4 Pointers To A Fraudulent Company Registration Process

A fraudulent company registration process can be very expensive to a business. It can waste a lot of precious time and the losses incurred from lost opportunity can be staggering! That is why, today we would like to give you 4 pointers to a fraudulent company registration. With these pointers, you will be able to spot a fraud from a mile away.

So, what are these four clear pointers to a fraudulent company registration process? These are the things that should get you worried when they start coming up in your company registration process:

1. Whenever the Name Search for your company exceeds three days, you should start raising eyebrows;
2. Whenever your company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association don’t have the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) stamp duty affixed on them, then you should start getting worried and demand for it!
3. If, after submission of your signed Memorandum of Association, your Company Registration Certificate takes more than a month you have reason to be very worried! It normally takes a maximum of 10 working days from the time of receiving the signed memorandum of association from you, never more than a month!
4. Then, if your Company Registration Certificate comes without the government seal affixed on it, then you have been the victim of a company registration fraud! All company registration certificates MUST bear the government seal. (Note: Sole proprietorships and partnerships certificates don’t come with government seals affixed on them)

These simple pointers could help you save a lot of wasted time. But, even more important, it can help you avoid the inconvenience of wasted opportunity. The last thing you want is to believe you have a company and bid for a contract then have the bank reject your request to open a bank account for your ‘company’. Getting your company registration right will certainly guard your reputation and protect your profits!

Making Changes To Your Business or Company

After registering your company, there are many changes that may occur. These changes may range from bringing in new shareholders and directors to changes in the percentage of ownership of your business by the directors. Most of the time, people are unaware that they can make these changes. But, your company’s formation is not cast in stone! It allows you to make changes every so often as and when the need arises.

First of all, it is important to mention that Limited Companies, Partnerships and Sole Proprietorships are allowed to make amendments business structure. So, what are the common changes and amendments that companies make?

1. The most common amendment we have handled over the years has been changes in the percentage of ownership by directors. This may come in when an existing director infuses additional capital to the business resulting in more shares in the business;
2. Changes in the company’s objectives are also a common amendment that we have experienced. This usually comes about whenever you want to bid for tenders in a field previously not listed as your company’s line of business. So as to be eligible for a tender, you may have to make amendments on the company’s objectives;
3. Then, there is the addition of new directors. This usually comes about after you have bagged a financing deal from a financier who, in exchange, wants to be part of your company to monitor your progress;

For you to make the changes to your company, all you need is to give the change you need to make and fill out a Memorandum Amendment Form. These changes will be effected within 10 days resulting in your company getting a new certificate!

PayBill Systems
AEA Center, Suite UE-3, Valley Road, Nairobi
Telephone:  0721-901523
E-mail:   paybill@registration-business.com
Blog:      https://companyxpert.wordpress.com

                                 ~ Company Registration Done Here~

Employed? Register Your “Side Hustle” Today!

55 is a significant age! An age loved by some but dreaded by most. It is the birthday that either opens the gift box of dry income taps or the joy of profitable rest with an established ‘side hustle’. While most employees worry about their retirement birthday, you should prepare early for this day by starting what is popularly referred to as a ‘side hustle’. These are businesses that you run while still keeping your day job. These are businesses that will assure you of a smooth transition from your ‘employee’ life to an employer’s life once you sack your boss or upon retirement.

So, the question is, should you register your side hustle business? Absolutely! Running an unregistered ‘side hustle’ may have been supplementing your income so far. However, registering it enables you to go beyond supplementing your current salary. It ensures you start building a business reputation for your registered company. This business reputation will give your customers and suppliers the confidence to believe in your capacity even when you are out of formal employment.

Another question is, does the law allow you to register the business? Certainly! You can register the business and even employ people to run it as you keep your day job.

