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The disqualified directors register is for people who were directors of Limited Companies or members or LLP`s and who have been disqualified either via a court order or by going through the insolvency service. The register will show the Companies Directors Disqualification Act 1986 (CDDA), which the director would have been disqualified under.

How does directors disqualification work?

Many people believe that if your company goes into liquidation then the director(s) will automatically be disqualified. This is not true, unless the circumstances show that you were committing fraud or were acting wrongly in your role in the eyes of the law. Companies can go into liquidation for all sorts of reasons, but it does not mean that the company director will then be disqualified and have to go onto the disqualified directors register.Having a company going into liquidation does not prevent you from taking on another directorship or starting another limited company. There is no assumption of wrongdoing or wrongful trading.The whole point of the Companies Directors Disqualification Act 1986, is to keep a register of those directors who were found to be 'unfit' for the role and effectively ban them from becoming directors of a limited liability company in the future. Being added to the register is the last resort, and the step is only taken when that person has been proven to have acted fraudulently, wrongfully or conducted themselves very badly in the role. It is up to the government to prove this before any action can be taken to ban a director and add their name to the register.In 2015, the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act introduced additional measures to ban directors who have run insolvent businesses fraudulently in the past or have badly influenced other directors in their roles. Company directors can also now be disqualified and put on the register if they are involved in company offences overseas. The new amendments now give a court more time (an increase of a year) to review evidence that may take longer to obtain and study.

What is classed as unfit behaviour?

Here is a list of the main points that the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (DeBIS) seeks to ban directors on:

• Failure to submit annual accounts to Companies House on time
• Failure to submit annual returns to Companies House on time
• Excessive salaries or drawings when the company was plainly insolvent
• Trading on when he or she knew the company was insolvent (also known as trading whilst knowingly insolvent)
• Continuing to take credit when there was "no reasonable prospect" of creditors being paid
• Misrepresentation of the facts about the company
• Failure to respond or comply with a liquidator's requests

It is still reassuring to know that in the UK director's disqualifications are still pretty rare. Up to 2015 there were only around 1,000 to 1,500 disqualifications each year on average. The public are able to report directors that they suspect of wrong doing or fraud to either the Insolvency Service, Companies House or the Serious Fraud Office. There is an online government advice page here.It is important to remember that a CDDA only applies where the company has gone into liquidation; it does not apply in a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA).

What happens after you are banned as a director?

When disqualified and placed on the disqualified directors register, you may not take on a role as a director or manager during your disqualification period. Doing so is considered a criminal offence.Should you become a director or manager while disqualified, you may find yourself landed with a prison conviction for up to 2 years or a hefty fine - or even both! Not only this, but you could become personally liable for all the debts carried by the company.On a side note - even a manager or director who acts under the instruction of a disqualified director can find themselves personally liable for company debts - so take care not to be working under the influence of a disqualified director!

Why is there a disqualified directors register kept by Companies House?

Under Section 18 of the Company Directors Disqualification Act 1986, the Secretary of State must legally maintain a register. Companies House carries out this function under this act.

Am I able to receive a copy of the disqualification order?

You are unable to obtain a copy of the disqualification order from Companies House. Court officials obtain your information from the order to help complete the form, they will then notify Companies House with the correct information regarding the disqualification.

How can I see the disqualified directors register?

You can view the Disqualified Directors register here. There is no cost to search the database.

The person I am looking for is not on the register?

If the person you are searching for is not on the register this would probably mean that the person either has not been disqualified or that the person was disqualified and the order has lapsed, which means it would have been deleted from this register. Lastly the person could have recently been disqualified but has yet to go on the register.

Can I act as a secretary even though I have been disqualified?

Someone who has been disqualified is able to act as a secretary, the act does prevent them from being company directors or LLP members but it does not apply to company secretaries.

I was made bankrupt, does this apply to me?

