Business

There are many benefits of using a virtual receptionist for your business no matter what the size, but the business owners that most often gain the most benefit are sole traders, microbusinesses and small start-ups.

It may come as no surprise to learn that self-employment numbers are on the rise, but did you know that currently 60% of all UK businesses are made up of sole traders, while 33% are companies and 7% are partnerships. The UK also saw the launch of nearly 200,000 more small businesses between 2017 and 2018, meaning more people are creating their own business opportunities.

The one thing that links all these different business types in their size. It is undeniable that small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy and that they need all the support that they can get to help them make a success of their business ventures.

The rise of the Virtual Receptionist

What has perfectly mirrored the rise in self-employed numbers is the demand for virtual receptionists and other related virtual office services, such as the ones provided by Capital Office, London.

The rise in the popularity of virtual office services is closely linked to the increased number of individuals choosing to work for themselves and needing the help and support that these virtual services can offer, such as providing a call answering service to take care of all their incoming business calls while they are busy focusing on their business tasks.

Sole traders especially can struggle to juggle the demands of their business, especially when they cannot afford to miss a single incoming business phone call that could be a potential new customer or new business lead. Because a sole trader is usually working with very limited finances, they can not often afford to rent office space and employ a permanent receptionist to look after their business phone calls.

This is where hiring a virtual receptionist can be a Godsend for a sole trader or microbusiness operator. Not only can you be rest assured that you can continue to perform your everyday work tasks without missing a single vital phone call, but you can also project a very professional image to prospective new customers by having their call answered by a trained receptionist.

Improving your business image

Your business image and reputation is incredibly important if you want your business to be a success. While there is no argument that presenting a professional front for your business can help to build and improve your reputation, your first point of contact for your customers or potential business partners will be your receptionist.

Having a fully trained professional receptionist in place is fantastic for helping you present the right company image and for providing exceptional customer services. There can be nothing more off-putting for a potential new customer than having their phone enquiry met by a flustered business owner that treats your enquiry like it is some sort of inconvenience for interrupting their day. The likelihood is that your prospective customer will not call back because of the gruff way that their call was handled.

The benefits of virtual office services

Hiring a full-time professional receptionist to answer your phone calls may be out of your price range, but there are fantastic alternative options that can provide an ideal solution to your problem in the form of a professional, unlimited call handling service, such as the those provided by us at Capital Offices.

By making good use of virtual office services such as these you will be giving yourself a consistent, professional business image coupled with a good reputation for customer services. For a small start-up business, every single point of customer contact can make or break your business reputation. This is why many small business owners choose to outsource their telephone call handling and other administrative duties to professional service providers.

Using professional virtual office services can help you to manage your growing customer base and help with your customer retention at the same time. Your customers will be able to call you with confidence knowing that their call will be answered promptly in a very professional and polite manner. They will also be confident that their phone call or message will reach the right person without fail.

Why choose Capital Office?

When you first start out you may be working from a very limited budget. This is why it makes sense to choose your virtual services provider carefully. Working with a flexible company such as Capital Office means you can choose from our range of virtual services and scale them up or down as you need to fit your requirements.

Let's say for example you want to start out by simply using our call answering services to cover your business calls and allow you to work without interruption. Then as your business grows you may find that you are struggling to deal with the increasing amount of your incoming business post. This is when you decide to take up our mail sorting service where we can take care of all your incoming post, saving you a lot of time and effort that can be focused back into your work.

Or you may decide that your time is too precious to spend answering your telephone and dealing with your business post from day one. If you really cannot bear the thought of dealing with all of your everyday administrative tasks that come with running a business, then you can jump right in with our complete virtual office services to completely relieve you of these time-consuming daily tasks.

You can even benefit from our professional meeting room hire for when you need to hold an important business meeting and want to impress your clients. Just because you don't have a physical office of your own doesn't mean you need to meet your clients in a coffee house to discuss business. Our meeting rooms are completely unbranded and you will get a dedicated receptionist to welcome your business guests and deliver them to your meeting room. Your clients will never know that the meeting room isn't actually owned by you.

No matter what support your small business needs, we are here to help fulfill your needs. Capital Office, London can provide you with a highly trained professional virtual receptionist to answer your incoming business telephone calls quickly and professionally in a greeting of your choice. Your receptionist will then deal with your calls exactly as you instruct us.

You can have the call directed through to an appropriate member of your staff so that they can help your caller immediately. You can have your virtual receptionist take a message from your caller and then pass it on to you directly.