So, you know you need to register the business and you also understand that the law allows you to register it. The question ringing in your mind now must be, “what is required of me to register a side hustle”? Nothing much! The only requirement will be:

1. Your proposed ‘side hustle’ business names and a description of the nature of business it will be doing;
2. The names of the directors and their personal details;
3. Your signature and those of your co-directors on the articles of association and memorandum of understanding drafted for your side hustle;

Then, your side hustle’s incorporation certificate will be ready for you in ten days! With the incorporation certificate given thereafter, you can now build it into a reputable company. You can also bid for tenders and boost its profitability in preparation for your retirement D-Day. And when this much feared day comes, it will find you prepared with an established and profitable company to keep you and your family occupied and supplied for!

PayBill Systems
AEA Center, Suite UE-3, Valley Road, Nairobi
Telephone:  0721-901523
E-mail:   paybill@registration-business.com
Blog:      https://companyxpert.wordpress.com

                                 ~ Company Registration Done Here~

Upgrading Your Business To An East African Limited Company

Following our article, Registering An East African Limited Company, we received many inquiries on whether you can upgrade from your existing local business to an East African Company.  So, today we are going to take you through the businesses that can upgrade,  the procedure for upgrading and why you need to upgrade your business to an (EA) Limited.

Who can upgrade to an (EA) Limited? Is your business one of those that can upgrade to an (EA) Limited? The good news is that you can upgrade your business to an East African Limited Company. Whether you are currently running a sole proprietorship or you are a partner in a local partnership going regional; even a registered Kenyan Limited company can upgrade to an East African Limited Company.  Anyone can upgrade their current business’ legal formation to an (EA) Limited.

And, all the upgrade follows a stress-free 2 weeks procedure that you can go through without interrupting your business.

So, what is this procedure?

1. Submit your current registration documents and;
2. Signing of your East Africa Limited company Memorandum  and Articles of Association drafted in line with all the East African countries laws;
3. Receive your upgraded (E.A) Limited Incorporation certificate two weeks later granting your previously local business the right to enjoy expanded opportunities in the huge E.A market!

After upgrading, you can now open shop on any of the five East African countries. You can now fly to Uganda and open shop there without having to incur the cost of registering your business again. Or, you can drive to Tanzania and open your offices without going through the stress of registering your business again. Now picture the same for Rwanda, Burundi and, very soon, Southern Sudan. That is what this upgrading promises to offer you both in terms of saved costs and convenience.

Upgrading to an (EA) Ltd offers your growing business many advantages as highlighted above. The most important of these advantages, however, is the reputation that having the ‘(EA) Limited’ on your letterhead. Having that on your letterhead and emails will cement the trust suppliers and customers have in you and will ensure your industry looks up to you with awe and immense respect.
 
PayBill Systems

Telephone:  0721-901523

AEA Centre, Suite UE-3, Valley Road, Nairobi
E-mail:   paybill@registration-business.com
Blog:      https://companyxpert.wordpress.com

                                 ~ Company Registration Done Here~

Registering An East African Company

The East African Community has opened up the markets of four other fast growing economies to Kenyan businesses. From Rwanda to Uganda; Tanzania to Burundi and Southern Sudan (expected to join the fold soon). And with economic integration, the prospects get even better and profits can only rise for the Kenyan business community. While all this is known by most business-people, most of them get frustrated by the thought of having to register their businesses multiple times (in each of the four other E.A.C member states) so as to trade in these countries! Yet, now you no longer need to register your business multiple times to trade in Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda or even Burundi!

With an East African company popularly written as (EA) Limited Company, you only get to register your business once and then you can operate in all the five East African countries simultaneously without registering again as most companies operating in East Africa do. We can point out a few of these (EA) Limited companies that you may be aware of including: East African Breweries and Unilever East Africa Limited.

What do we mean? We mean that you can now register your East African Limited company in Kenya and then proceed to open a hotel in Kigali, Rwanda under the (EA) Limited Company without having to register the same company in Rwanda! Or, you can open a textile shop in Uganda under your East African Limited or even a computer shop in Tanzania under your registered East African Limited company. All this without having to register again when you get to each of these new countries!