If you were made bankrupts then yes it does apply to you, if the bankruptcy is still in force, you cannot be a director of a Limited company or LLP member. The register for people who are bankrupt can be found here.If you were made bankrupt in Scotland, they will not show on the insolvency website. You will need to view the Accountancy in Bankruptcy website.Your Virtual Office London provides expert advice on Company Formations, Accountancy and Virtual Office Services including registered office address. If you need to speak to anyone, do contact us today, we are always happy to help.

Market Research is a form of study conducted to collect necessary information for your company, giving you great insight into your customer needs and opinions about your product or service, allowing you to take decisions forward based on the results you gather.

The Characteristics of Market Research

The scope of market research is more or less limitless. It takes into consideration all aspects relating to your business, such as:Location - geographical location, local markets, regional, national, European or international.Products - type of products / services studied; a group of products (e.g. cosmetics), a type of product (perfume), or a specific product (brand of perfume given).Time - the past market, present market or future market.The profile of buyers - by gender, age, socio-professional category, by level of education ...Profile of intermediaries or end users: resellers, retailers, wholesalers, makers, mothers, children.

Why use Market Research?

Market research is very useful if you are creating or launching a new product or service and you want to adapt it to fit with your consumer or client expectations. It makes sense to run a survey to measure the risks involved and know which direction to develop your product or service. This is a classic form of market research.The process of conducting market research is not complicated in itself, but many pitfalls can skew the results and lead to false conclusions. There are a lot of considerations to take on before you conduct your market research, such as the choice of survey mode, the number of people to be interviewed, the demographic you want to target, the preparation of the questionnaire and the analysis of data collected, are the keys to running a successful research project.

Steps to a Successful Study

Before launching a new product, a properly conducted investigation in the form of market research can limit your risks and help you know what direction to go in. Here are some of the most important points to consider before starting a market research campaign:

• Anticipate the actual needs of your customers.
• Consider all information as important.
• Learn from the competition.
• Take the best information from your customers.
• Perform a survey.
• Collect as much information as possible by telephone or face-to-face.
• Define accurately the expectations of your customers.
• Estimate figures on your competition more accurately.
• Get help from a trusted person who knows about your project.
• Measure the potential of your customers.
• Perform market research specifically tailored to your product / service.
• Look for information at official statistical agencies.
• Learn about the demand and competition by region.
• Make sure your product / service does not already exist.

Samples

Make sure that your target audience is relevant. What are your competitive advantages over other businesses in the same niche? Identifying your customer needs and the potential for success in your relevant sector are the pillars of good market research.To do this you need to do some thorough sampling. This is the part that is responsible for capturing relevant data from primary sources, or 'samples' of the demographic you are targeting with your product or service. You then can analyse and generalise the results to a percentage of the population from which it was extracted.The idea generally consists of obtaining sufficiently representative samples to generate conclusions that apply to the entire target population. So for example if your target audience for your product or service is women aged 25 to 40, you would focus your market research on as many women that fit this age range as you can, analyse the feedback and draw conclusions from your results.If 8 out of 10 women surveyed during your market research were positive about your product or service and stated that they would be happy to buy from you once it was available, then you can say from those results that your business is very likely to succeed and do well. However, if the results were opposite and only 2 out of 10 women surveyed actually liked your product or service, then you wouldn't be advised to launch your business and it would most certainly mean going back to the drawing board with your idea.

Further Points to Consider

• Keep up to date with the latest news and market trends for your business niche or sector. Regularly read publications and follow journalists who report on your business sector for all the latest insights that you may find interesting or helpful.
• If you can attend networking meetings with professionals in the same industry or who work in a complementary industry to yours, then you may well be able to share market research results and industry knowledge that others have already conducted. You may be able to join forces with another business and pool your resources to conduct a much larger market research project that will benefit the both of you.
• Networking can also introduce you to industry experts and seasoned professionals that can offer you great resources and information when you are first starting out. Many business veterans have written books or journals, analysed and published their market research results and finding that you may find very useful, so you can often pick up free or discounted copies of their work to help you even further.
• To have a chance of making your own market research valid, you must try to survey at least 500 people to get a really good cross section of results. Even if your new venture is a start-up company, the aspect of conducting good market research should not be dismissed. Using your findings to help you with promotional and marketing campaigns can really give your product or service the boost that is required.

