Thinking about starting a "business"

TheBigCheese said:
My apologies for the small potatoes comment, £83,000 is in no way a tiddily amount of moolah, I read the figures on your initial post wrong :rolleyes:

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to be harsh, what I'm trying to say to you is, if you want to do it then go for it!
But go for it in the right way, you could be onto something big (who knows?), it could make you a really decent income, and could continue to for some years if done correctly.

It would be a real shame if a year or two down the line you had been run out of Dodge because you hadn't covered all your bases to start with.

Hiding behind the company isn't good business practice should anything go wrong, and I'm also not sure that you can...what I mean is, the company is a legal entity in it's own right but someone has to be pulling the strings - you.

For example, it is my understanding that if a company (for example) copies a wedding photograph for a customer that is clearly labelled as copyrighted by the photographer, and the photographer sues the company, the the company is liable to pay the photographer up to £25,000, but the employee who scanned the image in the first place is also personally liable for £5,000 for breaching copyright.

This is what I was told when working in imaging a few years ago - that's what I mean by not hiding behind the company.

Also you name becomes a matter of public record at Companies House if you are a director of an Ltd...so hiding behind it or not...you will still be known.
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No worries. Actually, scrap any concerns I have over copyright / IP (as I know it can't be now).

I appreciate the advice, and I understand what you are saying totally, I might look into how much a solicitor would cost to set up a ltd on my behalf but I'm guessing it'll be approaching something like £1000 or maybe more:mad:
 
How can you infringe their copyright if you haven't seen their source code?

So long as you don't go through copying all their screen designs and text you should be fine - you copyright the original work, not the idea. Perhaps your thinking of Patents (as applied in some countries).
 
TheBigCheese said:
It is my understanding that if a company (for example) copies a wedding photograph for a customer that is clearly labelled as copyrighted by the photographer, and the photographer sues the company, the the company is liable to pay the photographer up to £25,000, but the employee who scanned the image in the first place is also personally liable for £5,000 for breaching copyright.
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This is absolutely true, though the exact numbers will vary according to the degree at which the breach of copyright was made, your prior knowledge (remember though, ignorance of the law is no defence), and the flagrancy at which you violated the copyright. The suing company will be able to take you for all your investment, and put the company into liquidation or force you to garnish profit until such time as the damages are paid in full.

As a matter of statute, they can come after you personally for violating the contract at common law, since records of patents and copyrights are considering public knowledge available to all within the public domain. And since it is a strictly liable offence you'd have no way of defending yourself save through negotiations with the suing company.

Also you name becomes a matter of public record at Companies House if you are a director of an Ltd...so hiding behind it or not...you will still be known.
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Also true. It is exceedingly easy to access Companies House records following the Freedom of Information Act 2000. What is more, the records keep a detailed account of every single change you have made, your net profits for each tax year and the current information on every registered member of your company. So be careful.

Again, though, don't let me put you off. I'm playing the Devil's Advocate (see what I did there? Lawyer joke!) for your benefit. This is worst case scenario stuff.
 
Thanks for the replies. My concern of the legal issues are completely and utter unfounded it turns out. So at the end of the day, my product is better, 20% of the cost and has no "yearly license" cost. I think I might put some effort into a more formal business plan, but I'm struggling to see any major problems with my approach.

I'm not worried at people seeing how badly / well my endeavor goes one bit. Out of interest, say I use my dad as the "other partner" does he have to have a percentage of the company's shares?
 
dangerstat said:
Thanks for the replies. My concern of the legal issues are completely and utter unfounded it turns out. So at the end of the day, my product is better, 20% of the cost and has no "yearly license" cost. I think I might put some effort into a more formal business plan, but I'm struggling to see any major problems with my approach.

I'm not worried at people seeing how badly / well my endeavor goes one bit. Out of interest, say I use my dad as the "other partner" does he have to have a percentage of the company's shares?
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Great news on the legal issues - full steam ahead!

As far as I'm aware the rules regarding Ltds have changed now, and you can now set one up with just one person - it always used to be in one man band Ltds that (for example) the hubby would be the MD and the wife would be the other shareholder and generally listed as secretary, I don't think that's the case anymore.

If you are wanting help through the whole procedure (which I would highly recommend to avoid pitfalls and help you save paying over the odds with tax etc. you don't need a solicitor, just an accountant.
Where abouts are you based? If you are in the North West I can recommend a top bod for you.
 
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TheBigCheese said:
Great news on the legal issues - full steam ahead!

As far as I'm aware the rules regarding Ltds have changed now, and you can now set one up with just one person - it always used to be in one man band Ltds that (for example) the hubby would be the MD and the wife would be the other shareholder and generally listed as secretary, I don't think that's the case anymore.

If you are wanting help through the whole procedure (which I would highly recommend to avoid pitfalls and help you save paying over the odds with tax etc. you don't need a solicitor, just an accountant.
Where abouts are you based? If you are in the North West I can recommend a top bod for you.
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Yep!

Thanks for those details, that sounds like a sensible move, like you point out lots of ltd's are really one man bands I guess. I've got a few friends who are in the "big four" I think I'll drop one of them a call and see if they'd be able to help out in exchange for beers. I'm based in the South West unfortunately.
 
Are you not able to say who / what you are taking on? I'm guessing it's a fairly niche market most of us have never heard of but it's be nice to google it anyway :)
 
Telescopi said:
Are you not able to say who / what you are taking on? I'm guessing it's a fairly niche market most of us have never heard of but it's be nice to google it anyway :)
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I would say thats probably not a good idea as they might see it and try changing their license or something
 
How much bandwidth do you have available?

It's an obvious thing, but the more popular the download is.. the higher your bandwidth costs because of increased downloads.
 
EVH said:
How much bandwidth do you have available?

It's an obvious thing, but the more popular the download is.. the higher your bandwidth costs because of increased downloads.
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Won't ever be a problem with paid downloads - more downloads = more money, just make sure you have a host who will charge excess bandwidth rather than cut you off - that'd be embarrasing.
 
dangerstat said:
Yep!

Thanks for those details, that sounds like a sensible move, like you point out lots of ltd's are really one man bands I guess. I've got a few friends who are in the "big four" I think I'll drop one of them a call and see if they'd be able to help out in exchange for beers. I'm based in the South West unfortunately.
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No worries, best of luck to you!

Running your own business can be a bit hairy but also one of the best things you can possibly do! :)
 
EVH said:
How much bandwidth do you have available?

It's an obvious thing, but the more popular the download is.. the higher your bandwidth costs because of increased downloads.
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I can't see me selling more than 200 copies in the first year. The hope is (OP) to get a hosted server for my web app stuff so I guess bandwidth should be okay, good point though

Telescopi said:
Are you not able to say who / what you are taking on? I'm guessing it's a fairly niche market most of us have never heard of but it's be nice to google it anyway :)
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Google "*******" EDIT and it's their main product. It's pretty niche. I'll edit this out in a minute so please don't quote it ;)
 
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