Starting a business

Idea to trading — registering, licensing, and getting the doors open.

68 articles26231 businesses6 sections

What this obliges you to do

What every registered business carries, whatever it does.

A general description, not legal advice — requirements and thresholds change. Confirm the current position with the authority named.

Explore more

How things work, and how to do them. A spread across the whole hub — open a section for everything in it.

Deciding and planning
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4 Ways Innovation Can Help Your Business
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Registering the company
Shareholders and directors
A director runs the company; a shareholder owns it. In small companies they are usually the same people, which is exactly why the distinction goes unexamined…
Content Agency26 August 2026
Registering the company
Your first week as a registered company
Registration is the beginning of the obligations, not the end of the task. Most of what follows takes an afternoon each, and none of it happens automatically.
Content Agency26 August 2026
Registering the company
Choosing a company name
You can register without one at all. And registering a name gives you an entity, not a monopoly on the words — which surprises people regularly.
Content Agency26 August 2026
Licences and permits
Signage, zoning and working from home
Two permissions that catch small businesses out constantly, because they seem too small to need asking about. Almost every expensive version of this problem is…
Content Agency25 August 2026
Licences and permits
Selling food: what you need
The most regulated thing a small business commonly sells, whether that is a restaurant, a home bakery or a market stall. The standard is practical: right…
Content Agency25 August 2026
Licences and permits
Applying for a municipal business licence
Not difficult, but slow and sequential — several inspections that must happen in an order, each with its own queue. Plan the opening date around the licence,…
Content Agency25 August 2026
Premises and leases
Choosing premises
Made once and lived with for years. Businesses routinely choose on rent per square metre, which is the least important factor in whether the premises work.
Content Agency26 August 2026
Premises and leases
Running a business from home
The cheapest possible premises, and it removes the largest fixed cost a young business would carry. Three things to check before you rely on it.
Content Agency26 August 2026
Premises and leases
Signing a commercial lease
Not a residential one, and most of the protections a tenant might expect do not apply. Usually the largest fixed commitment a small business makes.
Content Agency26 August 2026