Registering the company - The Riviera Meat Company Ltd.

We tried to choose a name which said what it did on the tin - The Riviera Meat Company - a meat company based in the English Riviera. We checked to see whether there were any other limited companies called something similar and there wasn't so we decided to register it. I have since been asked why we decided to become limited. Basically it was on the advice of an accountant and because we felt that customers would be more comfortable dealing with a limited company. http://www.bizhelp24.com/business-start-up/sole-trader-or-limited-company--2.html describes in more detail what I am trying to explain.

Any-way we made the decision to become limited and so we had to find out how to do about it. We used a company called Quick Formations Ltd (http://www.quickformations.com/) which was a really quick and easy process. It only cost us about £50 and we were ready to rock 'n roll!

The only mistake we made was with the Director's address and setting up the bank account (which I will discuss later). As we didn't know where we would be living when we moved to Devon we used my parent's address. Unfortunately we would then be unable to produce ID for the bank as we didn't live there - worth thinking about when you register.

The Riviera Meat Company Ltd - our new business venture

My husband and I (and two children) were living in Cambridgeshire and all was going reasonably well. We had just built ourselves a lovely home, my husband had a good job, and I was on maternity leave from my job at the local college.

Thinks started to go a little wrong. My husband's job was starting to be very demanding. The hours were dreadful, the pressure on him was starting to take its toll. He looked positively grey. I could tell that something would have to give - and it wasn't going to be his health.

To top it all off we had some complications with our new house. Out next door neighbour declared a boundary dispute and in order to sell our house we were going to have to engage a good solicitor. As you can imagine it really soured living in out beautiful house (and my husband wasn't even around to enjoy it anyway).

We made the decision we were going to leave Cambridgeshire and relocate to Devon. My husband started looking around for jobs and decided to leave his current one. We decided that we needed a plan in case he couldn't find another job. His friend had also left my husband's place of work and set up a meat company - he encouraged us to do the same (although in a different part of the country!)

The Riviera Meat Company Ltd was born.

Where do I start - New Business Venture(s)

There has been so much going on I don't know where to start. I am doing some of this blog retrospectively as some of my business was setup about 8 months ago. It isn't really one business that I am involved in so I am going to talk about all of them!

I am a busy mum of two who never does things by halves! I want to talk about what I have been doing to help anyone else who is thinking about setting up a business and what I have done. It has been a real learning curve so if it helps anyone else out - great. If anyone has any tips for me - please do not hesitate to comment.