SB - legal issues and paypal

lavender_girl

Hi,

Im in the middle of getting a small business of the ground of selling my photo cards and may be other crafts if sucessful, on line. Im having a website designed for me, so that aspect is covered.

I have been reading all the forums and researching as much as I can, but just wondered if I could ask for some advice...

Im coming from a sole trader angle so of course I will be following the route of registering for tax purposes etc...and getting a proper book keeping process in place, is there anything else I must consider as a tiny business?

I want to make sure that I cover all the legal aspects.. the reading that I have been doing for 'small businesses' are still mainly for thoses who will be dealing with a lot more money than I will be...and getting a little confused..

As I will be having an online shop - are there any particular laws that I must remember to follow? like the data protection act...?

Also - as payments online will be through paypal and hopefully have some business locally with probably cash etc.. what sort of bank account must I have?
Im just looking into paypal - I have an account with them as a buyer for online transactions , but don't know a great about becoming a seller with them - I am aware that there are the transactions fees etc..but its arranging the bank account for it that im unsure about. Can I just make another personal bank account for this purpose?

It will be very small, I can't imagine i will make much, so remaining hopeful but realistic etc :-)

Im hoping to get a list of all the legal aspects that I need to follow, so that I can tick them off and feel a little better about it as I would love to do this, but sometimes finding it a bit daunting.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

jamesa007

I'm after the same info especially where to register as a sole trader and which are the free business bank accounts??

Please help us.

thanks

Jim

me_and_me_monkeys

You register with Inland revenue as selfemployed/sole trader

Free bank accounts - shop around - mine is with abbey but I cannot do anything in branch (except use the cashpoint to payin and withdraw) everything else has to be done by post/phone.

jamesa007

can you register online? and does this cost anything? do they have a web site?

Cheers

lavender_girl

Hi Jamesa007

re registering, you may find the following helpful:-



http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/iwtregister-as-self-employed.shtml

for some reason its not showing properly - after selfemployed/ its
iwtregister-as-self-employed.shtml

martindow

If you are keeping information on people you probably should be registered with the Information Commissioners
http://www.ico.gov.uk/
for £35 per year. We are registered because we deal with credit cards but I am not sure whether you need to for just names and addresses. Give them a call and ask. Interestingly ebay has had a brush with them for passing on personal information to third parties.