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For many decades going back in time, office space was an element that business owners paid little attention to. Very little thought went into the office because as far as a business owner was concerned, as long as there was enough space to house their staff and the building was cheap enough to buy or rent, that was enough for them to consider. Office design and layout was never really a decisive element of whether a building would be suitable or not.However, times are changing and now more than ever before employers are having to take into consideration the mental health and well-being of their staff. Office design and position are now being looked at in more detail to ensure that the environment delivers a positive impact on their staff and how they work.There are a number of factors that are now being looked at from open space, natural daylight levels, ergonomic furniture design, colour choice for décor, plants and greenery, lighting, heating and air circulation.A number of flexible working arrangements are also becoming more popular, such as splitting the working week between the working in the company office for two or three days per week and from home for the remainder of the week.For smaller business start-ups and micro-businesses, many more owners are now working a lean operation where they don't operate any offices at all. Instead, all administration work is outsourced to outside professionals such as Capital Offices that provide fully comprehensive Virtual Office Services. Taking this option can be a very cost-effective move and can mean that a new company will have more money to re-invest back into their business for future growth rather than see it spent on office rent, building insurance, utilities and staff wages.

Working arrangements and employees mental health

According to a report from Kelby Ergo Design (KED), nearly 90 per cent of our time is spent indoors. Those adults that are employed outside of the home will spend a whopping 33 per cent of their time within their workplace.It doesn't come as a surprise to learn then that the UK is currently suffering from a severe mental health crisis. According to the Office for National Statistics, one in four young women are reporting mental health problems, so concerns from employers for the well-being of their employees are now becoming a major consideration.Many modern business setups are moving away from old-fashioned cubicle office designs that had quite an isolating impact of their employees. Instead, more thought is being put into improving working conditions to allow more social and physical interaction that encourages stronger working relationships. This, in turn, helps to improve working collaborations, raises the mood and well-being of staff and goes a long way to improving productivity levels for the company.Improved office layout and flexible working conditions have also seen a positive rise in performance levels, reduced rates of errors, and fewer workplace injuries and sickness absences. This is why it very important to consider the psychology behind your office design should you consider running a physical office on your business premises.

Alternative design-thinking

Making positive changes to your office space can help to boost your productivity and the mental well-being of your staff. You will also be helping to create a more pleasant and enjoyable working atmosphere that will help you to retain the best talent that your company currently has. Unhappy workers will quickly seek alternative employment should their working environment be an unhappy one.Many business owners just starting out across the UK are now choosing new office space that offer well-designed layouts rather than cheap as chips commercial spaces where offices are often shoe-horned into corners without much thought. Even though the rent may be a little higher on well-planned office spaces, the saving your company can make over the longer term can be greater because of the positive effect your office environment will have on your employees' mental health and well-being.Flexibility is also another major factor for new business owners to consider here. To cater to the demand for more flexible working options, company owners are now looking at digital offices that work in the cloud and allow for collaboration from team members wherever their location. This means more flexibility for staff to work from home or on the road visiting clients face-to-face at their places of work.

Virtual office revolution

Another major change to the landscape of the working office is that of benefiting from virtual office services from professional providers such as Capital Office in London. This concept has been a positive shift in thinking by new business owners.With many new companies, the traditional corporate office set up is fast becoming a thing of the past. More businesses are adopting either a home-away-from-home approach to their office environment, incorporating more staff rest and recreational areas, organising yoga sessions, mindfulness classes and discounted gym memberships.Many more company owners are even eliminating many day-to-day administration duties such as telephone call answering and mail sorting by outsourcing these tasks to outside professionals. By doing this the company can save a lot of money by not having to employ their own office administration staff or payout for office space to accommodate them.A lot of research and design companies appreciate a working environment that offers peace and quiet to allow them to concentrate on their work. By removing the distractions of constant telephone calls, office chatter and the hustle and bustle of mail sorting duties, staff can focus more of their attention towards developing their projects without interruption or distraction.By putting your essential day to day office duties into the hands of a professional virtual office provider, business owners can be rest assured that all of their important telephone calls are being handled correctly in a timely and responsive manner. They can also greatly benefit from the time-saving mail sorting services on offer. Adopting these virtual services means that your mail sorting company can handle and deal with your business post in an appropriate way so you don't have to!Should a company owner decide to offer more flexible working arrangements for their staff, this can mean them having members of staff working from various locations, but all interconnected through modern technology to allow collaboration and teamwork to continue unheeded.By outsourcing regular office admin duties to professionals such as Capital Office, it will also mean that no piece of important mail will go astray or crucial telephone call missed. No matter where your key staff are working at any particular time, they will always be kept up to date with important phone calls and mail notifications through your virtual office service provider.We can take your incoming calls and deal with them as per your instructions. This means that if you don't want to be disturbed, we can take phone messages and forward them to you in a timely manner. Or if you are waiting for an important call from one particular client, we can ensure that they are put through to you with high priority.Important letters and documents can be scanned and emailed through to you so you are kept completely up to date with your post without having to experience any delays. We can bundle up your incoming mail and forward it on to you at regular intervals as designated by yourself, or if you are passing by our London offices, you can call in to pick up your mail in person if you so wish. This is how flexible our virtual office services are.

Freedom from the constraints of the office

Company owners are now realising that their staff don't need to spend so many working hours stuck behind a desk. More companies than ever before are offering their employees the freedom to decide how and where they work. This change in office structure has seen a rise in happier and more productive staff.Introducing flexible working conditions and outsourcing day to day administration tasks that used to tie-down staff has helped to improve their general well-being and mental health.Business owners, especially solo-entrepreneurs or sole traders, are also seeing greater savings by operating a lean company where they don't need to spend out a large chunk of their revenue on renting unnecessary office space and all the associated insurance, utility bills and maintenance costs that come with it.As the business environment evolves over time, it is becoming more apparent than ever that the days of work cubicles and cramped, clinical office settings are being left well behind.Find out more about our flexible virtual office services and how using our cost-effective professional services can save you a lot of money!

