Building your War Chest (Step 1): 365 days to £100K - Be a man, Prepare your company and council, and learn how to HUNT
The landscape of what it is to be a man has changed, now let’s hunt and learn the new game. Preparing your council and war chest.
To be a man is to act in servitude to your family. You submit to them, protect them, lead them, nurture them and provide.
In the old days, all a man had to do, was go out and hunt, learn to fight like a warrior, and come home safe from war and guide his family. He would have taught his son’s how to grow crops, or hunt prey and fish. He would have shown his children what love was, by how he displayed affection to his wife in a respectful and passionate way. Children imitate what they see and it sets a great foundation for their character.
But… But the game has changed!
The game has changed… The new warriors, ‘Alphas’ and men in this game, that - quote end quote - ‘attain’ the loyalty of a woman and protect their children, are the men with money… very rarely will you find a woman that would willingly be with a man that cannot provide for her, unless, she can provide for the both of them - now, this is topic I will explore another time.
SMOKE & MIRRORS:
With the illusion of money and/or fame, a lot of men, fall for the trap. They chase fame because they believe, that fame, comes with money but once one reaches the point of being famous, one tends to realise, that a dream was sold to them along the way… Being famous and having lots of money is not mutually exclusive… And, once women realise that you are a famous man with no resources, they will disappear… The game is the game, my friend. You played yourself…
You’re now seen as a fake ‘Alpha’ - a Beta, if you may. In fact, these same women will see you as a jester, an entertainer or an actor. They will never truly be loyal to you because you can barely look after yourself, you barely have your house in order, so why must she struggle the same? Remember a man’s value sits in what he can do for others… It is never about him.
So, what are we going to do to get our men to hunt and hunt well in this new age?
Teach a man to fish? Teach a man to make a 100k? Teach a man the raw tools he needs to attain and actualise himself in this new game?
What about... Teach a man to make 100k per year, become a ‘real ‘ man, get the woman of his ‘dreams’ - you want and need - and protect your mental health along the way..?
That sounds quite lengthy to me… lol
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to leverage my experience and talk about tangible ways in how to make money, actualise self and maintain the mental health required to be the man you envision yourself to be. A series of blogs to set a foundation for those who were raised like me, in a lower socioeconomic landscape, ‘who had to get it out the mud’, in lean, legit and tangible ways.
What do you think about that? And… why should you trust me?
My accolades:
I have taught people how to build their credit scores in tangible ways… A literal step-by-step guide that had hundreds of people tell me that they followed my (Twitter) thread, and blog to a T and it did them great. See blog here: Red credit or black credit cards (part-one)
I also have travelled across this landscape and have made businesses millions upon millions, and a few coins for myself along the way…
With over 8 years of experience launching development projects at large enterprise and SME level - owning a boutique management consultancy - whilst working across the Publishing, Financial Services, FinTech, eCommerce, and Public landscapes. I have accumulated extensive experience working successfully with C-Level/Senior stakeholders (CEO, CFO, CSO, COO), providing a holistic solution to project developments, to build clear, unambiguous requirements, with proven on and offshore experience of mobile app and digital platform developments; implementing digital transformation, change management, robotics, automation and digitisation at an exemplary level - this is a copy and paste section from my old CV, you should see what I’m doing now lol.
Take a look at my Instagram, if you don’t trust me www.Instagram.com/b.eckford. Examine me but do not follow me. And if you don’t trust me, that’s cool… Most of the information is free anyway lol.
Sidenote: This is a long post, by the way, I combine THREE parts into one, so we can quickly move to the next stage.
Before we get started, I speak about the difference between business owners and entrepreneurs and what credit scores really mean, here: Credit scores are so middle class, credit scores are for the 'poor'.
Let me know what you think!
Preparing your council and war chest
Registering your company.
Firstly, I want to say that this guide sets out, in all transparency, a step by step, in how one can register a business under HMRC and get up and running to turning over 100k within 365 days.