Of course, you don't have to do every single interview or survey personally! You can hire virtual staff to run the market research for you once you have planned out and finalised your methods. Capital Office can help you with this with our Virtual Office service. For more information about how we can help you build your business contact us today for a friendly chat.

Virtual assistants: we hear a lot about them nowadays, but still probably are not quite sure exactly what they do or what they mean to businesses like yours.The truth is though, that the services virtual assistants specialise in can be of great benefit to help you grow your business and increase your sales. Here are just some of the important aspects that a virtual assistant can help you with:

Advantages

The advantages of hiring a virtual assistant is that you don't have to provide an office for them, they can work remotely. The duties they perform can be done from their own home and the hours can be flexible too meaning it does not require large investments into renting office space, infrastructure, heating and lighting or insurance.

Some of the tasks a virtual assistant performs are:

Receiving business calls on your behalf, receiving, replying to and forwarding emails, conducting customer surveys, telemarketing work, providing information about your company to prospective clients or customers, the sending and receiving of paper-based mail, managing claims towards the company, making payment and authorising transactions for services, filing documents and various other admin tasks.Here are some of those tasks discussed in some more depth and why the virtual assistant can be crucial to the smooth running of a business, especially a new start-up working with a very limited budget.

Social Networks

Virtual assistants have the skills required to open accounts in social networks, write, distribute and manage the content over these channels. They are experts who know how to attract and engage with people, market goods and services, promote your business brand and raise awareness of your company.All these tasks take time and patience. Some companies do not feel very comfortable using social networks because of a lack of knowledge or training. Some managers simply do not have the time to dedicate to this themselves or cannot afford to divert existing staff from their duties to focus on building up their social media presence. However, if these tasks are carried out by the right virtual assistant, your business can achieve great success.

Newsletters

Creating regular print newsletters, email newsletters and email alerts can help build a relationship between your company and their customers. Some companies do not enjoy building and maintaining the communications side of the business, but its is very important to maintain contact with existing customers that have already purchased from you and attract the interest of those who may become new customers in the future. Regular electronic newsletters should be sent at least every two weeks to maintain a good company awareness.More often than not however, most companies start with great enthusiasm for building customer relationships, but then the effort often dims due to the time spent on it as well as performing other multiple tasks daily. This is where a virtual assistant comes in very useful. They are able to take the full weight of this important function and maintaining it at a high level, creating a valuable tool for your marketing and sales. If you wish, they themselves will learn about your business and take care of the writing and publication for you.

Blogs, Articles and Press Releases

This is another speciality of virtual assistants. They know how to write engaging posts to reach the public with the right tone and enough interesting information to attract new social media followers, get good post shares to raise company awareness, and even create a sale.Every day, thousands of people read informative and useful blogs and articles on the internet. A good virtual assistant can play this field with an article or message with the exact content you wanted to convey. This is essential if your goal is to keep the audience's attention on your business every day.

Webpages

Most businesses think that once you pay for the design and construction of a Website, its a completed operation and that's it, job done! But in reality, it's not quite that simple. Your website needs to routinely refresh and change with new content being added and regular updates made to its format and design as technology moves on. Virtual assistants can achieve this for you too, by posting fresh content, editing and updating current content to keep it relevant and adding images to break up posts and pages with heavy blocks of text.Within this website we can also use the aforementioned social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, Pinterest, Instagram, press releases, email messages, blogs). This is an effective way to keep customers engaged and connected to your company.A good virtual assistant specialising in the maintenance of webpages can advise you about the best methods to maintain an attractive, informative site, the latest software updates and what is most important to attract and engage public attention.These are just some of the areas where virtual assistants are well trained and can help you in order to grow your business at a place like Capital Office.It is very important that you discuss with your virtual assistant your exact goals for your business, so they can tailor their work to suit your needs.