The statement of capital is the information used to show an overview of your company's share capital. It also describes what share classes that you have and the amount of money invested into your company. It also explains what shareholder rights are attached to the shares that you have issued.The statement of capital was introduced through the Companies House Act 2006 and came into effect from the 1st of October 2009. Previous to this act a company had a maximum set limit of authorised share capital. The new act meant that a company could now have as many shareholders as they wanted without restriction.The requirements for your statement of capital were revised and updated in 2016. The new forms specifying the information required were issued on 30th June 2016. The statement doesn't in itself list who owns all of the shares in detail, but you may be required to submit a full list of shareholders details to Companies House for their records along with your statement of capital. This is a requirement for companies limited by shares, but if you have a company that is an LLP or is limited by guarantee, it isn't a requirement.The 2016 changes also mean that companies need to submit the total amount unpaid on the company’s shares. When shares are issued, they may be awarded without the shareholder needing to pay for them at the time of issue. It can be the case that the shares were only partly-paid shares, leaving a per cent of the shares unpaid. It is up to your company if you choose to call in all unpaid shares and partly-paid shares at a later date when your company may need a cash injection.Companies House will need to know the total of all of your unpaid shares, so it is simply a case of adding up the value of all unpaid shares and the unpaid amount of partly-paid shares to get a figure.

The information you need to provide on each share you issue:

• Currency that the share was sold under
• Number of shares issued in the company
• Value of each share
• Type of shares (Redeemable, Preference, Ordinary and Cumulative)
• The owners of a limited company (company directors): the first shareholders (subscribers) that were needed at the time of your company formation

The statement of capital also requires the original subscribers (first shareholders) to submit the following information:

• The address of each subscriber
• The full name of each subscriber
• The number of shares owned by each subscriber

The actual share capital is the value of the shares that have been allocated. So for example, if one company share is worth £1.00 and if you own 10 shares you will have a share capital of £10.00. If you set your share value at £10.00 per share and you own ten shares, then your share capital will be £100.00, and so on.

Issuing shares

You are allowed to issues as many shares in your company as you wish. There are no imposed caps on the number of shares that you can issue. While this may sound wonderful, you must remember that your shareholders will be liable to pay for any unpaid shares owned, so in most cases new companies will start off small with just a limited amount of shares, to begin with, and may choose to issue more further down the line once the company has been established and is growing successfully.

When you are looking to set up a limited company you will need to know what classification your business will fall under. There are a number of government recognised five-digit codes that are applied to the type of business that you have. These are called Standard Industrial Codes, or SIC for short.Your company SIC code is used to categorise and describe what your business does and how it functions. When setting up a new company, you will need to choose the relevant codes that best reflect your business activities. For example, if your company is involved in hairdressing or beauty therapy, then your SIC code would be 96020. If your company produces artisan chocolate confectionery, then your SIC code would be 10821.Should you want to register your limited company and leave it in a dormant state for the time being, then you can assign it a 99999 SIC code that is used for dormant companies. You would then need to change your company SIC code to something more appropriate for the nature of your business when you decide to start trading with the company.There are many people who decide to register a company under a specific name to secure and protect that name from being used by anyone else. If they are not ready to start trading as yet or are still undecided about what business to start under that name, then they can register it as a dormant company with the 99999 SIC code until they decide how to use it.You can check out the complete list of government SIC code listings and decide which SIC code most directly relates to your business operation. Make sure that you choose the most appropriate code to suit your business as your code will be used by Companies House and other official bodies such as HMRC to precisely categorise your company on the public record of companies. This means that the general public can look up your businesses and others in your sector using your SIC code category number.

Do I only need one SIC code?

If your business is pretty straightforward in what it does and can be easily defined, then you will only need to choose one single SIC code to categorise your business. For example, if you run an accounting company, a firm of solicitors, or you own a bakery or a plumbing company, then you would only need to choose one code that best describes your industry or profession.There are other forms of business that are more complex in nature and require more than one SIC code to best describe and categorise their business practices. For example, a company that both imports and exports goods, or sells contrasting products and services. In these cases, you will be allowed to select any number of SIC codes up to the maximum of four to best describe what your business does and cover all functions.As the nature of many businesses can change over the years, you will need to confirm that your SIC codes are still relevant to your business each year. This is important because a company can change it's focus and will need to target a different set of customers or clients than it did previously. Should your company still be listed under an old SIC code that no longer applies to your business, then it will make it more difficult for people to find you through searching SIC codes.

Who will need to know my SIC code?

Since June 2016, every new company formation undertaken needs to provide a relevant SIC code to Companies House on a formation. The code is used by Companies House to categorise your company under its pre-planned activities. If you fail to provide a SIC code upon registration, your application will be rejected by Companies House and you will not be able to form a company.Your company will also need to provide its SIC code or codes each year while filing your annual confirmation statement should you have any changes to report during the year. This can be quite common in the early days of a new company as it starts to grow and expand and changes are made to its structure, new shareholders or directors added, changes to the PSC register etc.

How do you change a company SIC code?

You can change your company SIC code should it no longer be relevant to your business, or you start trading a dormant company that was originally registered under the 99999 SIC code. You can amend your SIC code through your confirmation statement filing.You can do this when your confirmation statement is due for submission, usually 1-year and 14-days following incorporation, or you can choose to file an early confirmation statement at any time if your submission date is a long way off.

What if I pick the wrong SIC code?

If you feel that you selected the wrong SIC code to describe your business practices, then you are not obliged to operate under that SIC code if you believe it is incorrect. You can change your SIC code to one that is more appropriate for your line of work at any time with Companies House by submitting a confirmation statement with your amended details.