This comes with the assumption that you already have a company name in mind. But, if not, do not waste too much time here, as your trading name, can legally be different from your limited company name. To achieve the goal of 100k within 365 days, urgency is key. If worst comes to worst, you could always register a new LTD name once you found an available name you like to trade under, at a later date.
Example: I could register the name of my company ‘Benny Blogs LTD’ but trade as ‘BnBeckford Advisory’.
So Let’s get started:
1: Register:
To register a business - as of 2021 - its costs £12, if you do this by yourself by logging on to HMRC:
Google “Setting up a new business with HMRC” as HMRC changes their URL links to do so regularly - I wonder why?
For the majority, setting up your business as a ‘Limited Company by shares’ is the easiest option - It is classed as a ‘legal person’ and safeguards you from losing your own personal finances if the worse were to happen.
Additional options:
Limited by guarantee
Partnerships are a more complex setup
Self-employed is another method too.
Legal Entity: A ‘legal person’ is any person or 'thing' that can do the things an everyday person can usually do in law - such as enter into contracts, sue and be sued, own property, and build a credit score
2. Business address
A lot of people use their personal addresses to register their business. There are potential tax ‘benefits’ to this - I will not be covering this - but do not worry, you can hide your personal address from the public records - it just costs extra - or you can buy a virtual address/office service.
2a. Principal address - this is the address of the place the business will be conducted. So if you have a shop unit in Croydon but your offices are in Victoria, you would use your shop address as the principal address.
The day you register your business does NOT necessarily mean that this day is the date your business will officially start trading. You can always register and categorise your business as ‘dormant’ - non-trading.
3. Who will be the director(s) of the business?
3a. A director is a person from a group of managers who leads or supervises a particular area of a company. Companies that use this term often have many directors spread throughout different business functions or roles.
3b. Director (s) info to have at hand:
Legal name
Nationality or (nationalities)
Domicile - the country they live in
D.O.B
Job title
Address (can be a business address)
Number of shares - usually £1 nominal value (each)
Shares percentage and voting rights.
Shares:
Shareholders typically have the right to vote in elections for the board of directors and on proposed operational alterations, such as shifts of corporate aims and goals or fundamental structural changes. Please understand that the director(s) will be credit checked by any company that would be potentially providing you with some form of financial product, so have that conversation with your partners first.
4. What does your business do?
4a. What is the nature of your business? If you are not completely sure what your company will be doing, that’s fine at this stage, but you will have to select the industries or industry you will be conducting business in.
This is called a SIC code (Standard industrial classification) of economic activities (SIC) - it describes the nature of business - the SIC code can be changed and/or further industries can be added to its description.
Examples: Specialised design activities (74100)
Sound recording and music publishing activities (59200)
Financial leasing (64910)
4b. You can add all the above if you wish.
Persons in significant control (PSC) - this section is in regard to people who have significant influence over the way the company is run - refer back to the director(s).
5. Shares - as stated above, usually the nominal value people start with is £1 (per holder). This value is the amount of ‘risk of personal loss’ you will have in the business. If the business turns over 100k and goes bust, you are only liable for the £1 share value amount, as your company value increases and you share of the shares will increase too.
Types of shares:
5a. Most people have ‘ordinary’ shares:
one vote per share on company decisions
receive a share of profits as dividend payments
receive a share of capital, for example, if the business closes down.
But, there are other more complex types of shares available…
6. Share Value:
Set shares value (£1) and company share ownership (100%) if only 1 director - Shares can be redistributed with new values, at a later date, if needs be.
7. Set ‘model article’
7a. The model article is a set of rules which form part of the constitution of the Company. It governs the running of the company. A model set of articles provided by the Companies Act 2006 [1] works as a set of rules now for those setting up a company.
7b. Without a lawyer doing a ‘bespoke article’ is taxing and expensive.
Then finally, set up security checks of the director(s) and confirm your application.
Now wait for LTD certificate to arrive!
Business Banking & Accountant
In order to proceed with Business Banking and Accountants, please read the above step ‘Registering Your Business’. Once read and/or implemented, please return back to this section.