It is very important that both entrepreneurs and those looking to start up a new company acquire the skills needed to lead and manage a successful company.The administration of any company must go through a series of stages or processes, whether its a small, medium or large sized business. Many people just about to start up their business will be wondering where and how they should start. Is there a step-by-step guide out there that they can easily follow, or is that over simplifying the process?To begin with, no two companies are likely to operate in the same manner so getting started and running your business may differ slightly to someone else starting in the same industry. Regardless of what industry you choose to specialise in, you will need a good solid structure or foundation on which to build your company.It goes without saying that you will need a leader or a team of people to run your company. A director or board of directors is usually your first step to have established at the beginning. You can add and remove directors after your company formation is complete, so you don't have to worry about this as your company grows.If you are starting a small business then you may take on the role of the director as well as the general manager role of your company, but you may choose to delegate your management roles to others as your company expands and you need to focus more on directing the company.You may have a brilliant idea for a business and the drive and passion to see it succeed. Never worry that your business may not be a success because you are not a whiz at finances, or you feel you are not very good at managing others - you can hire in experts and managers to take on these tasks for you at a later stage so you can concentrate on what you are good at and focus on growing your company.How you choose to run your business is your concern, but to set it up properly is crucial in the beginning to make sure you comply with government rules and regulations. It would be helpful for you to read up on what is required by law for companies to start up and operate - you can get expert help about this from us by contacting us here. We will be happy to help set you on the right path!

6 Sure-fire Steps to Success!

So before you jump in at the deep end, here are some useful planning tips to help you get started properly.

Step 1: Focusing on the reality

When starting up a new company, it is easy to become over ambitions with your goals and for you to set unrealistic targets, or even be threatened by competitors successes. Your competitors certainly didn't earn their success overnight, so you shouldn't expect to be out-performing them very quickly. This is why it is so important to seek out information relating to the economic environment for your chosen niche and look at the performance of other businesses in your industry and thereby being able to set goals and targets within a realistic framework.

Step 2: Planning

Planning is an essential step of any business, from the smallest of businesses to large global multinationals. When you do any planning, it will be essential to have a definite purpose and process with regards to all aspects of your business, from partnerships, directors, managers, products or services, advertising, brand identity and logo to name just a few.Planning your company can take a very long time. It may be frustrating for you when all you want to do is jump in and get your company off the ground, but taking the time to plan each structure of your business is very important and will give you the strong foundations you need to build your company with. You will be so glad that you worked out your strategy and formed a plan to follow in the long run - believe me!Once you have your management structure in place, there is no better time to seal your commitment to your new venture than to have it officially incorporated as a company. You can do this quickly and easily through our company formations service and once completed you will have a great foundation from which to build a highly credible and productive business.

Step 3: Capital use

Whenever possible, it is recommended to use the cheapest source of capital you can get to start with. You will find that you may not make instant profits from day one of your business, and when you do start to see gains on your investment you have to think carefully about re-investing money back into your company to help it grow and expand, but to also upgrade or replace equipment that you use.Venture capital and contributing partners funds are a good start, and most of this funding will have more favourable interest rates or terms and conditions than more expensive methods. The last thing you want is to be saddled with expensive debt to pay back as a priority rather than using most of your profits to re-invest back in your own company.

Step 4: Habits of customers

Having a thorough and in-depth knowledge about the shopping habits, tastes, likes and dislikes of your target audience is essential. The better you know your customer demographic the more you can tailor your products or services to fit with their needs and desires.Take time to read any customer research already available in your chosen sector, or if you specialise in a particular niche, conduct some market research of your own through surveys, interviews and social media polls.

Step 5: Stock or skills inventory control

If you plan to sell products to your customers the it is important to keep control of your stock. If you overstock, you may find yourself short of funds to use elsewhere - for example, sales and marketing campaigns. If you understock, then you will not be able to fulfill customer orders and you will attract negative feedback as a result that can seriously damage your reputation and put off potential new customers.If you are providing a service, then making sure that you have an adequate skills pool available to your customers or clients will be essential. For example, if you run a team of plumbing and heating engineers then you will want to make sure that your team are fully qualified and up to date with their training, especially when new health and safety legislation is brought in or changes are made to environmental rules.

