Starting a new UK business in 2017
So I have had the opportunity to start a new business in 2017 for a friend, and it's been eye-opening how easy it is these days to get a proper limited company up and running quickly, and with minimal outlay.
1) Domain - Every company should have a domain name. A .co.uk costs £7.99 from 123-reg
2) Email & Cloud storage - G-Suite enabled us to have a single email address with cloud storage for the company files for £33 per year. The cloud storage gives us a common area for notes (Keep) , live spreadsheets (Google Sheets)
3) Limited company formation - You can go direct to Companies House, or use a company formation service such as quickformations.com to register for as little as £10
4) Facebook group was formed to enable customers to converse directly with us (free)
5) Website - Just a little one, so we have something to link to from our Facebook group. £2.99 per month from Krystal
6) Bank account - We went with Lloyds due to familiarity and knowing they integrate with Xero with little issue, but of course there are plenty to chose from with different offers. (Cost £5 per month after 18 months)
7) Paypal for online payments - I am not a fan of Paypal due to the fees and there seems to be a lot of hoops to jump through for a business account. However customers like it as it provides guarantees. (Free to sign up, fee based on usage)
8) Stripe for online payments - To be able to take credit card payments via our book-keeping software. (Free to setup, fees based on usage)
9) Xero - Possibly the biggest monthly cost here - however also the one that can save a lot of time and money. For £22 per month we can do our bookkeeping mostly by ourselves.
10) For our business we also signed up for 3D printing services i.materialise and Shapeways
11) Product liability and professional indemnity insurance!
End product!