Start a business

1. Define the activity and owners

Write down what you will sell, where you will operate, who will own the business and how it will be funded. These facts drive the entity and permission questions.

Prepare a one-page activity brief: products or services, intended customers, sales channels, delivery locations, premises, proposed team and source of initial funding. Identify whether you will manufacture, import, resell or provide a service rather than using only a broad industry label.

Separate decisions already agreed by the founders from open questions. Record who contributes money, assets or work, who will sign contracts, and what happens if the proposed start date changes. This gives advisers a consistent set of facts instead of several different descriptions of the same business.

2. Choose the structure

Compare control, liability, investment plans and recurring administration. Agree founder roles and ownership before submitting formation documents.

Use the entity comparison tool to prepare questions about ownership, funding and ongoing work. Keep a decision log explaining the chosen structure and the assumptions behind it. A structure selected for a small owner-managed operation may need a fresh assessment when outside investment or overseas ownership enters the plan.

Reconcile names, addresses and proposed roles across the preparation records before an application is drafted. Collect identity documents through a private channel and keep a controlled final set; sending several inconsistent versions creates avoidable rework.

3. Prepare the operating base

Align premises evidence, banking, invoicing and accounting records. Identify permissions tied to the activity before committing to a launch date.

• Confirm the intended premises and the documents available to support the setup.
• Identify the entity that will contract with customers and suppliers, and align draft commercial documents accordingly.
• Prepare the sales, expense and payment record process, including who approves purchases and retains supporting invoices.
• Map activity-specific questions using the approvals guide, recording each question’s owner and status.
• Keep formation documents, operational permissions and banking setup as separately tracked workstreams.

4. Assign recurring work

Keep an entity record, registration register and first-year action list. Allocate responsibility for books, payroll and filings rather than leaving them to the first deadline.

Set a regular handover for sales records, purchase records, bank statements and founder-funded expenses. Decide who resolves missing documents and who reviews the first set of accounts. Establish a shared record of registrations and portal contacts without storing credentials in a broadly accessible spreadsheet.

For a newly incorporated company, use the first-year guide to identify follow-on work. Adapt the annual compliance workflow to the selected structure and actual registrations.

Bring these facts to the first discussion

• Owner identity and proposed ownership
• Activity, premises and funding outline
• Proposed name and contact details

Watch the dependency

A business can be incorporated before all operational permissions are ready. Treat formation and permission to carry on the activity as separate milestones.

Example: founders preparing a packaged-product business complete the entity setup while the product and premises arrangements are still changing. Update the activity brief before proceeding with the next applications, so the operating plan, product model and documents remain consistent. The formation milestone alone does not answer those later questions.

How responsibilities are agreed

You confirm business facts and approve decisions. Kosha’s engagement identifies the documents, coordination and filings included, together with any specialist adviser or authority dependency. The service links below explain the relevant workstreams and their limits.