Businesses are all around you. Every time you go to the shops, the pub, the dentist or the petrol service station you are dealing with a business. While all those businesses serve you with the goods and services you want, it is normally of little consequence to you how each business is run.

Things are very different if it is your business. It is as well to know what you are getting yourself into when you start. Most lessons in life are learned the hard way. This is how you get your experience but this book is intended to help you understand the mechanics of running a business through a limited company. The aim is also to save you from as many mistakes as possible.

Remember good judgement comes from experience but experience comes from poor judgement!

You may have already started your enterprise or you may just be embarking on it but everyone can learn from others. There are many pitfalls in business life and if you can cut down or eliminate them your worries will be far less.

All businesses need a framework within which to operate but the formation of a limited company must be done for the right reasons. A lot of businesses are run through companies but there are many legal implications attached to this.

New businesses and old sometimes fail but the existence of a company will not necessarily help in those circumstances. Limited liability is not a panacea for all ills. It represents a responsibility to the general public and gives business dealings a public face. Directors, too, have onerous responsibilities.

As a chartered accountant formerly in public practice with many years’ experience of small businesses, I have tried to set out simply how to decide whether a company is right for you and, if so, how to go about it.

Apart from a detailed explanation of how to form and operate a company this book covers the filing of statutory information, your rights and responsibilities, the opening of bank accounts, keeping records, taxation, wages and salaries, marketing and auditing.

I would like to thank Alpha Searches Ltd., The Registrar of Companies, the Inland Revenue and Barclays Bank plc for the use of their forms and documentation and Messrs Baker Tilly, Chartered Accountants, for help in the original research of this book.

The text contains case studies and any names used in these or the rest of the book are purely fictitious. Any similarity between the names and those of real persons is purely coincidental.

Good luck with your enterprise. As you know, your country needs you.