Many thousands of budding entrepreneurs start up new businesses each year. Many of them go on to become very successful and continue to grow from strength to strength, but one thing is true of all of them – they all had to start somewhere and the successful ones needed to have a strong foundation from which to grow.Knowing which business structure to set up for your business is crucial if you are going to establish your business and grow from a strong foundation. Here we will take a look at the different business structures that are open to you and the pros and cons of each one. Whether you were thinking of setting up as a sole trader, a partnership or a registered limited company, it is important that you make the right choice from day one of your new business.

The four main business structures

For most new start-ups there are usually four main business structures to choose from.

• Sole trader
• Partnership
• Limited Liability Company
• Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

The four business structures listed above are the most popular choices for the majority of new business owners. However, there are other business structures available such as not-for-profit community interest companies and charity organisations, but for most of our readers, the above four choices are where we are going to focus our interest.

Sole trader business structure

One of the most common business structures to set up in the early days of a new business is going it alone as a self-employed sole trader. There are currently hundreds of thousands of sole traders registered with HMRC. If you have a fantastic business idea that you can start up all by yourself, it is easy to register online as a sole trader with HMRC to get your business off the ground.Setting up as a sole trader is quite possibly the easiest route to starting a business because you don't need a huge amount of money to invest in your business. Quite often a sole trader will be a self-employed person with some sort of skill that they can sell or hire out to others. Sole traders vary greatly, so can be anything from a creative crafter, artist or designer making and selling their own wares, or a highly knowledgeable professional working as a freelance business consultant or accountant etc. There are also thousands of sole traders working as independent hairdressers, beauty therapists, personal trainers, lifestyles gurus, photographers, writers, web designers and more.While the name 'sole-trader' implies that you are some sort of one-person setup, you can actually employ staff if your business needs an extra pair of hands. However, there are certain rules to follow around employing staff as a sole trader that you need to adhere to.If you are starting to tinker with a business idea in your spare time, then depending on how much money your side business creates will determine whether you should register your business with HMRC. You need to set up as a sole trader if any of the following apply:

• you earned more than £1,000 from self-employment between 6 April 2017 and 5 April 2018
• you need to prove you're self-employed, for example, to claim Tax-Free Childcare
• you want to make voluntary Class 2 National Insurance payments to help you qualify for benefits

Once you have set yourself up as self-employed you will be registered for Self Assessment and will need to file a tax return every year to HMRC.As a sole trader, all business decisions are your own. This can be a benefit because you will not need to run your business decisions by any board members or shareholders that may not be receptive to your ideas and business decisions. You also get to keep all of the profit your business makes after tax has been deducted.

The disadvantages of being a sole trader

The one major downside of becoming a sole trader is that the law makes no clear distinction between you and your business. This means that you will be personally liable for everything that happens in your business name. Should your business fail, you will be fully responsible for paying off any outstanding debts that have been run up in your business name. This means that you will be putting your personal assets at risk, such as your home, car and personal money in your bank account.Another disadvantage to consider is that should you decide to give up your business, the business will not continue to operate in your absence. This is also the case should you decide to retire or if you die.You should also consider your tax position. As a sole trader your profits will be taxed as income, so once your earnings start increasing you will end up crossing a tax threshold that will see you paying 40% tax once you reach £41,865 and then 45% tax above £150,000.A vast majority of sole traders will eventually go on to grow their one-person business into something larger. As their business grows, the need to take on employees or a business partner (or a number of partners) will become a crucial next step in developing their business. At this point, most sole traders will look at stepping up their business and upgrade to form a limited company or a limited liability partnership.

Forming a regular partnership

A regular partnership is run in much the same way as being a sole-trader, but working with a person or people that you know well. Many partnerships are created among family member that want to work together to build a family business. This can work well in the beginning, but if you want to develop your business and go after big contracts, most larger companies that you approach will usually only look to work with incorporated partnerships (LLPs), so this is something to bear in mind.Regular partnerships are often a natural progression from a sole trader set up. This can often occur when a husband and wife or two or more siblings decide to join forces to support their family member. The great thing about setting up a partnership is knowing you have someone that you trust who has got your back. Should you be ill or have an accident that means you cannot work for a while, you will have someone to pick up the slack and keep things going in your absence.The only legal requirement of setting up a regular partnership is the same as with a sole-trader – as in each partner registers as self-employed with HMRC and will submit an individual tax return each year.As standard business partners, you will each be responsible for the debts owned by your business should it fail, just as sole-traders are. This is why it is very important that you completely trust anyone that you are planning to go into business with.

Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)

A safer route to setting up a business partnership would be to go down the Limited Liability Partnership route. You can take your partnership and incorporate it by going through the company formations process. This means that your partnership will be registered with Companies House as an official LLP, and you will benefit from all the legal protection that comes with it.Registering as an LLP will give your business great credibility in the business world, and will enable you to approach and work with larger companies that will only work with officially registered businesses.Being an LLP can also make it much easier for you to source business financing, should you need it. This can help if you have plans to expand your business and move to larger premises, take on employees or upgrade your essential company assets, such as tools and machinery.

Disadvantages of forming an LLP

By registering your partnership with Companies House, you will be letting yourself in for a lot more paperwork. You will have statutory mail coming from both HMRC and Companies House that you cannot afford to ignore or incorrectly complete. There are also harsh financial penalties attached to late submissions or errors in your submissions.In these cases, it would be wise to employ the services of an accountant that is used to handling business accounts and dealing with HMRC and Companies House.

