Company name available?

[TwistingMyMelon]

National Business Register

Sounds like a semi bogus company pretending to be a company database,ignore!

Just check the domain or a useable domain is free and that you aren't close to passing off as another company

5 mins on Google should tell you if the company name is taken "company name"

[Eric Mc]

Having the same name as some other business is not illegal and is often not a problem - unless your business is going to cause a problem for any other business with the same name because you are operating in the same geographical area or you are both operating in the same business sector.
There are probably dozens of business called "Jones and Son" all over the UK and they trade with no problems.

The only legal block is if you want to set up a limited company. Companies house will not let you set up a limited company with a name identical to a company already currently registered at Companies House.

[caduceus]

Again, thank you for the helpful replies gentlemen. Most helpful.

Seeing as it's just me as a 'handyman' with no other employees, I think I may as well just go ahead and set up the website/domain name and get started. Then inform HMRC once I start working.

I have done searches on Google and there are no results with the same name as the one I have picked. So it appears it's not taken.

[Eric Mc]

I think you'll be fine.

Just remember to notify HMRC within the three month time limit.

[Simpo Two]

caduceus said:

Simpo Two said:

OP - what is the business going to trade in?

It's only me as a handyman. SO a one man band business.

OK. Then you should consider insurance in case, for example, you fit a kitchen and the plumbing fails and floods their house, or their kid trips over your mains lead and gets hurt, or if you knock over their Ming vase. 'Public Liability - Working Away' is the term I believe.

caduceus said:

Simpo Two said:

Are you after a fancy suffix or are you getting domain name, hosting and website mixed up?

No. Just a website, so I can have info@...... rather than some personal @BTinternet, etc address, which I personally think looks unprofessional. But just my opinion and preference. So, .co.uk, or .uk. Not too worried.

You're quite right to get an e-mail address that matches your trading name, but it's not a website. I'm not an IT boff but this is my understanding of things:

First you need to choose and buy a domain name, eg 'caduceus.co.uk'.

Then you need to set up hosting, in other words rent a small bit of the internet for your own use.

That will give you a real e-mail address like '[e-mail]'. But you don't want people to use that because it looks crap, so you disguise it by redirecting all e-mails from 'caduceus.co.uk' to '[e-mail]'.

Now you can design a nice looking website, or get someone to do it for you. It's a big ball of stuff (pages, text, photos, links) you build in your computer (or online). When it looks right and all the bits connect to all the other bits, you upload the whole thing into your bit of rented internet - 'webspace'. Now people can type 'www.caduceus.co.uk' into their browser, and bingo, they see your website.

No doubt there are smart ways of doing this but that is basically the picture. All IT boffs feel free to dismantle

[TheEnd]

As others have mentioned, it's best to fit your name around what is available.

Keep website names down to something you can verbally say to someone without having to explain bits, eg. "it's caduceus underscore bizness with a z"

Also try to have things that are un-ambiguous in spelling, so don't put "millennium" in the URL as a lot of people will end up typing it wrong etc.

At a minimum, get the .com and .co.uk.
You can pick which one to use, maybe the co.uk might be better, and the .com can move all customers to the co.uk address.

Any other .biz stuff is terrible and yep, an info@,,,,,,.co.uk looks for more profesional than caduceus726@cheap free email.com


It's best to get that stuff right first, as trying to change it all later will be a pain.

[silentbrown]

TheEnd said:

At a minimum, get the .com and .co.uk.
You can pick which one to use, maybe the co.uk might be better, and the .com can move all customers to the co.uk address.

I wouldn't bother with .com unless you're selling to businesses abroad, or you reckon your 'brand' will be valuable. ".co.uk" would be fine for you, (and cheaper!)

Domain registration for .co.uk is about £4 per year. Web hosting from about £5 a month upwards. Consider using something like Wordpress to run your website. And make sure you *never* give your ISP-allocated email address (e.g. "[e-mail]") to customers because you'll then be locked in to that ISP.

[caduceus]

Thank you all again for the replies. I do appreciate it. Starting all this business and site stuff was pretty daunting this morning, but you've all helped with the info you've provided.

I'll go over all the posts again in the morning with a cuppa, but I'm assuming using 'godaddy' uk to buy the domain, and TSOhost to host the site will suffice? Maybe use Wix to design it with one of their templates...

Cheers
Cad

[akirk]

Simpo Two said:

You're quite right to get an e-mail address that matches your trading name, but it's not a website. I'm not an IT boff but this is my understanding of things:

First you need to choose and buy a domain name, eg 'caduceus.co.uk'.

Then you need to set up hosting, in other words rent a small bit of the internet for your own use.

That will give you a real e-mail address like '[e-mail]'. But you don't want people to use that because it looks crap, so you disguise it by redirecting all e-mails from 'caduceus.co.uk' to '[e-mail]'.

Now you can design a nice looking website, or get someone to do it for you. It's a big ball of stuff (pages, text, photos, links) you build in your computer (or online). When it looks right and all the bits connect to all the other bits, you upload the whole thing into your bit of rented internet - 'webspace'. Now people can type 'www.caduceus.co.uk' into their browser, and bingo, they see your website.

No doubt there are smart ways of doing this but that is basically the picture. All IT boffs feel free to dismantle

not quite - there should be no email redirecting - which is a spam alerting issue if you are not careful (you can get blacklisted)

1 - domain ownership - as the OP says, someone like GoDaddy can do this - you are simply renting your domain from e.g. nominet in the UK / internic in the USA / etc. you pay the company who manage this for you an annual fee to renew your domain, often quite cheap as they hope to make their cash on selling you lots of extras (GoDaddy are very good at this - just keep saying no!)

2 - web based services, e.g. email & hosting - you can buy this from the same company as in step 1, or a separate company, you can even buy each web service from a different company, or you can buy everything from one place... The company you choose in step 1 will control your DNS (sort of the address book for the internet) and that is used to point the various services at different places... You want the email side (MX records etc.) to point to somewhere which handles your email - this will give you [e-mail] etc. directly as your email address... You then need A records / CNAME records / etc. to point at where your website is hosted (this could be a blank server to set up what you want, or a pre-sold service such as online ecommerce etc.)

3 - by controlling the DNS, if you have any issues with the hosting / email, you can move it and not lose anything - it is in your control...

It is important that the DNS is et up correctly to make sure everything works for you...
If you do it all with one company they will probably handle that...

[silentbrown]

caduceus said:

but I'm assuming using 'godaddy' uk to buy the domain, and TSOhost to host the site will suffice? Maybe use Wix to design it with one of their templates...

TSOHost (or other hosting companies) will usually do domain registration for you. GoDaddy might be cheaper, but if you're not terribly tech savvy, the fewer companies involved, the better.

WIX: Not totally familiar with this, but I think their "templates" only run on their own hosting so you can't build a site with WIX and host it yourself. If you're *sure* you want to go with WIX, then you don't need a hosting company.

[caduceus]

Appreciate all the help all.
I went on the recommendation of TSOhost and bought the .uk domain last night. But may also buy the .co.uk, just to ensure no one else buys it. I assume you're allowed to do that...

I'll get to work on designing the site, or at least the home page today. Then get TSO to host it.

[TheEnd]

You're allowed to have as many as you like, but I would say use the co.uk address preferentially, as more people are familiar with that.