Business guide
The company formation handbook
6 chapters · 12 min read
Incorporating a company takes a few days. Getting it right takes a conversation first, because several of the decisions you make at registration are expensive to reverse once other people hold shares or have relied on the structure.
This guide covers the decisions in the order you will actually face them, what documents you will be asked for, and what happens in the twelve months after your company appears on the register.
Contents
Chapter 01
Deciding what you are actually forming
The first question is not which structure, but what the business will look like in eighteen months. A single founder consulting under their own name has different needs from three founders who expect to raise money and hire.
Answer these before you look at any form: who owns it, in what proportions, who can make decisions, and whether anyone else is likely to be issued shares within two years. Every subsequent choice follows from those four answers.
Chapter 02
Share structure
Most new companies issue a single class of ordinary shares, and for most that is correct. Additional classes exist to separate economic rights from control — different dividend rights, different voting rights, or shares that convert on an event.
The mistake to avoid is issuing all your shares at formation. Leaving headroom means you can bring someone in later without a transfer between existing holders, which is administratively simpler and has different tax consequences.
- Divide founder shares in a way that survives someone leaving
- Leave unissued headroom for later hires and investors
- Avoid multiple classes unless you can articulate why you need them
- Record the reasoning — you will be asked in two years
Chapter 03
Directors, secretaries and control
Directors carry legal responsibility for the company's filings and conduct. That responsibility cannot be delegated to a service provider, however much of the work is outsourced.
Appointing someone a director to give them a title, without them understanding the duties attached, is a common and avoidable error. If the intention is recognition rather than responsibility, a job title achieves it without the statutory exposure.
Chapter 04
Your registered address
Every company needs a registered address, and it goes on the public record. Using your home address makes it searchable by anyone. Using an address you do not monitor means statutory correspondence — which carries deadlines — sits unopened.
A registered office service solves both problems. What it does not do is make an address a trading address; do not represent it as somewhere you operate if you do not.
Chapter 05
What you will be asked for
Identity and address verification is required for every director and shareholder, and for corporate shareholders you will also need the entity's registration details. Gathering this in one pass is the single biggest determinant of how fast incorporation completes.
- Photographic identification for each individual
- Proof of address dated within three months
- Date of birth and nationality
- Registration number and address for any corporate shareholder
- The intended company name, plus a second choice
Chapter 06
The first twelve months
Incorporation starts a chain of deadlines. Your accounting reference date sets your year end, which sets your accounts deadline — and your first accounting period is often longer than twelve months, which is why first-year deadlines are the ones most often missed.
Write the dates down on the day you incorporate. A company that is a month late on its first filing has already established a pattern that attracts attention.
If you would rather not hold all of this yourself, formation with us includes the structure conversation, the filing, and a written calendar of everything due in your first year.
Keep reading
Other guides
Compliance for small companies
Every recurring obligation, who it applies to, and what happens if you miss it.
Bookkeeping basics for founders
How to keep records that make year-end straightforward instead of painful.
Expanding into a second jurisdiction
What changes when you incorporate abroad, and what stays the same.
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