Limited Liability Company formation

By far the most common business structure after a sole-trader is the limited liability company structure. Most limited companies are limited by shared and owned by their own directors and shareholders. You can register your company as a solo operator and be the company director as well as a company shareholder.The biggest benefit to setting up a limited company is the fact that should your business fail, the most your shareholders will have to pay out is the face value of the shares they own in your business. This means that you can protect yourself from financial risk because there is a distinct line between your own personal money and the finances of the company.Because a limited company has a separate legal identity in its own right, it will be your business that shoulders the financial liability and debt should the business fail. This means that your own personal assets such as your home, car and personal finances are all protected.

Tax considerations of an LLC

If you are looking for more favourable tax conditions for your business, then forming a limited company will also bring you tax benefits that cannot be enjoyed as a sole-trader or as a standard partnership.Registered limited companies will pay corporation tax on their business profits and you as the company director will be taxed as an employee of the company, this means that you will only pay tax on what your company pays you for your salary. Currently, corporation tax rates stand at 19% with a government commitment to lowering the rate to 17% by 2020.

The downside of forming an LLC

There are more statutory responsibilities that come with forming a limited company, these include submitting full statutory accounts and a company tax return to HMRC each year. You will also be required to make monthly or quarterly payments of employees’ income tax (PAYE) and NICs. Companies House will also require you to file your statutory accounts and confirmation statement each year.As you can see, there are more benefits to registering your company with Companies House than remaining as a sole trader. If you want to protect your personal assets, then it makes sense to reduce the risk of losing them by taking your business down the limited liability route.

Since the creation of the world wide web, home business start-ups have sky-rocketed in number. For many, the idea of starting a home-based business can bring them a new pathway to a lucrative career without feeling that they are simply working a job that is lining the pockets of others. Many people start home businesses because it can offer them the flexibility of building a business around the needs of their growing family.By drawing inspiration from notable entrepreneurs such as Jeff Bezos, who started Amazon from his home garage back in 1994, we can realise our dreams of owning our own businesses and carving out our own slice of a niche market.The internet has made running a small or micro business much simpler. Modern technology has also enabled us to roll up many important business tasks into one, so we can now automate things that would have taken up a lot of our time in the past, such as bookkeeping, invoicing, banking and managing our business accounts.Social media tools and communications management apps allow us to stay connected with our existing clients, as well as take the hard work out of marketing our products or services to new customers. All these digital tools allow us to compete with the big boys on the same platforms and enable us to win a piece of the action.No matter what business idea you want to try out, or if you can see a gap in the market for a solution that you can provide, there has never been a better time to launch your own business.Let's take a closer look at some home-based business ideas that you may find appealing, especially if you have the desire to work from home, but haven't quite found your niche just yet.

Private Tutor

There are so many different educational, teaching and learning areas you can enter into. You don't necessarily have to be a trained academic that has a masters degree in mathematics either! It really doesn't matter whether you have a passion for algebra, can speak fluent French or German, can play the guitar, bake amazing cakes, love flower arranging, can turn a lump of wood into a thing of beauty or can code in five different computer languages – if you have a skill that you are passionate about, you can offer your services as a tutor for that particular subject.Whether you choose to run live online courses in real time via Skype, create a video course for subscribers to download and watch in their own time, or run weekly classes at your local community college in the evenings, there could be a niche opportunity for you to utilise an existing skill or passion for a subject that you can share with others.For some ideas take a look at Tutorful for inspiration, or check out what evening classes your local community college offer. You may spot a gap in their programme that you could fill with a skill, or you could approach a different college with a talent you have that your local college already provide.

Graphic designer

There are so many business opportunities open to a good graphic designer. The fact that you work from home usually makes no difference to the customer as they will only be interested in your results. Just about every business launched today needs a good foundation of design to work from. Graphic designers are constantly in demand to help create company logo's, come up with creative images for brand recognition and marketing design coordination.To be successful in this line, you will need to have a genuine creative spark, a good imagination and a willingness to learn and keep up with new design technology. The added benefit of being a graphic designer is that you don't necessarily need an awful lot of space to get going. Working from a spare bedroom or home office can help to keep the costs down while you get yourself established.

Florist

People love flowers and they are very popular gift choices for significant events throughout the year, such as birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, graduation, landing a new job, to celebrate a new baby arrival, Valentines Day, and Christmas. Not forgetting that flowers are the gift of choice to help cheer up poorly loved ones that are having a spell in hospital or recovering at home.Starting a floristry business from home is a great idea if you have some spare space like a garage or outbuilding that you can turn into your workshop. Hiring a bricks-and-mortar shop can help to get your business noticed, but they can come at a hefty price with commercial rent and business tax to pay out, let alone paying out for utilities such as water, heating and electricity.Because floristry is a very visual creative art, you should take advantage of raising your awareness on a social media platform that uses a lot of imagery, such as Instagram. With floristry, seeing is believing, so you can set yourself up a wonderful portfolio of work and keep photographic galleries of creations to suit every niche market.

Freelance Writer

If you have a way with words, then freelance writing can offer a very flexible home-based business to start up. Again, there are many different niches you could look at working within, so if you have a particular passion that you would find easy and inspiring to write about, then you could look at creating useful content to sell to others, or write your own books or guides and publish them yourself to sell.There are writing opportunities on freelance job portals that you can bid for, or you can attract buyers to book your writing services by creating a profile and outlining what you can offer. It is also worth approaching newspapers and magazines to pitch ideas and articles. Newspaper and magazine editors are always on the lookout for fresh content so they may be willing to pay you for topical articles or even hire you to write some copy for them.Look on Twitter and other social media sites for job opportunities. Quite often a company will circulate a journalism request, so if you spot one that is right up your street you could be on to a good thing for future bookings, especially if they like what you submit to them.