You can even change the way you want us to deal with your calls on a day to day basis. For example, maybe you don't want to be disturbed by your phone for three days while you are at a business conference, trade event or workshop. Just let us know so your messages can be relayed on to you at the end of the day so you can choose who you want to call back at a time that is convenient for you.

The flexibility we build into our virtual office services is one of the reasons why we are one of the leading virtual service providers in the UK.

Why not join our base of happy customers by contacting us to discuss your virtual receptionist or virtual office needs. Our friendly team are here to help you!

You can call us on 0207 566 3939 or email us: OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UK or if you are in London, why not pop in to meet us at Capital Office, Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. We would be pleased to meet you and discuss your needs in person.

When starting up a new business your mind will automatically start thinking about why type of office set up you will need to get your new enterprise off the ground. This can be a very easy choice for a solo-entrepreneur that plans to start off working from home in a spare bedroom, home office or even from their kitchen table. However, the time will hopefully come where they will need to make plans for some sort of office as their business grows and expands.For those who are planning to jump-start a small business or a partnership where you need to facilitate an office or a workspace to operate from then there is the option of choosing to rent a fully serviced office. This type of office space can save you a lot of time and money because you don't need to actually set up your own physical office space at all – you will simply be able to walk your staff right into a fully set-up and working office space as soon as you sign on the dotted line of your serviced office agreement.

What is a fully serviced office?

Serviced office spaces isn't exactly a new thing to the business world. Rented service office spaces started to pop up in the USA back in the 1960s. The providers most often offered serviced offices as a temporary solution for business owners that were planning to relocate their business to another area or larger premises and who needed an immediate stop-gap solution to keep their business ticking over while their move took place.In most cases back in the early days of serviced offices, the space was only ever used for the short-term so were pretty much overlooked by well-established businesses that had no plans to move premises. It is only in recent years with the rise in the numbers of entrepreneurs and lean business start-ups that the idea of the fully serviced office has really taken off. The idea soon spread to the UK, mostly during the late 90s and in fact, the UK alone has recently seen a 157% increase in serviced office take up.There are many benefits to choosing a fully serviced office set up when compared to setting up your own physical office from scratch. Let's take a look at some of the key advantages:

Greater flexibility

Probably the most beneficial element of working from a fully serviced office space is the flexibility that this can give to your business. Most serviced offices come with short-term contracts that you can choose to renew over again, should you need to. This is in stark contrast to setting up your own physical office space where you may have no other choice but to sign up for a lengthy fixed term contract that could see you tied up with for several years.Leasing your own physical office space is not only costly for your business and can seriously impact of your budget, but it can often leave you tied into a long-term lease that comes with financial penalties should you decide to break the contract early.There are many rapidly growing businesses that need to start off small and can only afford a small office to start with, but may find that within a couple of years they have quickly outgrown their existing space. The need to move to larger premises may be made more difficult if you have signed a five-year lease on your office space that comes with a hefty fee for severing it before it expires. Not many growing businesses can afford to hang around and wait for their lease to expire while working out of very cramped and unsuitable office conditions.The perfect solution here is to hire fully serviced registered office space that you can pick up quickly and operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. This means that you can get the right sized office space that you need when you start up but also have the in-built flexibility to expand your office and take on more office space as and when you need to.

Adapting your office space to suit your needs

Flexibility and adaptability are two very strong features of hiring a fully serviced office space. Say for example that you hire a space that is suitable for your needs, but then you land a large project that means you need to add some extra office space for a few months. This is where using a serviced office space can work to your advantage. You can simply take on the extra office space for the duration of your large project, and then scale back to your original sized space once the project is completed and delivered.For your business, this means that you can have office space that is right for your business at every stage of your journey. Being able to upscale or downsize your flexible office space and renew or extend your lease gives you the freedom operate more efficiently without wasting any precious resources or be left with uncomfortable office space that isn't suitable for your changing needs.

Relocating from a different country

Many businesses are global these days, so this often means a company will simply up-sticks and relocate their operation to any part of the world. A lot of international businesses decide to expand into a new country so under both scenarios a company will look at using serviced office space to help their transition into the new country. Many companies will use fully serviced offices to set up their UK branch and establish their brand here while their permanent business premises is being prepared.Many international businesses are now using serviced office space as a solution for testing out a new location before finally deciding whether or not to branch out and move or open their operations up in that country. This is a very flexible approach to their expansion plans and means they can successfully test the waters before committing to anything in the long term.

Cost-effective solution

When you sit down and actually factor in every expense and overhead that you will need to pay for when setting up your own office space from scratch, you can see that choosing serviced office space rental is a very worthwhile investment.Because absolutely everything is included in your fully-equipped and fully-furnished office space, it completely removes the headache of having to sort everything out by yourself. Everything you need is included in one monthly pay-as-you-go bill, including your IT infrastructure, building maintenance and cleaning, power and water utilities and sanitation facilities.

