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Ultimate Guide To Starting A Business In

North Wales and Chester

July 2, 2016

INDEX

1 Free tools and resources to launch your Chester or North Wales based business

o 1.1 At the very start

1.1.1 Decide your trading status: Sole Trader v Limited Company

1.1.2 2. Inform HMRC that you are going to start a business

1.1.3 3. Get free business advice in North Wales and Chester

1.1.4 4. Write a Business Plan

1.1.5 5. Get a dedicated bank account

1.1.6 6. Find an accountant or do your own accounts

1.1.7 7. Paying staff and wage slips

o 1.2 Launching your Business

1.2.1 8. Choose a Domain Name

1.2.2 9. Check that your social media name is available

o 1.3 Get online

1.3.1 10. Get hosting for your website

1.3.2 11. Create a website

o 1.4 Market your website, products and services

1.4.1 12. Put your site everywhere that your customers may find you

1.4.2 13. LinkedIn

o 1.5 Growing your business

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1.5.1 14. Angel Investment

1.5.2 15. Grant Funding

1.5.3 16. Alternative loans and finance

o 1.6 Summary

Starting a new business can be pretty scary, not to mention complicated, stressful and time

consuming.

Whilst there is other general information available on the web such as “have a unique idea”

or “make sure you stand out from the rest”, there wasn’t a great deal of practical information

available. Until now.

Also, a lot of information is aimed at businesses starting up in Southern England or Scotland

and we felt it was time that entrepreneurs looking to start a new business in North Wales and

Chester should be able to access a free and simple guide on starting a new business.

And here it is.

Below you will find a list of free resources and tools to help you research, develop and build

your new business…Everything from the initial idea, designing a website, marketing and

managing your finances.

Here goes.

Free tools and resources to launch your Chester or North

Wales based business

At the very start

1. Decide your trading status: Sole Trader v Limited Company

There are pros and cons with both (even more if you throw in LLPs and Partnerships).

Getting this bit right is essential as it can have a big impact on your business. Normal rule of

thumb…It cost more to set up as a limited company because you will need to employ an

accountant, however it is the right thing to do if you want to limit how liable you are for any

financial or legal disputes. See the chart below.

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2. Inform HMRC that you are going to start a business

You have 3 months to inform HMRC that you are staing a new business, whether that is as a

sole trader or a limited company. The rules are not hard and fast (you won’t get fined if you

inform them 6 months later) but take it from us, you don’t want to get on the wrong side of

the Revenue.

3. Get free business advice in North Wales and Chester

Business Link used to be the ‘go-to’ resource for this but as they are no longer, you have to

dig a bit deeper to find an agency to help you. Fortunately, in North Wales and Chester there

are a few who can help entrepreneurs at the start of their journey. It’s free advice so why not,

it can’t hurt.

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4. Write a Business Plan

A business plan isn’t always essential. If you are looking for investment or for a loan or

finance then it will be but if you are going to ‘bootstrap‘ your business, there is no need.

Having said that, it is good practice to write one as it will allow you to pinpoint where you

expect to generate revenue and more importantly, what your costs are likely to be and you

can use your business plan as a guide as you continue to grow your business.

5. Get a dedicated bank account

If you are going to trade as a limited company then you will need a Limited Company bank

account and you can get one of these from a variety of places, depending on the credit history

of the individuals acting as company directors. If you are going to be working as a sole trader

then you can actually use your existing personal bank account but we would advise not to as

separating your personal expenses from your business expenses can be awkward.

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6. Find an accountant or do your own accounts

If you are just starting out and you are trading as a sole trader, then our recommendation

would be to use a simple, cloud based free accounting software. It simply records your

income, outgoings and expenses and some of them like Wave (below) will link directly to

your bank account.

If you do wish to use an accountant, make sure you get a full breakdown of what they will

provide for the money they charge and if you can, get one who will charge you monthly, not

annually.

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7. Paying staff and wage slips

If you are looking to employ a few staff and you are not using an accountant, then a free

payroll software is what you need as it will allow you produce HMRC compliant wage slips

for your staff. This is important as you need to get their tax and national insurance sorted out

correctly.

It’s free to use for up to 9 employees.

Launching your Business

8. Choose a Domain Name

You may be saying to yourself, “I should be choosing the company or brand name first, not

the domain name.”