Virtual assistant services

If you have worked in admin and find yourself a natural at organising your workload, running diaries and communicate well with people, then working as a virtual assistant could be an ideal business idea to start!There are many small business owners, sole traders and solo-entrepreneurs that would really appreciate a hand with a lot of day-to-day admin tasks that need to be done, but can keep them from doing other important things.You can expect to given tasks such as handling customer enquiries and communications, uploading web content, managing diaries and appointments, inputting orders and more, depending on what your customer needs you to do.You will need to set out exactly what tasks you are prepared to do and what hours you will be available for work. You will also have to decide how many clients you can handle at one time.These are just a few of our favourite working from home ideas, but there are many more that you could look at, for example:

• babysitting
• cake making
• car valeting
• childminding
• cleaning services
• computer repairs
• DIY handyman services
• dog walking
• eBay seller
• entertainer
• garden maintenance
• Ironing services
• pet grooming
• translation services
• personal training

Don't let yourself become overwhelmed

While it can be a very exciting time to start your own business from home, it can also be very daunting. Be prepared to put in a lot of hard work in the early days and risk sacrificing a lot of your spare time to get things up and running.Once you start to get your business established then you may also face demand rising very quickly, which can put a lot of pressure on you. In this case, it would be wise to look at getting some help with your everyday tasks to allow you to focus on other important areas of your work.A lot of solo-entrepreneurs and small business owners can ease the pressure of managing they are everyday administration tasks by using professional virtual office services such as ours. Capital Office virtual office services can be an ideal solution for when you need to focus on your work, meet with important clients or suppliers, or while you are travelling for work and cannot afford to be tied to your office.We can take care of your everyday administration duties so that you don't have to! We can ensure that every business call is answered so you never have to miss a business opportunity because you were busy in a meeting dealing with clients.Our fully trained and experienced administrative assistants have years of business knowledge and service under their belts, so will work very efficiently for you. Our virtual office team will answer your calls with your preferred greeting and handle each call as you direct us to. We will take care of all your incoming business mail and manage it to your specifications. We offer a lot of flexible options for your mail sorting and handling needs, so you don't need to worry about missing an important business letter or mandatory notification from HMRC or Companies House.If you are quite happy handling your own administrative tasks by yourself, but you could do with a hand to manage your incoming business calls, then you should look at hiring a professional call handling service. There are many benefits to be had from using a call handling service and the main point of it is to free you up from being tied to your company phone for every hour of your working day.Take a look at our professional call handling services to see how we can support you and help your company to grow from strength to strength.

The most popular choice of company formation is a company that is Limited by Shares. For this type of registered company, you will need to have a Company Director and at least one Shareholder. A Company Director can also be a Shareholder, so you can fully incorporate a new company with just one person acting as both the Director and Shareholder.How these two roles operate is of great importance to your new business, so it is handy to know exactly what responsibilities each role takes on. Here we will take a look at what each does and the differences between them.

Management and ownership roles

Technically, a shareholder owns the company, or at least part of it, depending on how many company shares they own. Each shareholder will be issued with share certificates to confirm their stake in the company.A Company Director is the person that is tasked with the duties of managing the company. This means they will be responsible for the day to day running of the company and overseeing every aspect of it, from managing staff to ensuring profitability and steering the company in the right direction.Normally, shareholders have no requirement to actually get themselves involved in the day to day running of the company, but depending on the structure of the company, they may or may not need to be present at shareholders meetings.There are many thousands of Companies Limited by Shares that have very hands-off shareholders who simply invest their money into company shares for their portfolio without actually ever visiting the business site, or meeting the company directors.You can set up and run your own limited company all by yourself and act as both company director and first shareholder. There are many thousands of solo entrepreneurs doing this right now in the UK, and they manage their businesses very well.Many of them will get help running their company by hiring virtual office services, such as our Complete Virtual Office London, to take on the bulk of the necessary admin work while they focus of managing the company and taking it forward.

Directors and Shareholders decision making

Both the company director and the shareholder are allowed to make decisions for the company. Exactly what they can decide on should be clearly outlined within the Articles of Association. The details would have been drawn up as part of the Memorandum and Articles, which is a document that spells out the terms and conditions of the company. The company may also have a Shareholders Agreement in place where the exact duties and responsibilities of shareholders are outlined.

Are there any rules and restrictions?

To form a Company Limited by Shares, you will need at least one person to act as a Company Director. You can have as many directors as you like, and you can also start your company with just one director and add more further down the line.You will also need at least one shareholder to register your company with. Again, you can start with just one shareholder or as many shareholders as you want. You can also sell more shares further down the line and take on more shareholders, or sell further company shares to existing shareholders.A shareholder doesn't necessarily have to be a human either. You can have corporate shareholders where another company may buy your company shares and own them in their company name. As a registered company is seen by the law as a single entity that is separate from its owners and directors, a company is able to purchase shares in other companies just as an individual person can.When you first register your company with Companies House, the identity of the first shareholder or shareholders will be known as Subscribers. This means that in years to come, even if the original shareholders cease to become shareholders, their names will always be on record in the details of the company formation.There are also a few important changes to businesses that you may want to learn about before you create your new company.

Limited by Guarantee Companies

While Limited by Guarantee companies don't carry any shareholders, they do have members that act like shareholders in the company. The main difference is that members will agree to contribute a specific amount of money to the company. Usually, this is as little as £1.00, but the exact amount can be agreed upon in advance of the formation.Just like Companies Limited by Shares, Limited by Guarantee companies can have as many company directors and members as they choose. Again, a company director can also be a company member.For a registered partnership (LLP), there will be a need for at least two partners to set up the company, but members can also be a real person or another company. Again, there are no limits to how many members a partnership can take on.Whether you are looking to set up a Company Limited by Shares, a Company Limited by Guarantee, or a Partnership (LLP), the directors, shareholders or members do not need to be UK residents.

