Most of the time when we think of a company we think of something great, big and expensive. We see accountant charging thousands of Rands to register companies, tax clearance certificates and BBBEE certificates. All these things are small compared to the amount you also have to pay for a business plan or a marketing plan and feasibility study.
I want to make it clear that all the consultants will take advantage if you do not know what needs to be done. Let us see how much it really costs to set up a company (these costs not including memberships with associations and respective industry bodies)
1 Register the company – R205
CIPC is a company registration body that charges R175 for the registration of a company. You must register online (on eScervices.cipc.co.za) as their client and then deposit an activation amount and then deposit the R120.
When registering your account they will send you a customer code and password (Please save the login in details they send you, as you will not get a chance to get another customer code from them. Save these details on your email drafts) you then copy and paste details to access your account. The rest is their step by step instructions to register.
To registering your own company can take a minimum of 3 days if done right, But up to 3 weeks if your company name is already taken (Please double-check the company name on CIPC enterprise name search bar).
- It costs R50 for Name Reservations.
- R125 for a Company Registration
- R30 to request a withdrawal of the MOI documents (go online to request MOI).
Always check your emails for attached emails
2 Do Tax clearance Certificate – Free
The next step is to register for tax clearance certificate, at the SARS office you will need:
- Letter of a Public officer,
- Power of Attorney,
- Tax clearance form,
- Certified ID documents,
- Certified Proof of residence,
- Certified Proof of residence of the business (go to counsellor),
- Proof of proof of residence of the public officer (they provide this form to be filled by partner, spouse or friend),
- Proof of proof of residence of the Company (they provide form to be filled by partner, etc…).
I know this is stressful but if you go there prepared you only stay one day and save thousands of Rands.
3 Open bank Account – R100 – R500
When you open a Bank account, you could have a thriving business or a business that has no money. If you have a business that has yet to earn any cash, I suggest you open a holding account at FNB. This account will help you get a bank account number for your business but will not be active until you say they must activate it.
This helps in two ways,
- Before you get your first tender, you can have an account that meets your compliances.
- You can apply for funding or get your business under a SEDA or incubator while you are developing your business and before your launch.
You can also open a Reserve Account at FNB, which will remain dormant with no monthly fee until you activate it when expecting payment.
Call FNB and state you want to open a bank account. They will call your back and through your ID, they can open your business account for R100 (this banks is the best alternatives as it has the best systems for your business). To open these accounts you need certifies ID documents, certified proof of residence of owner and your companies business documents as well as the tax clearance certificate
Business Plan on Blackboard
4 Create a business plan – Free
Listen you can’t have people create a business plan for YOUR business. You need to explain these thing to investors or suppliers. In order to do a good business plan split it into three (3) Parts:
- First do a Marketing plan to see if your business is good, this helps you see the competition and everything else. (Make sure you add a partnership strategy, a Seasonal Marketing strategy and a content marketing strategy)
- Second do a feasibility study, check out what is out there about your business and see if you have a good business to begin with
- Third part, do a financial plan, see how much it will cost you to do all of what you plan on doing. (This means a profit and loss plan)
By the way there is a lot of business plans online already done which can show you the kind of language needed when drafting a business plan, also look at the American website bplan.com
Also look at LegalDocx.co.za which provides all the business documents you will need and also the best South African Business plan template for an established business or a start-up business.
5 Create a company email – R150 + 40 pm
Now you have registered your business and all your documents are in order. It is time to set up your emails. Well do not be deterred YouTube is here to help. Using hosting sites like axxess.co.za or Afrihost.co.za you can register a domain name for your emails, and create your own companies’ emails. With Axxess.co.za it is free to register a .co.za domain and 6 months free hosting.
Once this is done, you get access the CPANEL. You can link your email to your Gmail and send your emails directly from Gmail instead of using webmail. Just start by going to your cpanel, go to the email section, click the forwarder button. Then add your company email and add the forward email (your Gmail).
- Then go to Gmail, click for settings
- Go to the Accounts and import, then click Add Another Email Address.
- A popup will appear. Just Add your name and the company email address then click Next step
- At the SMTP Server add: mail.domain.co.za (I mean your companies email domain)
- At Username add: the company email address you are adding
- At Password Add: the email password
- At Port Select: 465 and then click Add Account.
- You will get an email in your Gmail from google with a confirmation code
- Add the confirmation code on the last page of the popup (the blank space in front of the verify Button)
In Conclusion
Sharing useful information to our business community
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