Step 6: Meet your responsibilities

While it is both exciting and thrilling to owning and running your business, becoming too wrapped up in the day to day hustle and bustle of keeping on top of your workload can lead to you forgetting or neglecting to carry out some very important aspects of running your company.If you employ staff then you have a responsibility to them to keep the business above board and running well so they can keep their job. If you have shareholders and business partners, you will need to make sure they are kept up to date with information on how the company is doing, but also making sure that everyone is getting paid on time.After you have gone through your company formation you will also understand that you have certain responsibilities to fulfill for HMRC and Companies House each year. Failure to meet your legal responsibilities would land you in some pretty hot water with the government and could see your company being landed with unwanted fines.Luckily, we at Capital Offices have a wide range of helpful services that we provide for our clients. So no matter if you are new to starting up your own business or you have already formed your own company, but are looking to expand, we are here to help you! Contact us today for some advice and guidance, or take a look through our blog and website to find out more about how we can help you succeed in your business.

London has more surveillance CCTV cameras per person than any other city in the word. We are constantly being watched and many people accept this as a positive security measure to keep our city streets safe.Although given the choice we may choose not to be filmed on CCTV, there is no denying there are benefits to having surveillance in place under many circumstances where there is a risk to our personal safety.Although CCTV use is perfectly acceptable in public, especially when it is used to great effect to secure business premises and act as a deterrent for crime, more business owners are using CCTV within the workplace.Business owners and employers may want to install cameras for a number of reasons such as:

• For security reasons: to prevent theft from shops, stores and warehouses.
• For health and safety reasons: to ensure that health and safety rules are being complied with in such places as food handling and production facilities, but also to provide evidence of any breach that may occur.

These reasons my seem perfectly reasonable and acceptable to most employees working under these circumstances, but what about when an employer wants to set up CCTV in an office work environment? They may feel they are justified in installing cameras to cover the following issues:

• To protecting their business interests and prevent misconduct in the workplace.
• For monitoring, assessing and improving staff productivity.

This sort of surveillance by employers can run the risk of damaging the mutual trust and confidence of their employees. If this happens then employees may be choose to resign then claim constructive unfair dismissal.

Rules and regulations

According to the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA): employers should act in accordance with the DPA and its eight key principles. The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) enforces the DPA and breach of it may lead to sanctions and bad publicity for employers. Employers should also be conscious of the increased risk of receiving subject access requests (SARs) from employees where monitoring is used, as employees may become nervous about the data which their employer holds and are more likely to apply to the ICO for disclosure of such data. It will inevitably waste valuable time dealing with and responding to SARs and ICO investigations.According to the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA): employers in the public sector should be particularly aware of the right to privacy which their employees have under the HRA as it applies directly to them. However, it is still important for employers in the private sector to consider this right, and to ensure their monitoring is not disproportionate or intrusive, as tribunals and courts are expected to take it into account when making decisions.

Practical tips and advice

It is advised that employers who want to install CCTV in their workplace should first conduct a comprehensive impact assessment to justify the use of surveillance equipment in the workplace. The assessment should strive to identify the reason behind the desire for monitoring and document the likely benefits of doing so as well as listing the possible negative impacts too.Employers would also be obliged to notify existing and future employees to make sure they are aware of their obligations and ensure that they are given a chance to voice their concerns. They would be advised to draw up a detailed report to explain the nature and extent of the surveillance proposed as well as the reasons behind it.A policy would also need to be drawn up once CCTV systems are installed detailing the reasons for monitoring. The policy would be given out to existing and new employees and made freely available on the company internet or intranet, and staff would be issued with a form to sign to say they have read and understood the policy.There would obviously be places where installing CCTV would not be justified under any circumstances, such as within staff changing rooms or bathrooms. However, monitoring of public entrances and doorways where people would expect to have cameras is perfectly acceptable.The Data Protection Act states that all data captured must be relevant for its purpose and stored securely and not kept for any longer than is necessary.