Registering your Company Limited by Shares

When you form your company, you will need to submit certain director and shareholder details to Companies House so that they can register your company and add your information to the Register of Companies. Here is what you will need to submit:Directors information (for each director you are registering your company with): Full name, date of birth, nationality, occupation, country of residence, residential address and service address.For each Shareholder you register with, you will need: Full name, address, share information including share currency, share class – such as Ordinary, Preference, Redeemable, number of shares they hold, value per share, and some personal identification security ID.For a Corporate Shareholder, your registration will need: Company name, director name, and the same share information as listed above.Be aware that all company directors, shareholders and member information, including their registered addresses, will be entered into the Public Register of Companies, which is on public display and can be searched by anyone.If you are wanting to set up your company and run it from your home address, this means that your private residential address will be on public display. This means that you could open up your home to cold callers and salespeople. You can choose to protect your home address and keep it off the public record by using a business address service, such as our Directors Service Address London, to use instead.If you need any further information about how to use our business address services for your registered company, do not hesitate to contact us. We are here to help!Call us 0207 566 3939email: office@capital-office.co.uk

No matter what size of business you operate, you will know that one of the most important tasks involved in running your business is making sure that your business calls are always answered. Not only that, but answered promptly, politely and professionally.While answering your incoming telephone calls may seem like a pretty easy task, many business owners don't give the job much thought. How your calls are answered can often influence how your company will be perceived by your potential new customers. It can take just a few short seconds for prospective customers to form a first impression of your company based on how your answer their call.Ignoring your phone while you focus on completing other tasks can mean potential new and very lucrative leads are kept waiting for you to answer. Keeping people hanging on the phone for too long can cause great frustration. Most people these days don't have the time or patience to be kept waiting on the phone for very long.We understand that your time is also very precious. If you are trying to run your business with a small team of staff, or even by yourself on your own, you will have many other pressing duties to attend to. As a business owner you need to be able to free up your time to focus on finishing off projects, meet with production deadlines, take meetings with current clients or negotiate with suppliers for your essential business supplies or services. It can be incredibly difficult to concentrate on juggling so many different tasks at once, so when your telephone suddenly starts to ring while in the middle of an important meeting or conversation, you will also feel quite frustrated.

Professional telephone manner

Another aspect of being up to your eyes trying to manage all of your day to day tasks is the fact that when you do get to answer an incoming call, you may not answer it in the best frame of mind. If you have been focusing on a project and your mind has been absorbed deeply in your work, you may answer your phone with quite a disinterested voice. To the caller you can sound tired, distracted, irritated or simply fed-up! This doesn't make for a very good first impression, and can even lead the caller to ring off and go in search of one of your rivals for a better customer service experience.Don't let potential new leads fall through the cracks because you don't have the time to answer your telephone. By using Professional Call Answering Services from Capital Office, you can have a great weight lifted off your shoulders. Capital Office are a leading expert business call answering service provider based in Central-London. We have many years of experience helping thousands of small business owners to manage their business telephone calls.Lets take a look at some of the benefits of using our professional call answering services:

Customised answering with your company name

Image is everything in business, especially when you are trying to win new customers or clients, or want to retain your existing customer base and continue to provide them with a high-quality customer service experience.With our professional call answering services, you will have all of your incoming business telephones calls answered swiftly – no keeping prospective new customers hanging on the line. Your calls will also be answered very professionally and clearly with your own company name. This can give your callers instant reassurance that they have reached the right place.Many business owners worry that by outsourcing their call answering, they will be getting someone answering their calls with a simple 'hello'. This is not the case with Capital Office. Our fully trained call answering staff are all very experienced in providing good quality customer services and are fully equipped to respond to caller queries and questions. This is because we take the time to get to know you and your business, so that we become a trusted partner that is here to help support your business and understand your needs.

Fully customised service

When you work in partnership with a reliable call answering service such as ours, you will be delivered with a fully customised service so that your virtual receptionist will know how to respond to your incoming calls. Your company name, byline, logo and preferred greeting can be easily incorporated into how we answer your calls.

A choice of message delivery options

Whether you are planning to go into a day-long meeting with a current customer, or you plan to be on the road for some time and unable to take any calls, we can tailor our message delivery to suit your needs.You can choose how you would like your messages delivered. This could be by forwarding specific calls directly to your mobile phone should you be keen to speak in person to that caller, or if you are awaiting a confirmation message from someone, we can take that message and forward it to you immediately so you are completely up to speed with your project progress.Should you want your call messages recorded and delivered to you at a specific time, such as later in the afternoon after you have finished all of your important tasks, then this is what we can do. This means that you can work all day in peace and truly concentrate on your important tasks and become fully absorbed without the risk of interruption from an incoming call.Having your thought processes or work procedures constantly interrupted can cause a lot of frustration and delay. Your productivity levels can drop, and a constantly ringing telephone can be very disrupting for any other workers in your office or workplace that need to focus on their tasks without any distractions.It makes sense to place your call handling into the hands of a professional company such as Capital Office. We can provide you with a high-quality service at very cost-effective prices. Our services can also save you a lot of money because you will not need to hire your own full-time receptionist and provide them with an office and equipment to do their job. Our virtual receptionists can take care of your calls for a fraction of the price of employing your own staff.

Real London-based receptionists

Another positive benefit from using our professional call answering services is that your incoming business calls will be handled by real-life, London-based receptionists. Many other call answering providers can use outsourced services from overseas call centres. With Capital Office you will get a professional service from our fully-trained London team, plus the added prestige of using a unique 0203 or 0207 London number for your business. This gives instant gravitas to your company because your prospective new customers will be impressed that your business has a London business telephone number.It is a known fact that when people browse the internet looking for a business, they are more likely to trust a company with a contact number that is based in London rather than an obvious residential address phone number. Having a London-based business number is more impressive and creates a more professional image in the minds of people than someone who works from home and uses their home phone number for their business.Why not sign up for our professional call answering services and get your unique 0203 or 0207 London number for your business and start impressing your clients today!