Alternatives to fully serviced offices

Having said all this, there is also another very flexible alternative to hiring a fully serviced office. This solution is actually ideal for those solo-entrepreneurs, sole traders and small partnerships that are setting up an online business or small creative business and may be happy to work from their home office, or choose to have a workshop or warehouse set up without the need for a physical office.This solution is also ideal for new start-ups who want to run a lean business infrastructure where they operate using the bare minimum of resources to keep costs down and enable them to divert the time consuming everyday tasks of running an office elsewhere to avoid distractions.We are talking here about using a complete virtual office set up that can be even more cost-effective and flexible than taking up a fully serviced office space.There has been an incredible rise in the numbers of people going self-employed in recent years with many thousands of people looking for home business ideas that they can successfully launch from the comfort of their own home, while at the same time outsourcing many essential office tasks to virtual service suppliers.One of the major benefits of using a virtual office service provider such as Capital Office in London is that you can literally start using your office services right away.With minimal set-up times involved, you can get your own virtual office operating quickly and functioning at maximum capacity. This will allow you to focus your attention towards more urgent and important tasks, such as your R&D projects or meeting with clients or prospective new business partners without the fear of interruptions coming from phone calls.There will be no need to worry or fret about the levels of your incoming business mail piling up in the corner of the room. We understand that most small business owners have little time or patience to dedicate to dealing with your business post. This is where our mail sorting services will prove invaluable to you. You will no longer need to think about your mail and there will be zero risks of you losing any important pieces of mail coming from your clients or your statutory mail coming from HMRC and Companies House that you cannot afford to lose or ignore.Why not give one of our friendly Capital Office team members a call on 0207 566 3939or email: office@capital-office.co.uk to discuss your virtual office needs. We are here to help!

Modern-day offices are nothing like what they used to be. The digital revolution has brought about great changes to the workplace that allows for a greater level of flexibility than was afforded to business owners in years gone past.In the old days, it was simply a matter of providing four straight walls, a roof and desks for their office workers to sit at for the whole of their working days, weeks, months and years.These days many businesses both large and small are demanding greater flexibility for their workers and this doesn't always mean having a permanent office style set-up in the workplace. More employers are realising that they need to incorporate more agility and amenity in their workspaces that include open-plan office space, rest areas where staff can go to get a mental break from their desks and connect and collaborate with their work colleagues.

Fully serviced offices

A lot of new tech start-ups that don't actually produce physical goods or need workshops are creating a rise in demand for very adaptable, fully-equipped, ready to go offices and workspaces that provide new business owners with everything they need to launch their business, but with the convenience of only needing to pay one monthly fee for its use.This means that many digital entrepreneurs and app developers can walk into a fully-functional office with their R&D development team and programmers and be ready to go from day one with none of the logistical nightmares of having to rent premises and set up their own workspaces.Compared to how business owners used to operate this new approach is nothing short of a workplace revolution. Fully serviced office spaces are becoming the new norm for many new start-ups and has long been an anticipated requirement for new enterprises according to many leading business experts.

Virtual office options

The huge rise in popularity for a flexible virtual office approach to running a business has also proved to be a game-changer in the business world. According to information from the Office of National Statistics, the number of self-employed in the UK increased from 3.3 million people (12.0% of the labour force) in 2001 to 4.8 million (15.1% of the labour force) in 2017.The vast majority of the self-employed are either sole traders working a home-based business, solo-entrepreneurs, small partnerships and small business start-ups with just a handful of key workers on staff. This means that the demand for virtual office services such as those offered by Capital Office, London has been steadily rising in recent years.There are obvious benefits to outsourcing many of the day-to-day administration tasks performed in your office and reception area. Freeing yourself from these time-consuming tasks will allow you to focus your time on more pressing jobs and free you up for meetings with clients or B2B negotiations. The cost savings alone will help give your bottom line a healthy boost because you will not need to employ administrative staff solely for the purpose of handling your business calls and keeping on top of your company mail.You can also make massive savings on office rent as you won't need to hire staff and provide them with office space to work from, not to mention the savings made from all the extra overheads of running an office such as your power, heating, water supply and IT equipment infrastructure.

