Setting up a business

Setting up a business for the first time can be a daunting prospect if you have not done it before.

If you have decided to set up a new business there are a number of considerations for you to think about. Firstly, will you set up the business as a sole trader or as a company? In the next two articles we will consider setting up your new business as a company. There are a number of advantages in setting up as a company over sole trader or partnership. The first is that it provides limited liability.

In a previous blog post, we asked the question, what is limited liabilityCurrently with a limited company in Ireland the shares in the company are owned by its shareholders. If the company is a limited liability company, the shareholders’ liability, should the company fail, is limited to the amount, if any, remaining unpaid on the shares held by them. A company is a separate legal entity and, therefore, is separate and distinct from those who run it. Only the company can be sued for its obligations and can sue to enforce its rights. This protection is important under many circumstances including situations where a business might be holding a large stock and the company is put under risk of over trading.

If you are setting up a business (company), you will have to have a few things prepared before you get started with an independent company formations agency like Irish Formations.

  1. What will the limited company name be? Choose carefully, and the formations agency will guide you through the availability of the name.
  2. Who will the Directors be? You will need a minimum of 2. You need to submit names, residential addresses, and dates of birth and identification of the Directors.
  3. Who will the company Secretary be? This can be one of the company Directors.
  4. Who will the shareholders be? This can be one Person, a number of people, or a company in Ireland or abroad.
  5. What will the company activity be? This information will be used to generate the objects of the Memorandum of Association for the company for submission.

Once this information is gathered through our packages page, we email our clients signature pages which they sign and post back to us when setting up a business (company). We use these to make the submission and get the company formed. If there are no errors on the forms, or restrictions with the company name, then this takes between 3 and five days to get the company number.