Further reading:

Can I Use a Complete Virtual Office for My Online Business?How To Get a UK Address for your Expat Mail-Forwarding Needs

There are many thousands of small businesses and solo entrepreneurs that operate their businesses online. For the older generation of workers and business owners that operate and work within a physical, bricks and mortar business, it can be very difficult for them to understand that a business can exist solely online.Many people have difficulty believing that anyone can 'do business' where your company does everything online, and has no physical assets or offices. It can be hard for them to accept that in this digital age, running a company online is entirely possible.However, even if you are running a successful company from your back bedroom or from your laptop as you move from place to place on the road, there will be some aspects of it that still exist in the real world. We are talking about business phone calls, business mail and essential legal correspondence coming from HMRC and Companies House.These all need to be handled professionally and in a timely manner. This is where using a virtual office solution can work for you.

Why it makes sense to use a Complete Virtual Office

Although virtual offices have been around for quite a few years now, evolving new digital technology has meant that the services they can offer have changed drastically from what was offered originally.In fact, for anyone wanting to launch a brand-new business idea, they are now able to put 100% of their time and effort into developing and growing it without having to be distracted or have their time diverted towards other essential day to day tasks that need to be done.In the old days, setting up a brand new business meant that the business owner needed to look for offices to rent, lay out a lot of money for deposits and securities for the office space, then go through the quite long-winded process of looking for staff to man the office, such as a receptionist to answer the company phones and take in their business post.The office set-up alone could be a huge drain on resources, and with most entrepreneurs working on a very tight budget, seeing a large slice of their savings disappear on building rent and staffing costs can be very frustrating. Then there is also all of the extra expenses to add on, such as telecommunications equipment purchase and installation, building insurance, gas, electricity and water to supply and pay for, furniture, carpets and curtains to put in to make the place comfortable for the staff.All this extra time and expense paid out even before your business idea has even been launched!Luckily, there is a perfect solution that allows modern entrepreneurs these days to skip all of this expense as well as the time-consuming tasks of setting up and running a physical bricks and mortar office for their business.

Running a lean online business

Using the services of a complete virtual office provider, such as Capital Office, will allow your virtual office to become an essential part of your team. When you want to run a lean business and strip your resources down to the absolute bare bones of what is necessary to run your business, you will quickly learn that one of the biggest drains on your finances will be running a physical office and paying for your full time staff.Why would you do this if you are working from a tight budget when there is a perfect solution all ready and waiting to go in a complete virtual office set up.By choosing to use a complete virtual office service, you can have a very cost-effective way to effectively manage all of your day to day administration tasks that are essential to the successful running of your business – but you will not have to spend a single penny on office rent, equipment costs or staff wages!By outsourcing your admin needs to Capital Office, you can be giving yourself a great strategic advantage. There amount of time saved on sorting out your office can now be dedicated to developing your business idea and getting it launched ASAP.

How virtual office services work

Instead of you trying to answer all of your incoming business calls and sorting your business mail single-handedly, you can be out meeting clients, developing your marketing strategy or working on your plans for expansion.Our complete virtual office services are already set up and running in Central-London and staffed with highly trained, professionals with many years of administrative and customer service experience under their belt. You simply book our services, give us your required information, and we will take care of the rest! There is no having to rent offices or hire staff – we have everything you need and can start working for your business within a day.

Our complete virtual office services can be yours in three simple steps:

• Sign up now online

Choose a suitable package online and complete our simple online order form in under 60 seconds.

• Start using the service

Once your registration is complete you will be able to start using our prestigious City Road office address as your own instantly.

• Your post is processed & calls answered

Once we start receiving your letters and calls we will handle this the way you have asked us too.By choosing our Complete Virtual Office services, you will be benefiting from a strong partnership with us that allows you to concentrate on your urgent projects and meetings, while leaving the running of your office in our safe and capable hands. You can be rest assured that we will take good care of you and your business. Capital Office has been helping entrepreneurs and small business owners to run their companies for many years from our Central-London offices.Why not take a look at our Complete Virtual Office packages and choose one of our flexible plans that suits your needs and your budget. You will be so glad that you did!

Further reading:

What Benefits Can Your Business Get from a Virtual Receptionist?5 Benefits for New Start-ups Using a Virtual Office

Expatriates often find that they still need to have a reliable mail forwarding service to enable them to carry on receiving important letters and documentation, as well as a way to ensure that any stray mail doesn't end up going to their previous address back in the UK.Keeping a safe and reliable UK address can be essential for any British expats, especially if they are planning on travelling around to see a bit of the world before settling down into their new life abroad.To stop your mail going to the wrong address, getting into the wrong hands, or ending up who knows where, it makes sense to get yourself a secure and trustworthy UK mail forwarding address service that will guarantee to get all of your mail to you, no matter where you are in the world!

Have a physical UK address in London

Capital Offices are here to help with our services that are ideal for expat mail-forwarding. You will get a real address that exists in London, and our team of professional mail-forwarding staff will take good care of your incoming mail, giving you great peace of mind.We offer a very flexible service where you tell us exactly what you want us to do with your mail. You could choose to have it saved up and forwarded to an address of your choosing on a regular basis. Or if you prefer, we can open and scan your mail, and then send it by email the same day so you are kept completely up to date with your post. This can be very handy, especially if you are waiting for some important news or a confirmation.Our scan and email service can be very convenient if you plan to travel for a period of time, or if you live and work abroad, but move around a lot with your work. Using this service will ensure that nothing important goes astray.

Expats mail-forwarding service benefits

There are many benefits to using our expat mail-forwarding service. We have listed just some of theme here for you:

• Choose a physical mail forwarding schedule to suit your needs
• A UK address can help to maintain your UK credit score
• Less hassle for your family members to manage your post
• Scan and email options
• Very cost-effective service to help you save money
• Your mail forwarded to your chosen address wherever you are in the world
• Unlimited mail included
• No set-up fees
• Parcels signed for
• Confidential and secure
• Global courier service

Don't forget that you will also benefit from using our prestigious Central-London address.

