How to start a business

Maybe it's happened to you, too. You enjoy your job, you like your colleagues, most of you also get along well with your boss, but it's still not the same. Some of you, however, are not happy at all in your job or even have a minor life crisis because of it, where they are not sure what to do. Everyone can think about whether a more or less radical change is the solution. If the problem is in the team, but you enjoy the work itself, you might just change companies in the same field. If the crux of the problem is that the work is boring, try doing something else, sometimes you can ask for a different agenda or move to another department. However, if you already have enough experience, the courage to take all kinds of risks and you like independence, you can stand on your own feet. Become an individual, i.e. an entrepreneur. Or set up a limited company. It is because of the limited liability that an LLC is a better choice in many cases. The days when you needed to put down a share capital of CZK 200,000 are long gone. This fact was once behind the boom of companies that offered so-called ready-made companies, i.e. the purchase of a ready-made company with such a high capital. In reality, in these companies, instead of money, there was only a claim, so you only paid a commission. The downside was that if someone "looked you up" in the commercial register, they saw a lot of entries about changes in the company name, managing directors, owners and their addresses, etc. You can still use the services of these specialist firms today, they certainly have their advantages, but you can easily do without them. 

Are we in? The first step, that is, to clarify what activity we want to provide or what we want to produce, and what we will need to do so, is certainly already very well thought out. In addition, as part of this step, you must be really clear about the initial costs of doing business and whether you will cover them with savings or through a bank loan (in which case you need a good and detailed business plan). Next, estimate the monthly current costs of the business. Write down your own monthly costs honestly. Add to these personnel costs also items that you cover once a year, such as apartment insurance, etc., and divide it by twelve. Then sum up the company and your own costs and add a large monthly reserve for other costs (social and health insurance, etc.) and add some savings on top of that. Is it realistic that in a few months you will generate enough revenue to cover these items? If you are unsure or do not have enough savings, there is another option. You can stay in your current job and start your business in the evenings or on weekends. However, it must not be the same activity that your employer has stated in the Commercial Register, in the event of a collision you need his written consent. 

In the second step, we will have a little bureaucracy in the establishment of our Ltd, fortunately the state will not complicate our lives too much. On the website of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (rzp.cz) we will find out what trade it is in our case. In the event that it is not a unregulated trade, we will need to fulfil other requirements, f.ex. to have a so-called "responsible representative" for our business, who must prove the relevant experience in the field. In the simplest case, you will meet these conditions yourself. Before you call a notary, verify that business name of your firm is not already used in the commercial register or is not very similar to existing companies (check can be done on nazevfirmy.cz). The notary will also need your ID, address and registered office (but you can start your business at home) and his services will cost you about CZK 6,500. You can have a registered capital in tha amount of 1 CZK now, but it does not look good in the Commercial Register, make it at least CZK 10,000. You will deposit this money into a special bank account, which will later become a classic bank account, and the funds will be useful for initial investments. For a capital up to a certain amount, you can now even deposit it later in cash directly into your company's cash box. There are other bureaucratic obligations that are not handled by a notary for you, it is necessary to go to the Trade Registration Office with documents from notary. You must also present relevant documents proving your experience in order to become a responsible representative in your company. At best, you will leave CZK 1,000 there for all formalities to be completed. After the relevant registrations have been made in the Trade Register, you will go back to the Trade Register and return to the notary with its documents. After you enroll your business in a business register, you still have to register with the tax office for various taxes. Think carefully about whether you want to become a VAT payer at the beginning of your business, but this is a topic for a separate article. A complete list of obligations so that you may not forget something can be found, for example, on the website of the aforementioned Ministry. If you are no longer an employee next to your business, you must quickly solve your social and health insurance, e.g. through a "Contract for the performance of managing director of the company."

The third step is to open the company to the public. Nowadays, online promotion is often the most important factor. If we set up a café, our clients will come to us alone. However, the online casino will have a much harder time with its clientele, and finding customers requires a much more active approach and it will not be able to do without a website (but we will probably need them at the café as well). After purchasing a domain (active24.cz), which is ideally the same as the company name, we can create our own website. WordPress editors are so user-friendly that everyone can do it and the annual fee is negligible, the listed domain purchase server offers you this option right at the time of registration. You can find the company logo already ready, free of charge on the Internet (logomakr.com). You will need it not only for websites, but also for business cards, letterhead, etc. About how to create attractive business websites in the editor, you will find countless videos on Youtube. Or contact the design studio. Therefore, in order for customers to find google.cz business seznam.cz, it is ideal to contact their representatives or, for example, a specialized company. They will also help you with promotion through social networks, but you can honestly "post" posts yourself. As always, it pays to send at least two inquiry requests to get to the best price possible. The scope of promotion and marketing services is virtually unlimited. If you're advertising by yourself and don't want to pay for anything, be sure to add your company to the web registry of companies that is used by seznam.cz (firmy.cz) and google.cz (business.google.com) search engines, and then appear on their maps when their terms are met.

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And what is your experience in doing business or starting one? We will be happy if you share it with us in the comments. As always, we will be happy to advise you and if you want to focus primarily on the business itself, you can leave us the bookkeeping and on its basis to assess the economic contribution of your company.