soon as you get time and money (best before you go live) get an business lawyer and make sure everything is setup right.

 

by: duzPosted on 2003-11-19 at 03:26:16ID: 9777886

Witchazel -

FYI the logic of this procedure is that once your envelope enters the United States post office it becomes a federal document and The post office, which is a federal agency, stamps a date on it.

The questioner says "I live in the UK" and in the UK The post office is not a federal agency.

- duz
 

 

by: WitchazelPosted on 2003-11-19 at 10:38:01ID: 9781333

oopsie  sorry

 

by: webtechyPosted on 2004-03-25 at 15:25:39ID: 10682791

My suggestions would be:

(1) Write a business plan! Do the figures ... will this scheme actually work? Be strict with yourself.
(2) Set-up a limited company so that you are not personally liable (to an extend anyway). Speak to your accountant (get one if you don't already), they will normally do this for around £100.
(3) Set-up a business account - most banks do 12 months with no charges. This will also help with your accounts as your business and personnal finances are kept separate.
(4) Get a simple accounts package ... such as ClearlyBookkeeping which is suggested by Barclays or something similar. Get a basic idea of how to use tihs if you have no experience ... you can get an introductory training day I would suspect for most of these packages.
(5) Relating to (1), think about how you are going to market your site. Such as Google AdWords, Overture, banner advertising. Also look at marketing in the real world, such as local papers, and check when your Yellow Pages comes out.
(6) Purchase a domain name that is ideally search engine optimised (i.e. contains some keywords that relates to your site).
(7) Write a project proposal for the site ... i.e. everything you need the site to do. The more thorough you can be, the more accurate and realistic a quote you will get back from a web development company.
(8) Get the site developed.

Might also be worth talking to a solicitor with regards to the small print you should have on your site to protect yourself ... be careful here - lawyers can be expensive though! I would suggest you put all the writing together (look at other sites) and then forward it to a solicitor for them to check and suggest amendments - i.e. reduce their work load to reduce costs.

Hope that helps a little, and good luck!

Ben.
www.webtechy.co.uk

 

by: webtechyPosted on 2004-03-25 at 15:27:05ID: 10682797

PS To register your domain name I would recommend someone like www.ukreg.com (nothing in that for me, it's just who I use as they are reasonably priced and it really does belong to you).

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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