Other strategies open to you

With employee rights and the risks involved in using CCTV in the workplace, it may be less time consuming and difficult to try other methods, especially if the intent is to use surveillance for staff productivity measures.Going down the CCTV route may be quite damaging to your staff morale, reputation as an employer and reflect badly on your staff retention rates. A better approach may be to look at restructuring your existing management infrastructure, employing a staff relationship manager, increase staff training and staff team building days.

There are always plenty of valid reasons behind needing to closing a limited company. Whatever the reason for closing down your limited company, there are certain processes that you need to follow to complete this:

Dormant Company

Rather than closing your company completely, you may want to keep your company open and registered but physically stop trading for a period of time. If this is the case then making your Limited Company dormant instead of closing it down completely would be your best option.Making your company Dormant can also be more cost effective when compared to closing a company down completely. You can make a company Dormant for around £100, so if you simply want to take some time out and pause your trading activity for any length of time, then this could be your better option. Contact us if you need help. We will be happy to give you some free advice.Dormant Company info: https://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/pdf/gba10.pdfOf course when you make a company Dormant it is important to make your clients and trade partners fully aware of your situation and ensure that any existing agreements you have with your clients or customers are properly finished before you pause your trading activities.There are also tax implications involved with making your company dormant. You will need an accountant to help prepare your final accounts to ensure all tax owed, including corporation tax, is fully paid up. You will also need to close any bank accounts that are linked to the dormant company.

Limited Company Liquidation

If you don't want to make your company dormant and are sure that you want to close you Limited Company down completely, then you will need to be aware of any debts outstanding and clear them if you can. If there are any debts still outstanding the liquidation process can take a lot longer and can be more involved. We would highly recommend speaking with us or to a professional accountant to ensure that you are fully aware of your responsibilities and obligations. If there are unpaid debts outstanding the company will be forced to go into Liquidation. You can read more information on Insolvency here.

What next?

If you are in a good financial position where your Limited Company has no debts outstanding, or can meet its obligations, then the closing procedure is fairly simple and straightforward. You will need to choose a date for when the company should stop trading. On this date it is important that no more transactions are carried out and that any creditors have been fully paid.HMRC will also need to be notified of your closure and be given a final set of accounts including all the transactions up to the closure point. Also you must remember to cancel your VAT registration if your company is VAT registered.A final payroll will need to be completed and P45`s issued for your staff and yourself. A P35 Employer Annual Return will also have to be filled with HMRC.Once your company has ceased trading for three months, you can make an application to Companies House to get your company dissolved via the DS01 form.If there are no objections to your Limited Company being closed, it will be formally given the go ahead and will be removed from the register of companies that is held on record at Companies House. Your Virtual Office London provides leading Company Formation services including advice on trading, closing down companies and company accounting. We also provide leading supplementary services such as mail forwarding in London and Registered Office address for your Company. If you need help or advice don't hesitate to get in touch with us today.

A registered office address is a service that is designed for private Ltd Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships. The registered office service is also useful if you have a sole director company registered at Companies House. Our registered office address service is a useful tool to have and is designed to replace the directors private residential address details and protect it from public display via Companies House while providing a premium business address.This is different to a sole trader. A sole trader is not a registered company and does not need a registered office address as they will not be listed on the Companies House public records.

I am a sole trader, so why can't I use your registered office in London?

• Sole Traders are not legally required to register their business at Companies House.
• You will not receive any post from Companies House so again a registered office address is not needed.
• There is no public register for sole traders at Companies house so your address is off record.
• HMRC will send you post, but this would be to your usual business address (this is not searchable via Companies House)

What mailing services can I use as a Sole Trader?

