Advertising self employed

Anthonis

Hi all,
I got friend and he is good at advertising.
I saw lots of advertising agencies and everything like that.
I wonder if he could open his own small advertising company?

He is new here in UK so law differs than in other countries.
So my question would be are here any restrictions on advertising?
He wants just to get self employed for start.
His business would be designing of ad brochures, printing, placing ads on ad spaces, help business to become more attractive for customers.
Also he said that some leaflet printing and distribution.
And could somebody explain how the discount system works here?
Can company give discount to other company for distribution?
He has one printing company and they want to give him discount vouchers. Those vouchers they want that he would give for his customers.
And how to register/protect company name that later nobody would take it till he is sole-trader?
Please be more informative.
Thank you.

paulwf

With all due respect Anthonis - and it is great you are thinking about so many aspect of the business - you've asked so many questions it the answer would be the length of a book!

May I suggest you start by going on the Business Link website (or regional equivalent) as if you put the time in on that site you'll get quite a few answers. Next write a rough outline of a business plan highlighting any key questions or issues then do some research on these.

Of course anyone is free to ask as many questions as they like on here. Its just personally I find it better for getting something specific answered or kicking around a concept rather than getting an in depth guide on how to run every aspect of a business

Anthonis

Well thanks, you might right. I highlighted only basic questions.
Mainly this is forum where people help each other. And I know that its easier to say go there or there... If I would like to know where to go I would ask that.
But maybe there are people who know something and could share info.

steve1980

Anthonis wrote: »

Hi all,
I got friend and he is good at advertising.
I saw lots of advertising agencies and everything like that.
I wonder if he could open his own small advertising company? No reason why not as long as he follows the rules and registers as a sole trader with HMRC

He is new here in UK so law differs than in other countries.
So my question would be are here any restrictions on advertising? See above

He wants just to get self employed for start.
His business would be designing of ad brochures, printing, placing ads on ad spaces, help business to become more attractive for customers.
Also he said that some leaflet printing and distribution.
And could somebody explain how the discount system works here?
Can company give discount to other company for distribution? Yes, but they are going to want large orders, not hundreds, but thousands to offer a decent discount. Also he can't expect to go to a distributer and get an instant discount.

He has one printing company and they want to give him discount vouchers. Those vouchers they want that he would give for his customers.
And how to register/protect company name that later nobody would take it till he is sole-trader? No way of doing it I'm afraid. He could start a limited company and protect the ltd name but as sole trader I could easily start ASDAUK Advertising if I really wanted to.

Please be more informative.
Thank you.

Answers in red, but the best advice is for your friend (does he even know you're asking questions on his behalf??) is to speak to Business Link.

Anthonis

steve1980 wrote:

Answers in red, but the best advice is for your friend (does he even know you're asking questions on his behalf??) is to speak to Business Link.

Well you see I am the one, who gonna invest money for his business. So I need to know something also about that. These days is hard to get decent job. Everything goes thru agencies, and most of them just employ people by certificate, but not for personal skills and knowledge.
Thank you for info.

Savvy_Sue

Anthonis wrote: »

He is new here in UK so law differs than in other countries.

Anthonis wrote: »

His business would be designing of ad brochures, printing, placing ads on ad spaces, help business to become more attractive for customers.
Also he said that some leaflet printing and distribution.

I'm going to come right out and say it: Anthonis, unless your friend has MUCH better written English skills than you do, I suggest that he's entering into very difficult territory.

Your friend might be the most talented designer ever to enter the UK, BUT if he's designing things where ANY words are involved, he risks a) making serious mistakes with those words; b) not noticing mistakes made by the customer; c) not being able to correct mistakes pointed out by the customer.

Even working with designers whose first language is English, and even when we supply the words and (in theory) all that has to happen is that they're cut and pasted into whatever fancy program the designer is using, mistakes creep in, and getting them all out again often takes several attempts.

Plus, I'd say this was already a very full market - there are print and design options available on every high street, and online.

steve1980

Anthonis wrote: »

Well you see I am the one, who gonna invest money for his business. So I need to know something also about that. These days is hard to get decent job. Everything goes thru agencies, and most of them just employ people by certificate, but not for personal skills and knowledge.
Thank you for info.