Scalability of flexible office services

The boom in alternative office solutions offers you the agility and smooth scalability that allows for businesses to plan for rapid growth. With both fully-serviced offices and virtual office services, you have the ability to have a fully scalable solution that will grow with your business.This can be very beneficial to entrepreneurs who may be looking to expand their business and even take on staff for the first time, but still be able to run a lean set up where they don't have a large chunk of their revenue spent on administration and office rent that delivers no returns for their business.Even if you run a business without any physical office space, you can still find fantastic solutions such as our registered office service that provides a business a valuable EC1 London address, while allowing you to hold business meetings with prospective new clients by using a fully serviced meeting room to meet with and impress your clients. There is very little point to paying out rent for an office with additional meeting room space if this room is going to sit empty for the vast majority of the year.In the beginning, it can be very convenient and cost-effective to simply start off with one virtual service that can greatly help you free up your time, such as using a virtual call handling service to always be there to answer your incoming calls and handle them according to your specific instructions.Alternatively, you could choose to start off with a mail sorting service that will keep you free of the burden of having to spend your time opening and dealing with your business post each day.What is most appealing to modern business owners is the very convenient ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis that virtual office services are based upon. This means they can have a perfect solution to provide them with all the administrative support they need at a cost-effective price, yet can scale the amount of help they need according to the ebb and flow of their income and business finances. This sort of set up is of particular use to those nimble, entrepreneurial companies that need to be able to quickly adapt to change.

Capital Office over-delivering on virtual services

Because Capital Office offers virtual office services that go beyond the obvious, this has proven to be our key to success for the very many years that we have been offering business owners these top-class services. We set the bar very high for our competitors to reach and any other virtual office service provider will need to be a truly outstanding company in order to compete with us.Our team of dedicated staff are committed to a mission to keep our finger on the pulse of what our happy clients want from our services. This means that we are constantly looking to evolve and adapt to draw the best advantages from new technology and communication techniques.We are proud to offer a vibrant and innovative range of virtual services to our clients and are very passionate about continuing to refine and add to the services that we can offer to help and assist business owners across the country.

Achieving a healthy work-life balance

We at Capital Office understand that new and growing businesses are ambitious to make their company a success. This can often mean working long and gruelling hours to keep on top of everything that needs to be done, including being fully responsive to your incoming business calls and not becoming overwhelmed with your continuous incoming business post.Sometimes entrepreneurs will sacrifice a lot of their evenings and weekends to dedicate to their business, but quite often their efforts are spent just keeping on top of everything rather than to successfully push their business forward.Family life can suffer as a result, as can your own mental health and well-being. Outsourcing your essential day-to-day administration tasks to a virtual office service to handle on your behalf can not only give you the peace of mind you need to know that every single business phone call is being professionally handled, but also will free up your time from being bogged down opening your business post and sorting through acres of junk mail. The time you can free up from these tasks can be better spent at home enjoying your family life.We understand that you really want your business to become a roaring success, but you don't have to achieve this at the cost of your personal health and well-being or risk putting extra pressures on your personal relationships. Achieving a good work-life balance is crucial if you want to get the best of both worlds from your business and your home life.

Moving with the times

According to employment data predictions, by 2020, millennials will make up 50% of the global workforce. Don't forget that this is a generation that is used to using digital technology and understand how it can help them to work with more flexibility. The new upcoming workforce will be used to collaborating with work colleagues through a digital environment, so the idea of using virtual office services will be considered as being quite normal in a modern workplace, especially with start-up businesses running a lean operation.As both the fully-serviced office and virtual office solutions set to keep on booming over the coming years, most new business owners are becoming far more selective in their planning for their office set up. Many established businesses looking to expand their operations are now waking up to the additional benefits that these solutions can provide.The businesses of the future will have to present a flexible, multifaceted face to their company set up to allow them to escape the old rigidity and confinement that a traditional permanent office environment provides. To enable their business to grow and prosper while keeping their operational overheads to an absolute minimum, it will be absolutely essential that they look at working with a good virtual office service or a fully-equipped physical office provider – or both!For more information about our virtual office services, do not hesitate to contact our friendly London-based team. We are here to help your business succeed! Call us: 0207 566 3939email: office@capital-office.co.uk

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.

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

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

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

The world of tax and business is an ever-changing place. Each year there seems to be a number of changes, both significant and small, that small business owners are obliged to keep up with and understand. Lets take a look at some recent changes that may affect your small business, or that you need to be aware of.

The National Living Wage

The National Living Wage for all employees aged 25 and over was increased by 30p an hour from April 1st to £7.50. The rates of pay for all age groups are now as follows: For 21-24 year olds it is now £7.05; for 18-20 year old it is now £5.60 and for under-18s the hourly rate is now £4.05.

It is law that every business owner pays their employees at the appropriate rate for their age, and you should pay particular attention to adjust pay rates for younger employees once they reach the next age bracket.