If you are a sole trader then we would strongly recommend that you use our mail forwarding in London service. This is a great service for businesses who wish to present a prestigious London address as their main trading address. You can read more on the benefits of our mail forwarding service here. As the name suggests, we are able to forward all the post that comes in for your business to an address of your choice.This is an excellent service for businesses as it helps protect your residential address and gives the impression you are a well established business through having a prestigious London address for your business correspondence.

Why use us?

www.yourvirtualofficelondon.co.uk are leaders in Virtual Office & Company Formation Services. Our services have been tried and tested over our many years of expert provision, and they can really help to benefit a variety of businesses from startups to SME's.If you are unsure of what you need please do get in touch with our knowledgeable and experienced customer service team who are on hand ready to take your call. Our fully trained London based staff will be happy to talk you through your options.

Our dedicated mail forwarding services are very flexible and there are several different options you can choose from depending on how you would like your post to be handled.Firstly, we can offer you a free mail collection service, so our clients who live or work near our offices are very welcome to collect their mail from their own dedicated mail box during normal working hours. Our office working hours are between 9.00am - 5.00pm and you simply call in and collect your mail from our main reception.We can also offer you a mail forwarding service; this is best suited for our clients who live further away. Our Mail Forwarding clients can be based anywhere in the world so your location is not a problem for us. Our mail forwarding clients can choose where to have their mail forwarded to, as well as choosing the frequency at which we forward your mail. This could be on a daily basis, weekly, monthly or so on.... as and when you choose. We will forward all of your domestic post by first class mail and if your post is going abroad, we post it to you via airmail on the same day, or at the frequency you require.We can also offer you a scan to email option where you can choose for us to scan all letters that come in to you and then email your scanned copies as an attachment to your chosen email address. Our scan to email option is a same day service, and your letters will be scanned in batches. This can be beneficial for clients who need documents that may be more time sensitive.

Who uses our mail forwarding services?

There are lots of different types of business people who can benefit from using our mail forwarding services. Currently we work with a large number of clients such as:

• Home workers
• Small Businesses
• Companies who want more than one address
• Businesses that need a location in London
• Personal customers without a fixed address

Benefits of our Mail Forwarding Features

Our mail forwarding service in London is designed to be flexible, so you may want to collect your post in person from us one day, but then have your mail forwarded to an address on another. This can suit you when you travel a lot for your business. You can even request our mail scanning services to get those important documents to you while you are out on the road but choose to have other less urgent items of mail posted. We are happy to meet your individual and specific needs, every client has different requirements and we offer a service that aim to meet them with ease.

Saving you money

When forwarding your mail via the postal system we can offer you some great advantages over Royal Mail. When sending the post onto your chosen address we actually frank your post in-house, this is cheaper than using Royal Mail by about 25%. We also bundle your post together, so if you have several loose letters we will place these letters into one sturdy envelope for you. Bundling your post drastically reduces your postal costs and can also reduce the risk of letters going astray in the post.If you already own a Limited Company you can also use our registered office address alongside our mail forwarding option. You can read more on registered offices here. A registered office is a legal requirement for your company by Companies House and we can provide you with a prestigious London address for you to use as your Limited company registered office address.

Many people ask us what the main difference is between our registered office address, mail forwarding London service and the directors service address option. Each service we provide has marked differences and meet with the needs of professional business people in different ways.A director's service address for example is for directors of a Limited Company who would prefer to keep their personal address private by not having it listed at Companies House and put on the public register as the directors service (main contact) address.This simply means that when a member of the public searches for your company details via the Companies House public database, they can find out your company details, such as ownership structure and contact address details for the directors. Many clients are often unaware of just how much information is available online through the Companies House public register.Using our Directors Service Address will keep your residential address protected and completely separate from your business address. People can of course also search for where the company is registered (this is called a registered office address).Our directors service address also allows you to change the contact address for your director to our prestigious London address in City Road. More information on directors services can be read directly from the Companies House website.

What are the benefits of using our Directors Service address?