If you were to register your east African company today, what would be required? To register your East African Limited company, you will require between 2 and 50 shareholders (owners). Then, the registration procedure will be as follows:

1. Name search of the (E.A) Ltd in all the East African countries and, on successful search, collection of personal details of the (E.A) Ltd directors;
2. The drafting and signing of memorandum of understanding and articles of association that are compatible with all the East African countries laws;
3. Issuance of the (E.A) Limited incorporation certificate two weeks later granting you the right to enjoy the opportunities in the huge E.A market!

Unfortunately, Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships and regular Limited Companies operating in Kenya (or the other five EA countries) can’t benefit from this package. However, they can reap these benefits by upgrading to an East African Limited Company! To upgrade, our team can take you through the requirements and the registration process.

A fast growing Kenyan economy has led to immense competition at home. But with the reemergence of the huge East African market, it is time to expand to the other E.A countries with lower competition.  The good thing is that you no longer have to incur the cost of having to register your business in each of the 5 East African countries when you can register once and then concentrate on your expansion!

PayBill Systems

Tel: 0721 901523

Email: paybill@registration-business.com

                                 ~ Company Registration Done Here~

Why Should You Register A Holding Company?

We have had a number of people who registered businesses or companies coming back to register even more businesses. They are what you could probably call ‘serial entrepreneurs’! Or, better yet, empire builders. Then, from this observation, we noticed that most have never heard of holding companies and the enormous benefits that it presents their business empires. We therefore took it upon us to educate them and you on holding companies and how to go about registering them.

A holding company is a business that is able to own other businesses under it. Holding companies are the ones you see calling themselves, for example, the AccessKenya Group or Sameer Group of Companies (the company name ending with Group or Holdings). Holding Companies or ‘Group of Companies’ is a very powerful business formation. Why would we say that? Because with your holding company you join an elite club of renowned holding companies including: the TPS Group which owns Serena Hotels; Royal Media Group which owns Citizen TV, Citizen Radio and a chain of other radio stations; The Aga Khan Development Network which owns a string of blue-chip companies including Diamond Trust Bank, Nation Media Group, Aga Khan Hospitals and schools.

Now that you know about holding companies and have seen that you can own a holding company, you must be asking what the procedure for registering it is. So, to register your holding company, the following is the 2-weeks procedure you need to follow:

1. Name search for the holding company and, on the name’s availability, collection of personal details of the directors;
2. The drafting and signing of your holding company’s memorandum of understanding and articles of association;
3. Issuance of your Holding Company Limited’s Incorporation certificate two weeks later granting you the right to own other organizations and businesses!

Unfortunately, sole proprietorships and partnerships can’t act as holding companies (but they can after upgrading to limited liability companies). The law only allows limited liability companies to proceed to become holding companies. These companies will need to have between two and fifty directors. The companies can either be private or public companies and should state in their articles of association that they are a holding company.

Then, with your holding company, you can now own your NGOs, your various Sole proprietorships and even Trusts. A very good example of a holding company that owns trusts and companies is the Equity Bank Group which owns Equity Bank Ltd and the  Equity Foundation (a Trust carrying out its philanthropic agenda).

There may be a number of reasons why you should have all your businesses roofed under your holding company. The reasons vary from lower taxation to an easily manageable management structure. Or, it could even offer reprieve for your next of keen in the event of your untimely demise. But, most importantly, is because it will enable your accountants to know the exact financial position of your conglomerate of businesses with a lot more ease. An exercise that will lead to more open doors in the financial circles from banks to investors!

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PayBill Systems

AEA Centre, Suite UE-3, Valley Road Nairobi

Tel: 0721 901523

Email: paybill@registration-business.com

Incorporate Your Company; Stop Losing Deals!

Recently, I had to console a dear friend. His was the classic story of ‘the operation was a success, unfortunately the baby died.’ Why would I say so?

He had just lost a very lucrative contract because of an avoidable mistake! Now this friend is a very good IT professional, but his firm was a sole proprietorship!

