Start Building your Future Knowledge.

In our previous blog, 5 Steps to starting your own business, we let you know about the planning behind starting a small business; discovering your big idea, doing a little research, creating a business plan, and getting advice (or funding) from your family or someone you look up to.

Now that you have all of those in place, how do you make your business official?

1. What’s the name of your business?

This is an important step – and a very exciting one! You can be creative, but you want to make sure your business name will stick out and be easily remembered. You also want to make sure nobody else has this name. Ask a family member to help you search on the internet by using a trademark* search tool.

*A trademark can be many things in business such as a name, word, or phrase; think about MacDonalds (name) and I’m loving it (the phrase), these are trademarked (belong) to MacDonalds.

2. Register your business

You will need the help of a loved one for this step.

It’s time to register your business. You can do this at the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC).

You can also register your company at a bank. You will need to decide how you want to register your business. There are many types of companies that you can register your small business under, but most young business owners will register under: Profit Company as a Sole Trader.

3. Business licenses

Certain businesses need licenses to sell a product or service, such as places that serve food or offer health and wellness services. It is important to make sure that you have the right licenses otherwise you may not be able to sell your products or services. You can find out more about business licenses on the SME Website.

4. Open a bank account

How else are you going to save all your new, hard-earned money? Ask a loved one to take you to their bank. Here, you can speak to a consultant about opening a business account. The reason you need a business bank account is to keep the money you have earned separate from your other bank accounts (such your savings account). This way, you will be able to see how much your business is earning and keep track of money coming in and out of the account.

5. Taxes

It may seem like a scary word but if you make sure that you are keeping track of all your expenses and profits, paying your taxes can be an easy process. To find out if your business is ready to pay tax, you can ask an adult to take you to the South African Revenue Service (SARS) offices to speak to someone there.

6. Get the word out there

Advertise, advertise, advertise! You can let the world know about your business by:

• Creating a website that talks about who you are, what product or services you offer, and how to contact you.
• Creating a business profile on social media such Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
• Once you have people buying your product or service, you can ask them if they want regular updates on new deals or products through email.
• Hand out pamphlets (usually just one page showing your products or deals and a way to contact you) or print brochures, which are more detailed and tell people about your business, what products or services you have, and shows lots of pictures of what you are selling.

7. Scams

Unfortunately, there are people out there who are looking to steal your money. These are called scammers. Make sure you have an adult you trust who can help monitor your business emails, social media pages and website, as this is how scammers will try and contact you.