Wrong. If you choose a great company name and then try to find a .co.uk, .com or similar,

you may struggle to do so as there are literally millions of domain names already taken.

Many of them are dormant but it doesn’t matter – you won’t be able to have it even if it is.

Choose your domain name first and work back that way.

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9. Check that your social media name is available

Whether you like it or not, social media is here to stay and if you ignore it, you are making a

big mistake. At the same time you are looking for a domain name, have a look and make sure

that you can also get the same name for Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and

Pinterest.

Even if you don’t intend to use all of them, at least make sure that your Twitter handle is

available. This site makes it simple to check across all platforms.

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Get online

10. Get hosting for your website

A lot of people get confused with this. Hosting is simply the means to get your website seen

by people on the web. Without it, your website cannot be seen so in effect, by buying hosting,

you are buying space on the web.

Hosting can be bought for as little as £3 a month but just ensure that the company you use

doesn’t have lots of problems with their servers going down (if they do, your site will be

offline too) or slow connections as there is nothing worse than waiting for a website to load.

11. Create a website

You can either do this yourself or choose a company to do it for you. If you are just starting

out and you have not got the time to research how to do this yourself, definitely hire a web

designer to do it for you. It is essential you are the web in 2016 and don’t panic about pricing

too much either, you should pay around £300 for a decent website which will look good.

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Market your website, products and services

12. Put your site everywhere that your customers may find you

As mentioned earlier, you need to engage social media to promote your website, brand and

services, however there is more to it than that. You need to make sure you list your site on the

following (free) platforms as soon as you can:

Cylex

Yelp

Yell

Scoot

However, the most important place to list your site is on Google and more specifically,

Google My Business. This means that if a customer is looking for a widget company in

Llandudno, your site will appear in the Google listings under local businesses. To do this, all

you have to do is visit the site below and complete the details Google asks you to. Then, they

will send you a postcard with a unique code and when you receive this, visit their site again,

input your code and within a few days your site will appear in the local Google listings.

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13. LinkedIn

This is our secret weapon. A lot of businesses ignore LinkedIn (LI) in favour of Facebook

and Twitter but the difference with LI is that you can complete a thorough profile of your

business and place links to your site as well and their networking opportunities are far better

than the other social media platforms. However, where LI gains is in their add on service,

SlideShare. LI bought this platform a while ago and it allows you to upload presentations to

SlideShare and link to them in your LI profile and vice versa.

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Growing your business

As you grow your business, you may need to seek outside funding to achieve your growth

aspirations. Unlike the dark and distant past, you no longer have to rely on banks to fund your

business and in fact, funding for your business is unlikely to arrive from a bank as they are

still reluctant to lend to small and medium businesses. However, you have a choice:

14. Angel Investment

This is similar to Dragons Den but without the cameras or scary personalities and cries of

“I’m out”. Angel Investment is where an individual will provide capital for you to start your

business or use it to expand your business and often they will want shares or equity in your

company. It can be a great way to raise money but will also involve you giving a slice of your

business away.

15. Grant Funding

With over 8,000 funds to choose from, your business may be able to apply for a grant that

allows you to buy equipment, take on staff, introduce new systems and other business related

reasons. Grants are not paid back although you may not qualify as it depends on a number of

factors, including where you are based. Click on the image below to find out more.

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16. Alternative loans and finance

There are literally hundreds of alternative finance providers currently, everything from asset

finance to invoice finance and unsecured business loans to short term bridging loans. All

have one thing in common; They are not afraid to lend money to small businesses and will

even lend to start up businesses. So, if you are a hairdresser in Wrexham, an accountant in

Mold or or a childrens day nursery in Chester, you can apply for finance or a loan of up to

£250,000 to expand your business.

The only caveat we would place on this information is to ensure you don’t look at price

comparison sites when you are looking for a business loan. These sites offer absolutely no

advice whatsoever and if you are borrowing a few hundred thousand pounds to grow your

business, you need proper financial advice.

Summary

Starting up a business is difficult, complicated and time consuming, not to mention stressful.

However, it is also exciting and exhilarating and there really is no better feeling than knowing

that your small business, set up by you and run by you, is providing an income for your

family.

The free tools and resources above will help you get to where you need to be but they are

only a part of the solution.

Your passion, dedication and mindset is what will set you apart and who knows, in a few

months/years we could be seeing you here very soon!