For the readers who don’t know me, I also worked as a work from home full-time employee for a company that offers business registrations services. I am the Head of Sales and being the first point of contact, I studied and learned business registration must-knows before actually doing it. And so I have listed a few tips and the things you must know or be prepared with before pushing through with your plans.
1. What entity are you looking to set up? Would you register as an individual professional, a sole proprietor, a partnership or a corporation?
If these terms are still new to you at this point, here are a couple of articles that may help you understand more to help you decide :
a.) SHOULD I REGISTER AS AN INDEPENDENT PROFESSIONAL OR SOLE PROPRIETOR?
b.) WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PARTNERSHIP AND A CORPORATION IN THE PHILIPPINES
2. Do you have a place or an address to use for your business registration?
Regardless of the entity you chose to be registered. May it be individual, sole prop, a partnership or a corporation, you will need to establish a physical address for your business registration. This means that the property or the address to be registered with your business should have a clean paper and documents to present upon registration. Here are a few points to keep in mind.
- Partnerships and corporations must be associated with a corporate address and a residential address will never be accepted to proceed in getting a business permit with LGU (local government units).
- Sole props and individual registrations allow a residential address to be used however please keep in mind that LGU has the right and may opt to give a visit should they wish to check if the property may be conducive fora business operation.
- If a property is owned, property title or proof of ownership must be presented with the same name of the person having a business registration.
- If the property is under a different name, the owner must provide an authorization letter showing that they are allowing their property to be used for business transactions or purposes.
- If a property is being leased, a contract of the lease should be presented together with the building occupancy permit from the owner of the property ( The owner of the property must also have a permit to lease for the contract of lease to be valid otherwise LGU will not allow to proceed with business registration )
- If all of the above may seem to be hard to obtain or you want to register with a corporate address but you either think it is too expensive to get one or simply do not know where to start, you may want to consider getting a Virtual office address service provider.
3. Do you have at least 2 valid government issued ID?
For obvious reasons, valid ID should be readily available. Also to show that you are a true and legitimate Filipino Citizen.
4. Do you know the industry of your business?
Knowing the industry of your business will really be beneficial for you all throughout your business registration. Do some research and know your industry and what other industry it could fall under. Some industries would need additional permits before your business operation. But don’t worry, everything comes after business registration.
5. Which City are you thinking of setting up your business?
Some requirements and tax percentages and fees are city dependent. It is just right to conduct your research and ask around on which city would be best to put up your business.
6. Money
As we all know, you need fund to start up a business. And business registration is no exemption. You must be ready with your paid up capital information. On usual consultation, I would tell right away how much you need to get ready with just for your business registration alone. I will not tell it here as it is complex in so many ways and dependent on a lot of factors.
7. Time and Patience
You may have all the first six ready and prepared but you must be ready to give your time and invest a lot of patience. Business permits and licenses are necessary before you can operate your business. This is the very first thing to obtain before anything else for your business. For an individual, it will only take 1-2 weeks for you to have yourself fully registered as an individual professional. A Sole prop registration may take 1 – 2.5 months to be completed while a partnership or a corporation may take 1 – 3 weeks given that there are no unforeseen government delays.
I hope I was somehow able to help. Please feel free to drop a comment or send me a message and I will be happy to speak with you.
For more information on my resources, you may visit blogs of the company that I am working with to get more details and a better understanding.
Here’s an infographic and some articles that may be helpful
Your talented va 