UK Address for your Business

Many ex-pats choose to live and work abroad to benefit from living in a sunnier climate with guaranteed warm weather for most of the year. They can often also be business owners that have made the move from the UK and will want to carry on operating their company from abroad.It can be very reassuring to keep a UK-based business address for your company correspondence. It can also help you to continue to project a prestigious company image, especially if you choose to have a business address that sits in the heart of London's business district.Capital Offices are based on City Road in London, and you can use our prestigious London address as part of your mail forwarding service with us. This means you can use our EC1 address on your business letterhead, website and company documentation. Your customers or clients will be impressed that you have a Central-London business address!

Your business address will be:

Your Business NameKemp House152-160 City RoadLondon, EC1V 2NX

How do I set up an expat mail-forwarding service?

Capital Office have been in operation for many years and helping those who need a UK based mail-forwarding service. We have refined our service to be very easy for you to use. Simply book our mail-forwarding service via our website and choose how you would like your forwarding service set up.Hiring our mail-forwarding service will also mean that you don't need to rely on a relative back home to handle all of your mail for you on your behalf. If you don't want your mail to become a burden for a loved one, then by using our service you will be taking the burden of minding your mail from their shoulders.We are proud to be one of the leading providers of trusted and professional mail-forwarding services in the UK. We are also one of the most cost-effective services you can find, so you will be saving yourself a lot of money with Capital Office.The most inexpensive way to get your mail forwarded to an address overseas is to have your mail collected and stored securely at our offices, and then forwarded to you in one large bundle to help reduce your shipping costs. It really depends on how often you require your mail and how many urgent pieces of correspondence you will need to deal with.Should you want to talk to us about any aspect of our service, or ask us any questions, then our friendly customer service staff are here to help you. Do not hesitate to contact us to discuss all of your mail-forwarding needs, whether you are an expat or simply work abroad for a large part of the year, we will be able to help you!How to contact us: Call us +44 (0) 207 566 3939 Email: <OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UKFurther reading:What Benefits Can Your Business Get from a Virtual Receptionist?How Virtual Offices and Flexible Work-space in London will help to Bridge the Brexit Gap

With more and more companies offering business owners virtual services via the internet, a greater number of companies than ever before are taking advantage of the many services on offer, such as the one being offered by Your Virtual Office. A sole operator or entrepreneur can save themselves a lot of money by using someone to outsource different parts of the business rather than them having to hire out a large building to accommodate a full suite of in-house staff, as well as avoid all the overheads of supplying and running essential IT and telecommunications equipment.

A popular option for the single business owner or entrepreneur is to use a virtual receptionist through our professional call-handling package to help manage essential aspects of the day to day reception duties without the need for employing someone on site. But what are the benefits of hiring a virtual receptionist, and what can most businesses expect get from using such a service?

Ideal employee

For starters, a virtual receptionist can be available to your business needs 24 hours a day and doesn’t need time off for sickness or holidays – that’s because you are outsourcing to a virtual service rather than hiring an individual receptionist. The virtual service provider will have a team of people to handle all the individual services you need and this means there are none of the usual limits and barriers that you find with hiring a single member of staff to work on site.

Having a virtual receptionist service on hand also allows you to offer your callers a professional receptionist service at any time, ideal if you want to conduct in-depth or drawn-out business or client meetings where you don't want to be disturbed, but you cannot afford to miss any important incoming calls.

For those small business owners who may only need a voicemail only service to cover periods where they are out of communication, such as during business meetings, travel times or while away on holiday, then there are even low-cost services to suit you too!

The financial costs of hiring a virtual receptionist is also much less than taking on a full-time employee, especially when hiring the service over the longer term where you can get great value for money. Not only do you get that very important extensive receptionist coverage you require, but you don’t have all the associated costs that come with having someone offering this service within your business – there are no holidays to accommodate, pension plans to contribute to, sick days to cover, equipment to provide, or other expenses.

Avoid employee issues

Many businesses will have hired temporary staff over the years to do this kind of work and while this can be a great option, at other times it doesn’t work out quite so well. By using the services of a virtual receptionist, you are accessing professionally trained people who will be able to perform this service all of the time, no matter where you are based or what your line of business is. The kind of experience and professional expertise offered by a virtual receptionist would cost a lot to employ for your company, full or part-time, if you could even find someone that good.

Professional Virtual Receptionists services are also very flexible and are able to be completely personalised to suit your company – the receptionist answers with your company name, accesses your business information and will act as if they were a full-time member of your business team. This means that they can offer a fully comprehensive, seamless, and professional customer service without actually being physically present within your company, or ever having to set foot through your doorway.

Virtual Services Available

As well as ensuring that they answer your incoming business calls with a warm and friendly tone using your company name, your virtual receptionist will also know about your company background. They will be able to intercept and direct an incoming call confidently, politely and efficiently.

Depending on your business needs, your virtual reception services can be tailored to meet your requirements. This can include routing calls to the right person, transferring calls between different sections of the business, taking messages while staff members are unavailable, and even for the screening out sales calls and nuisance callers.

By simply outsourcing your essential company receptionist duties to Your Virtual Office, you can have all the professional services that a full-time receptionist offers without the need to hire any full or part-time employees whatsoever.

You can save yourself a lot of money too because you also don’t need a physical location for them to be based – no need to have an office within the premises with a phone system and a desk. There is no need to have an office at all for your administration needs if your business model doesn’t’ require one. And you can keep down the costs of overheads such as electricity, office rent, stationery, land-line and mobile phone costs by outsourcing this service while still offering the best possible customer experience to everyone who calls your company.