Business Newbie

[Charlie1986]

So myself and partner are looking at starting a kennel business in the near future once we find the correct land purchase as we lost out on a purchase before Christmas

We have register the name but my question is with it being dormant with no transactions it’s just the name to secure it.

Is there anything we have to do? As have received a letter regarding a payment if we use customer data which we don’t as we don’t have any customers yet

Do we have to submit Dorman accounts?

Complete newbie to this so maybe a reality check is needed

Albert

[scotlandtim]

Best advice anyone can offer:


Get a good accountant who understands you, your business model and how you want to run it / manage profts etc

Good luck

[Louis Balfour]

op said:

Do we have to submit Dorman accounts?

No, Doberman accounts.

With regard to the name, I assume you mean limited company name? If it’s available now, it’ll likely be available later, so I would not rush to snare it. In the unlikely eventuality that it goes, you can always modify it. So Dog Hotel Ltd to Dog Hotel Services Ltd. You can still trade as Dog Hotel providing you aren’t passing off as the other business.

The charge you’ve been asked to pay; is this ICO? It’s a little tax they’ve managed to sneak in to fund their largely toothless and useless organisation. If you’ve no customers you aren’t processing customer data. Tell them that. If they form the opinion that you won’t have any customers in the near future they may not bother you again.

Edited by Louis Balfour on Thursday 16th January 10:30

[Countdown]

Hi Albert

Once youve registered the Company at Companies House you'll need to submit dormant accounts and a confirmation statement every year.

[Charlie1986]

Thanks for the replies

The Name is pretty unique to us and we were due to purchase a house with land and buildings prior to Christmas so we would have been up and running mid 2025 but this is looking more and more unlikely now so it will remain dormant and the search continues

That’s the correct for the ICO charge and the letter confirming this is required but will reply back to them today.

[Louis Balfour]

Charlie1986 said:

Thanks for the replies

That’s the correct for the ICO charge and the letter confirming this is required but will reply back to them today.

Whilst I would never for a moment suggest that you game the good people of the ICO and deprive them of their much needed £80 - quangos don’t pay for themselves you know. If they were to form the opinion that they are talking to the property company and there will be a future operating company, who will in fact be the one handling customer data, they may not trouble you again.

[Ean218]

Louis Balfour said:

Charlie1986 said:

Thanks for the replies

That’s the correct for the ICO charge and the letter confirming this is required but will reply back to them today.

Whilst I would never for a moment suggest that you game the good people of the ICO and deprive them of their much needed £80 - quangos don’t pay for themselves you know. If they were to form the opinion that they are talking to the property company and there will be a future operating company, who will in fact be the one handling customer data, they may not trouble you again.

The only reason a small trading company needs to register with the ICO is if they have CCTV. Processing customer and staff data for your own business purposes does not require registration.

[jonsp]

Charlie1986 said:

The Name is pretty unique to us

Is this a limited company name or domain name?

[Louis Balfour]

Ean218 said:

Louis Balfour said:

Charlie1986 said:

Thanks for the replies

That’s the correct for the ICO charge and the letter confirming this is required but will reply back to them today.

Whilst I would never for a moment suggest that you game the good people of the ICO and deprive them of their much needed £80 - quangos don’t pay for themselves you know. If they were to form the opinion that they are talking to the property company and there will be a future operating company, who will in fact be the one handling customer data, they may not trouble you again.

The only reason a small trading company needs to register with the ICO is if they have CCTV. Processing customer and staff data for your own business purposes does not require registration.

That’s not what the marketing letter said when it first started.

It basically said “if you’re processing customer data” I.e. storing it. One phrase I recall precisely was “your customers will expect you to”, which is one of the most annoying, sanctimonious, gambits employed by public sector organisations.

[2 sMoKiN bArReLs]

Charlie1986 said:

So myself and partner are looking at starting a kennel business in the near future once we find the correct land purchase as we lost out on a purchase before Christmas

We have register the name but my question is with it being dormant with no transactions it’s just the name to secure it.

Is there anything we have to do? As have received a letter regarding a payment if we use customer data which we don’t as we don’t have any customers yet

Do we have to submit Dorman accounts?