So there would be agreements put in place to protect the money you putting down and also it would be classed as a partnership.

Anthonis

Well basically you are right about that Savvy.
You see its better something rather than being benefit person...
About grammar, I hope he is better than I am...
About market, yeah I know that there is already lots of such companies. But again its better than nothing.

Well it won't be partnership. I just gonna lend him as much as needed.
You know, English people don't like foreign people who came for working in UK. Well yeah, but what can we do... Most countries now are just like !!!!! world. You pay huge taxes, work like a slave and you dont have nothing.... Can you imagine that people who studied 5 -6 years law, engineering,medicine get almost minimum... They get same as cleaner gets... Rent price for house is same as your monthly wage... So people are forced to leave...

steve1980

Anthonis wrote: »

Well basically you are right about that Savvy.
You see its better something rather than being benefit person...
About grammar, I hope he is better than I am...
About market, yeah I know that there is already lots of such companies. But again its better than nothing.

Well it won't be partnership. I just gonna lend him as much as needed.
You know, English people don't like foreign people who came for working in UK. Well yeah, but what can we do... Most countries now are just like !!!!! world. You pay huge taxes, work like a slave and you dont have nothing.... Can you imagine that people who studied 5 -6 years law, engineering,medicine get almost minimum... They get same as cleaner gets... Rent price for house is same as your monthly wage... So people are forced to leave...

And the English translation?

Not sure what that has to do with what I said.

Are you just giving him money for no return? If so, are you mad? Seeing as most banks are foreign owned your statement is very very wrong. Banks will lend your friend money IF he can provide some of his own money (circa 30%) and a good business plan then banks will happily LOOK at the proposal.

As for your comment moaning about costs and everything else, if you don't like it then don't stay in the country.

InsideInsurance

As he is "new here" you would need to say where he is actually from and also, if applicable, what type of visa he has for being here.

Being self employed tends to be slightly more restricted than being an employee with certain visas.

Intellectual Property law is fairly complex and more importantly, very expensive to enforce! The other comment was correct that if you have a trading style of ASDAUK and youre a sole trader then someone could register ASDAUK Ltd as a company despite you already being established using a similar name. You could however POTENTIALLY sue for passing off but to have chances of winning you would need to show that you are losing out because of their action so generally things like activities/ products/ services, branding, geography etc are all compared.

An easier way, subject to rights again, would be to register the company now and if they want to be a sole trader first then make the company dormant until such time as they want to switch things over.

Anthonis

steve1980 wrote:

And the English translation?

Not sure what that has to do with what I said.

Are you just giving him money for no return? If so, are you mad? Seeing as most banks are foreign owned your statement is very very wrong. Banks will lend your friend money IF he can provide some of his own money (circa 30%) and a good business plan then banks will happily LOOK at the proposal.

As for your comment moaning about costs and everything else, if you don't like it then don't stay in the country.

I am really sorry, my English grammar horrible...

Yes just lending money under agreement. Banks, you know how people say: If you want to have problems, lend money from bank;)

First rule of business never lend money from bank. Second rule: if you don't have money, don't start business.

About costs, I mean that's why people immigrate to UK.
People here can easily run even small business, without worries that somebody can pressure on you.

InsideInsurance wrote: »

As he is "new here" you would need to say where he is actually from and also, if applicable, what type of visa he has for being here.

Being self employed tends to be slightly more restricted than being an employee with certain visas.

Intellectual Property law is fairly complex and more importantly, very expensive to enforce! The other comment was correct that if you have a trading style of ASDAUK and youre a sole trader then someone could register ASDAUK Ltd as a company despite you already being established using a similar name. You could however POTENTIALLY sue for passing off but to have chances of winning you would need to show that you are losing out because of their action so generally things like activities/ products/ services, branding, geography etc are all compared.

An easier way, subject to rights again, would be to register the company now and if they want to be a sole trader first then make the company dormant until such time as they want to switch things over.

He is EU citizen, so no visa needed.

About dormant company ( I googled a bit about dormant company) and I think its not cost effective at the moment. But that's really great advice and will be considered if company gets successful in first stages.

Thank you all for info. If somebody has more info about such type of business feel free to post.

Offtopic:
From tomorrow gonna find some English grammar courses. Feel free PM if you have anything on that. May be book, video or app.