[thelist] Sole proprietor

[Kevin Stevens]

I've found the response to this very interesting, as I'm sure anyone on the
List who is thinking of doind the same thing has. The answers seem to be
U.S.-centric so I thought I would add my experience of setting up business
in the U.K. Basically, I used to live with my accountant and he set
everything up for me. This can be done in 2 ways...

1. Buy an "off the shelf" company name. This is the cheaper of the 2
options, and means that you can buy a name that bears no resemblance to the
name you wish to use, but you get a chequebook with "Off the shelf name
trading as My Web Design Company".

2. You can see if the company name you want is already in use, and if it is
not then you can buy it, but this is more expensive and can take longer.

An amusing anecdote: when we tried to register Rat King as a company name we
were initially refused by Companies House because the name sounded
derogatory towards the Royal Family. To use the name we first had to seek
permission from the Royals, which was eventually granted. I bet Burger King
never had that problem :)

I'm kinda worrying if this is one of those "grey areas" mentioned earlier,
so to protect myself from the wrath of the Evolt Empire I humbly offer up a
tip...

<tip author="the voice of experience">
If you are using a template for all your web pages, make sure you validate
it before you stick hundreds of pages up on the Web. It is much easier to
correct one page than many.
</tip>

Kevin Stevens
kjs at ratking.co.uk