Now, most of you working in major organizations know the contempt with which suppliers whose businesses are not incorporated as companies suffer in tender awards. They are perceived to be a briefcase flight risk and not as competent as they always purport to be despite the fact that they might be just as qualified! Now, most entrepreneurs don’t know how to break this jinx and incorporate their company. So, we took it upon ourselves to take you through this process that will save your business future loss in revenue.

So, how do you incorporate your company?

1.       Be in a group of between 2 and a maximum of fifty members or shareholders;

2.       Agree on the list of preferred names for the company and have them searched for their availability;

3.       When the search result approves the name of your company, you may now proceed to incorporate the company and;

4.       provide your full personal and business objective details to be included in the Memorandum and Articles of Association which all the directors/shareholders shall sign;

5.       10-days later the sole proprietor or partnership is transformed to a reputable company.

As proof of incorporation, you will be given an incorporation certificate. We would advise that you keep this document very safe.  This shall be your gate pass to sealing mega deals that your previously “unregistered” business couldn’t bag!

Starting A Business: What You Must Know

The decision to start a business is one of the most important ones in the life of any entrepreneur. Once you decide on getting started, the next decision now becomes the type of legal formation to register your new business in. There are basically four types of business from which you can consider at this point. These include:

1. Sole Proprietorships

2.  Partnerships;

3.  Private Limited Liability Company;

4.  Public Limited Liability Company;

The right choice of your business legal formation at the very start can make your business career very enjoyable, but a wrong choice can have very adverse consequences. To help you make a more informed decision on which one to pick, we will take you through each and every type of business formation and some of their major advantages and pitfalls.

1. Sole Proprietorship

We will start with a Sole Proprietorship which is registered and owned by one individual. This is the easiest and most popular of all business formations. It is relatively affordable and easy to form. Yet, it is one of the riskiest of all business formations. Why? Because in the event that the business owes creditors money and it is unable to pay for it, the owner’s property can be attached and seized to repay the debts!

2. Partnership

Then there are Partnerships which are registered and owned by any number from two to fifty individuals. This type of business formation is relatively affordable to set up and enables more people to come into the business to share resources and responsibility. However, its downside comes where a partner’s decisions and debts (liability) are shared by all the partners.  Then, in the case that the business or a partner fails to offset its or his debts, ALL the partners’ personal property can be attached to offset the debts!

3. Private Limited Liability Company

We also have Private Limited Liability Company which are incorporated and owned by a minimum of two individuals and a maximum of fifty individuals. . A Private Limited Liability Company protects the shareholders’ private assets from being attached in the event that the company is unable to pay its debts. It limits the owners (shareholders) exposure to debtors by limiting their responsibility for paying company’s debts to the nominal value of the company’s shares. The nominal value of the company’s shares is the value that you give to the total number of shares during incorporation. The limiting of the liability to the company’s nominal share value and the fact that most organizations insist on only doing business with companies has made this very popular with most people.  However, unlike a Limited Liability Company, its shares cannot be transferred without the consent of ALL the existing shareholders.

4. Public Limited Liability Company

You can also opt for a Public Limited Liability Company which is incorporated and owned by at least two individuals with no set maximum. A Limited Liability Public Company protects the shareholders’ private assets from being attached in the event that the company is unable to pay its debts. It limits the owners (shareholders) exposure to debtors by limiting their responsibility for paying company’s debts to the nominal value of the company’s shares. The nominal value of the company’s shares is the value that you give to the total number of shares during incorporation. The limit of the liability to the company’s nominal share value and the fact that most organizations insist on only doing business with companies has made this very popular with most people. Sole Proprietorships and Partnerships can be upgraded to this formation.

With these, we hope that you can now make a more informed decision when registering your business.

Here are some summarized facts about the various types of business:

PayBill Systems

Tel: 0721 901523

Email: paybill@registration-business.com

                    ~ Company Registration Done Here~