Complete newbie to this so maybe a reality check is needed

Albert

If you've registered a limited company:

As said, you'll need to submit dormant accounts & an annual confirmation statement.

If you've already registered for PAYE (I don't suppose you have) you'll need to submit a monthly nil return.

[jonsp]

Louis Balfour said:

That’s not what the marketing letter said when it first started.

It basically said “if you’re processing customer data” I.e. storing it. One phrase I recall precisely was “your customers will expect you to”, which is one of the most annoying, sanctimonious, gambits employed by public sector organisations.

But it's also true.

The OP said his business was dog related. That suggests he's going to be holding/processing data about people (ie not businesses) so he needs to register.

It's probably just a money grabbing exercise but it's not a large fee so he needs to get it done.

[Louis Balfour]

jonsp said:

Louis Balfour said:

That’s not what the marketing letter said when it first started.

It basically said “if you’re processing customer data” I.e. storing it. One phrase I recall precisely was “your customers will expect you to”, which is one of the most annoying, sanctimonious, gambits employed by public sector organisations.

But it's also true.

The OP said his business was dog related. That suggests he's going to be holding/processing data about people (ie not businesses) so he needs to register.

It's probably just a money grabbing exercise but it's not a large fee so he needs to get it done.

It’s not true though. The vast majority of his clients will neither know nor care that registration and payment is due.

It is a tax but happily easily avoided.

[Ean218]

jonsp said:

ut it's also true.

The OP said his business was dog related. That suggests he's going to be holding/processing data about people (ie not businesses) so he needs to register.

It's probably just a money grabbing exercise but it's not a large fee so he needs to get it done.

No, he does not need to get it done. The ICO explicitly say that personal data on customers solely for use within the business is not a reason to register. I don't think a dog's personal data is covered either.

[Panamax]

scotlandtim said:

Best advice anyone can offer: Get a good accountant who understands you, your business model and how you want to run it / manage profits etc.

^^ Absolutely this, otherwise you're just stumbling around in the dark.

Separately, have you considered,
Whether planning consent will be required to run a kennels business,
Whether you'll have complaints from the locals/the council about noise etc
Liability insurance

[Louis Balfour]

Panamax said:

scotlandtim said:

Best advice anyone can offer: Get a good accountant who understands you, your business model and how you want to run it / manage profits etc.

^^ Absolutely this, otherwise you're just stumbling around in the dark.

For a small start-up I’d gravitate towards a good bookkeeper who has access to an accountant one day per week. Accountants can be very expensive for start-ups and not always very good.

An established bookkeeper, if you can find one, will have the ability to do basic tax and compliance stuff, and have a relationship with an accountant for trickier stuff.

In my early days in business, accountants were responsible for more stress and professional cockups than any other supplier. One of them cost me a six-figure sum when their blundering cost me a company. Twice we were inspected for VAT due to the accountants messing up. Both times they tried to blame us because we had signed the VAT returns they had completed!

OP I am not sure whether such things are still around, but back in the day there used to be free enterprise initiative organisations. Business Link was one. They used to run free courses on the very basic stuff. But if you know nothing at all such organisations might be worth seeking out, if they still exist.

[Charlie1986]

Thanks for the Updates

So in regards to the letter I’ve called them today and it’s not payable currently but will be in future once we are running

So initial purchase that fell through was running kennel but this was closed and they sold the land to a devolper

In regards to planning and regulations we are fully aware of all the ticks we need to make and the biggest will be the council approval. We’re working with a land agent to find the correct plot in order to move ahead.

[48k]

Charlie1986 said:

Thanks for the Updates

So in regards to the letter I’ve called them today and it’s not payable currently but will be in future once we are running

So initial purchase that fell through was running kennel but this was closed and they sold the land to a devolper

In regards to planning and regulations we are fully aware of all the ticks we need to make and the biggest will be the council approval. We’re working with a land agent to find the correct plot in order to move ahead.

Regarding the ICO fee, you can double check if you will need to pay it via a self assessment questionnaire on their website :

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/data-protecti...

There are 15 questions it doesn't take long. You may well find that you are exempt - for example if you are a small business but only hold customer information for the purposes of invoicing and marketing, then you are exempt.