Beginner's Guide to Forming a Company

You've decided to set up your own business. Where do you start? Firstly you'll need to decide on the following...

First things first, what are you going to call your company? You can have any name you like as long as nobody else has already registered a company with the same name. To protect your name (and avoid confusion) the Companies Registration Office (CRO) won't allow you to incorporate a company with a name that they deem similar to an existing name. This protects everybody-including you!

Every company must have at least two directors, one of which may also act as the Company Secretary. Directors are the people who are appointed to run and manage the day to day affairs of the company. They may or may not be shareholders.

At least one of the directors must be EEA Resident (the EEA being the countries of the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), otherwise a bond must be supplied.

Shareholders are the people who own the company. They can also be the directors.

Okay, on this one you need three addresses which can all be the same if you wish. You need to set out a Registered Address, a Place of Business and an Address of Central Administration.

CRO will want to know what the main day-to-day activities of the business are.  This will be outlined in a document called the Memorandum & Articles.