New Business Advice

[kathynewman]

We're looking at setting up a new business - which will be aimed primarily at humans but will also sell some pet related items.

At the moment we are trading as a partnership - Puddle Pet Care.

We're wondering is how best to administer the new business. Ideally initially we'd like to have just 1 bank account, 1 merchant account, 1 protx account & 1 VAT registration to cover both Puddle Pet Care and the new business.

So what we thought was change the business name from Puddle Pet Care to something else more generic (the puddle group or somesuch name) and then have the 2 business running underneath the "umbrella" as it where.

Each website would then take payments under the name of The Puddle Group (or whatever it gets called) but have independant names.

I've spoken to our accountant and he seemed to think this would be ok, I also spoke to the VAT people and to be honest was bit confused - couldn't quite decide if it was ok or not - need to investigate this more. Obviously need to check with bank, & Protx.

Just wondered if anyone else out there had done this sort of thing and if people any ideas/suggestions.

Thanks

[pinbrook]

I thought if you traded as a partnership you could do what ever you liked....

you say you already use as trading as name.

there is no reason the new business needs to be treated as a separate business, if it helps just think of it as being a new range of products you could add to puddlepetcare, this will help you to think about how to amalgamate it. Would you be considering new business if you were adding a new section to ppc,just because its a new website doesn't mean it has to be a new business. it can be an expansion of the other one

as for protx - i think you will have to talk to them to say the product range is similar to ppc to get them to allow to you to run the 2 websites under one acct and thus credit the one bank acct.

[Duncan Rounding]

We operate one limited company with a number of trading names. For your bank you should just need a copy of a company resolution to state the trading names. VAT can be filed as one company but we keep the records separate.

As Jo says you will need to confirm with Protx that they will accept the two websites under one account but if you give them a copy of the company resolution that may help with that also.

I would only use different trading names if you intend to sell completely unrelated products otherwise combing an existing site into one bigger one would be easier to manage - and may be easier with SEs as it's already listed.

[kathynewman]

Thanks - was wondering about going ltd - will think a bit more about this.

Just spoken to HSBC who we have our merchant account with and they tell me that we'd have to set up another merchant account for the new business which means a new protx account as well. Don't really have a problem with this but just means that tied in for 2 years fees if business doesn't take off!

Kathy

[george]

Thanks - was wondering about going ltd - will think a bit more about this.

Just spoken to HSBC who we have our merchant account with and they tell me that we'd have to set up another merchant account for the new business which means a new protx account as well. Don't really have a problem with this but just means that tied in for 2 years fees if business doesn't take off!

Kathy

Unless you rename the merchant account The Puddle Group...

[pinbrook]

Just spoken to HSBC who we have our merchant account with and they tell me that we'd have to set up another merchant account for the new business which means a new protx account as well.

I was going to move my banking to HSBC awhile ago so I could use HSBC epayments too.

I stopped at the last moment - despite me constantly telling them I wanted processing for 6 websites - when at the final hurdle they said I would need 6 epayments accounts one for each websites (and £20 per month for each one).

That aside HSBC don't really seem to know what they are doing as i constantly have clients told by them they have to have an SSL cert to use epayments too.

[kathynewman]

Unless you rename the merchant account The Puddle Group...

Thought about that but not sure we'd get away with it - but might worth trying I suppose!!

[kathynewman]

I was going to move my banking to HSBC awhile ago so I could use HSBC epayments too.

I stopped at the last moment - despite me constantly telling them I wanted processing for 6 websites - when at the final hurdle they said I would need 6 epayments accounts one for each websites (and £20 per month for each one).

That's interesting Jo - we've banked with HSBC for years and had no problems but have recently found out that they put us on the wrong rate for merchant account (in our favour I might add) as we're an internet store and not a retail shop - renewal is due in next month so might be worth shopping around to find someone who will take 2 different sites as one account.

Kathy

[pinbrook]

ideally you should be able to have one business, one bank acct, one merchant acct, one protx (or one protx per website, this is where different people have different experiences)

and not one business, one bank acct, lots of merchant accts, lots of protx

or am i wrong and the proliferation comes in at merchant acct level and not where I'd hope at website level.

[pinbrook]

2 different sites as one account

some providers make the distinction on what the products are on the site.

thus if you had a general pet store as one site, a dog store and a cat store all with common products, you should get away with one acct. But if you have a pet store and a bike store you may have to have 2.

[leehack]

I also went Ltd. late last year as the 2 businesses i have are chalk and cheese and do not fit together at all. The Ltd. company gives you a nice umbrella to house a number of different companies. It is also a far more tax efficient and at £20 +vat per month, my accountant does all of my books and my tax returns for the year - for me that is a bargain. It only cost me about £50 to set up the Ltd company and i got to choose what name i wanted.

Puddle Group sounds a great idea.

[kathynewman]

Jo in an ideal world yes you should be able to - don't understand why you have to have more than one merchant account - would be happy (well ish!) to pay a little more to have just one account but at moment that doesn't seem possible - well certainly not with hsbc - time to make some calls I think to see if other acquiring banks will do it.

Kathy

[george]

Thought about that but not sure we'd get away with it - but might worth trying I suppose!!

Not a case of `getting away with it`. I know of a couple of companies who already do this.

[kathynewman]

Well now spoken to 4 acquiring banks and they all say need 2 separate merchant accounts if taking payments from different non related websites.

This is so annoying. Really didn't want to go with a site that just took Paypal but maybe will do that to start with and see how it goes.

Kathy

[kathynewman]

Not a case of `getting away with it`. I know of a couple of companies who already do this.

Any more info on how they set this up - from my conversations this morning with banks doesn't seem possible.

Kathy