Let’s go…
Once you have set up the legal elements for your business by registering as a limited company, the next steps would be to prepare your war chest and open a business account - and if possible, securing a basic credit line - I will not discuss here.
If you are the only director, a credit check will be applied based on your personal credit score. But don’t worry if your score is not the best, it is a basic search. The credit search becomes more comprehensive if you apply for additional credit, such as a business credit card or a business loan. If your score is not above the average, do not complicate this by applying for any additional credit. No credit cards, no loans - I will expand on this in another section. If you have a decent ‘relationship’ with your bank - and are not in an ‘unallowed’ overdraws and/or getting late payment fees - you can open a business account with them quickly. They already know your spending behaviours, the verification checks are easier and the risk of decline would be lower. But, If you have a bad history with your bank, late fees - for example - leave that bank group’s ‘ecosystem’ completely. You’ll do better off starting fresh.
Study the structure of your war chest:
Example of banking groups:
1: Natwest - sits within The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS) which owns, RBS, Natwest & Coutts. If you have a Coutts account you’re on a whole another level, kudos - you’d probably be reading this for a bit of light entertainment too lol.
2: Lloyds Group: Lloyds Banking Group plc, formerly Lloyds TSB owns Bank of Scotland, which owns Halifax.
Study the structure!
If you have a great credit score AND you are in a decent paying job, apply for the business credit card and/or business loan - you do not need to go down this route but it is an option worth considering should you be in need of extra finance/capital… Remember, your LTD company is its own legal person, so you are building up its own credit score by leveraging yours.
There are newer Fintech bank accounts that can get your business account opened quickly like Monzo or Starling but they are new ecosystems so study them more.
Now that your business bank account is open and we are financially able to hunt for that 100k we have set a target for, what’s next?
Preparing your Council
Get an Accountant.
Get an accountant, do NOT wait until you need to do your taxes… You need to have all the core elements in place - for if you HUNT well -, you will be turning over money faster than you think, so having a GOOD and trusted accountant is recommended. A good accountant would have already had experience with businesses like yours, they know where the pitfalls are and they have fought tooth and nail to get businesses out of turmoil. You’ll have to speak to your accountant, get to know them and build a relationship and if you build a good enough relationship they can do ‘warm’ introductions to other businesses they advise for - if, it makes sense.
There are 3 ways to find an accountant:
Word of mouth - if you know someone running a business, speak to them as they can quality assure the accountant for you
Google search ‘SME Accounts’ and scroll through some of the top results, writing down information relevant to you.
Aggregators: www.payroll-supermarket.co.uk is one of the first to market aggregators within this sector, establishing a pool of accountants, for which, they can then use to price compare. It was originally created to meet the demands of industry contractors, so it speaks in terms of days rates, etc.
Unless it is via word of mouth, DO NOT go for the first accountant you see, you want an inexpensive but QUALITY accountant that can also give you sound advice, and guidance.
Startup accounting fees shouldn’t be any more than £25-35 per month, any more than that, speak to the accountant more and understand what extra things they could do for you… You will only really use their ‘HMRC’ filing services twice a year, at the start - 6 to 8 times, if you’re registering for VAT.
Like I said in the intro post, here… “Hunting is fun, once you've taken the time to develop self-awareness, boldness and see the results come. Money after a certain point just becomes numbers on the board”… In this series, the hunt will be an intelligent one! You with me? I hope so!
If you like these posts and/or have further questions, please do let me know.
You can follow me on:
Twitter: @BnBeckford
Instagram: @B.eckford
I am always here to help!
Thanks for reading!
The ‘war chest’ series will be broken down into the following:
Registering a business, Business Banking & Accountants - Preparing your war chest and council.
Your idea & raising startup funding (A business plan) - Understanding your landscape.
Prototyping your product (MVP) - Your Weapon
Planning your go-to-market strategy & the power of your brand marketing - Drawing first blood in battle.
Personas, knowing your customers & converting leads - learning your opponents.
Creating a Loyal Customer base & scaling your business (additional funding/venture financing) - Building your kingdom.
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