Skip to content

Month: December 2014

Idiot’s guide to setting up a business – Part 3: website and email

Once you have the url secured, next step is to setup a simple website. Decide on the hosting provider. I highly recommend NetHosted, who provides awesome customer support. Transfer DNS to new hosting provider. If the hosting provider has one click setup of WordPress, go and set it up. There are many other solutions out there, but given the market dominance of WordPress, its really not worth thinking about others. Select a WordPress template and install it. I would suggest you go ahead with a free template to start with, as you are likely to change this after few months of running…

Idiot’s guide to setting up a business – Part 2: selecting a name

Selecting a business name is not as easy as you think. Brainstorm Within your team. Don’t forget to leverage your network. Read the story about how I crowdsourced UnifiedVU. You may also want to tap into some of the new services which help you generate alternative names, e.g. Naminum. Check availability of company on companies house website. Grab the url. If you went for an exotic Top Level Domain (TLD), grab the .com if available. Don’t bother with all other domains, unless you want to burn your startup cash. Grab the Twitter handle. You cannot create a company page on LinkedIn…

Idiot’s Guide to setting up a business – Part 1: Registering your business

I’ve decided to record setting up my 8th venture with the hope that it will be useful to those who might be considering setting up their own business. One of the key aspects of setting up a new business is registering your company. Here are the steps I followed: Choose a legal structure for your business, e.g. sole trader, limited company, partnership, etc. I chose “limited company”.  Go here for further reading. Decide where the registered address should be, e.g Manchester, London, etc. Do you value having a prominent location, even though you might not actually meet anyone there? Decide whether you are happy to…