• Protects your residential address from public records
• Stops unwanted callers contacting you at your home, including junk mail & customers
• Prestigious London address that looks like a more professional address
• Very affordable

How is the Directors Service Address different from a Registered Office Address or mail forwarding address?

Registered Office Address

Our Registered Office Address package is similar to a directors service address where by you are changing your business address details at companies house. However this will update your registered office address to the one provided by Your Virtual Office London. Having a registered office address that is based in the heart of London can convey a level of professionalism that will help you to be taken seriously by both clients and business partners alike.

Mail Forwarding

Our mail forwarding address service is different yet again from the above mentioned address services. With this service we provide you with an address for your business correspondence only. So your clients would use your mail forwarding address as your trading address.You would then be able to update your correspondence address details on your websites, business cards, and stationery etc. to reflect your new London based mail forwarding address. The idea behind having a forwarding address is to give your clients the impression that you are based in London at a prestigious city address. First impressions are very important in business and this service can really help to boost your credibility and therefore your sales.This service is also useful for safely diverting all your business correspondence while you are moving premises and you are worried that important mail may get lost, delayed or sent to the wrong address.You can find out more about our professional business address services here.

Not sure what to do? Registering as a Limited Company can be more beneficial with tax advantages when compared to being a Sole TraderUpdated July 2016.Over the years, many of our clients have come to us and asked if they should change from being a sole trader into becoming a fully-fledged Limited Company. Our advice in these circumstances is that it all depends on the type of business you run, how much you are turning over and whether you plan to grow and expand business further. These questions are vitally important to help answer that all important question.There are a lot of differences between being a sole trader and a Limited Company. Let's take a look at how tax is affected under each circumstance.

What are the tax differences between a Limited Company and a Sole Trader?

Sole Trader

If you are self employed, and trading as a sole trader, your business profits and personal income are lumped together under the same roof. This means your income is taxed via the annual self-assessment process. You will not be able to defer profits to other years, so if you have a good year with a high turnover followed by a slower year with less profit, you cannot carry over any profit from the previous (good) year to see you through a lean year (share dividends can be held back). In addition to personal income tax you are required to pay National Insurance Contributions (NIC) on all your profits.

Limited Company

If you run a Limited Company and are a shareholder, the company is liable for Corporation Tax on the business profits. The advantages of a Limited Company is that you will be able to hold back profits and then distribute them as dividends in future years. This means you can maximise the tax efficiency and utilise all the tax breaks afforded to Limited Companies. Simply put, you are likely to pay less personal tax than being a sole trader.

The main benefits of forming a Limited Company when compared to a sole trader:

1. An obvious benefit is that the Limited Company is a separate legal entity from you in the eyes of the law and protects you and your personal assets from legal disputes. You are not liable personally, so if the worst should happen and you have to cease trading and close your business, you will not have to pay off any company debts with your own personal money, unless something like fraud or money laundering has taken place. However, a sole trader will be responsible for any outstanding debts left behind, and if they find themselves in a legal battle will be susceptible to losing personal assets if found guilty.
2. Limited Companies can be more tax efficient as a dividend has a lower flat rate of tax when compared to higher income tax bands. So a Limited Company owner can pay themselves in dividends, and ultimately pay less tax when compared to a high earning sole trader who could find themselves paying upward of 40% income tax on earnings.
3. If you expect your business to earn very little, a sole trader would be easier to manage, a Limited Company can often require the help of an accountant to ensure the correct workings of the company tax liabilities.

Professional Business Image

Many companies are only happy doing business with a registered company. Being a limited company can give you a more professional image and encourage more businesses to trust you and do business with you.Your trading name will also be protected as a limited company. When you go through the formation process, your company name will be filed with Companies House and no one else will be allowed to trade under your business name. This can be a great bonus while you are still growing your business and crafting a strong reputation for your company. You wouldn't want all your hard work and effort to build your company branding and credibility to go to waste through someone else stealing your trading name.If you are unsure what you require or what is the best option is for you, please contact us so we can talk through the best options for you and the future success of your business.Your Virtual Office London - the professional choice since 1971.