New Business Rates for 2017

From April 1st this year, the new Business Rates came in to force for England, Scotland and Wales. The new rates have been based on new commercial property valuations and many small businesses have seen a steep increase in their rates. For those businesses in England that are concerned about a rise in their business rates, you may be eligible for reduced rates for a period of time, but this will be at the discretion of your local council authority.

The government promised extra transition funds for local councils across England, so it may be worth checking to see if you can qualify. There are separate local and national rate relief schemes for Scotland and Wales too, and these can be applied for via the local council.

Changes to the appeal system

Should you wish to appeal for your Business Rates because you believe your business premises have been overvalued, the system you go through for appealing your rates has been changed in England. Small businesses wishing to appeal their new business rates must now pay an upfront fee of £150.00 before going through the three-stage appeal process. The £150.00 fee will only be refunded should your appeal be successful.

A change to the Code of conduct for Business Rates appeals firms

Many small business owners don’t particularly want to go through the business rates appeal process on their own. Many owners don’t want the hassle of the extra work involved so will hire consultancy agencies that will go through the appeals on their behalf – but often for a hefty fee! Should you choose to take this route then it is wise to hire a firm that is registered with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

There has been a new level of protection added to protect small businesses from bad practice from these agencies. The newly strengthened RICS code of conduct that agencies have to sign up to will help protect the small business owner from being overcharged or from receiving a sub-standard service.

The introduction of the new £1 coin

The new £1 coin was introduced into circulation on 28th March this year. The new 12-sided design replaces the old style round £1 coin, which can still be used as legal tender up to the 15th October 2017. Should you still have some old-style £1 coins after this date, you can take them to a bank or Post Office and they can still be used in deposits for a limited time. This will be up to the individual bank or Post Office, so it is best to check with them to find out if they have a cut-off date. Most banks are stating around a 6 month period after this date to allow businesses to deposit the old style coins.

As a business owner, you are under no obligation to accept old £1 coins after the 16th October. You can find out more information about the new £1 coin and how it affects business here.

No tie to one water provider

It used to be the case that businesses in England were tied to their regional water firm, but now are free to choose who they wish to supply their water services. Those eligible to change their supplier can now choose to have their water supply from one company and even go with a different one to handle their wastewater service. This sort of choice has been available to businesses in Scotland for quite a while now and has been working well.

New Lifetime ISA

The Government introduced a new lifetime ISA on April 6th 2017. This individual savings account has been particularly aimed at encouraging the self-employed to save. Following research published by the Federation of Small Business that showed only around 30% of self-employed workers are saving into a private pension, this has been introduced to encourage savings with a Government top up of 25%. To qualify for the top-up you need to be under the age of 40 and put up to £4,000 a year into the ISA.

VAT Flat Rate Scheme changes

A new flat rate VAT of 16.5% was announced at the Autumn Statement and was introduced on 1stApril 2017. The eligibility criteria to qualify for this rate has changed. Small businesses affected are those who are considered to be ‘limited costs traders’. This is where your VAT-inclusive expenditure only takes up a very small percent of your business turnover. This can be either:

• less than 2% of their VAT inclusive turnover in a prescribed accounting period
• greater than 2% of their VAT inclusive turnover but less than £1000 per annum if the prescribed accounting period is one year (if it is not one year, the figure is the relevant proportion of £1000)

More information about the new VAT flat rate changes can be found here.

Charges for hiring non-EU workers

The Government’s new Immigration Skills Charge to incentivise training of British workers was introduced in April 2017. This means that businesses seeking to employ new workers from outside the European Economic Area on a Tier 2 (skilled workers) visa will face paying a fee. The charge is £1,000 per employee per year, but there are reduced rates for qualifying small business of £364 per worker per year. The charges have been introduced to help cut down on the number of businesses taking on migrant workers, and instead hopes to incentivise them to train British staff to fill those jobs. More information about the introduction of the Immigration Skills charge can be found here.

Faster payments for small businesses

A requirement for better payment practices has been introduced. This means that larger companies have to give details of how promptly they will pay smaller businesses upfront for their goods and services. Larger firms will now have to specify the proportion of invoiced cleared within 30 days, between 31 and 60 days, and above 60 days.

Small business owners have long faced a struggle where they are financially stretched while waiting to be paid by larger firms holding off payment for an overly long time. This has sometimes resulted in smaller firms going under or failing to re-invest in the business due to a lack of circulating funds and payments being withheld. The Government considers a delay of 60 or more days before payment as poor payment practice, so it wants to encourage more transparency over payment arrangements and for invoices to be paid more quickly to benefit smaller businesses.