Search ideas, news and case studies

Blog Categories

Tom Richardson

About Tom Richardson

Tom Richardson

About Tom Richardson

Tom is our resident company formation expert. He has been writing about small businesses and how to set them up for 14 years and counting. With two degrees in business management, you can trust Tom's expert advice. Find his published articles here on all things company formation. When he's not writing you can find Tom training for a marathon, he also enjoys a good beer in a pub, films and football, though not necessarily in that order.

View all posts by Tom Richardson
  • August 7, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    Real Business Case Study: Vanessa Lenssen

    Welcome Today we’re delighted to be interviewing Vanessa Lenssen, the entrepreneur behind GoLearnTo.com, a travel company who specialise in providing unique learning holidays. Since forming GoLearnTo.com in 2006 Vanessa has been shortlisted for Red Magazine’s Red Hot Woman Award in the online business category and also won the Shine Corporate Woman of the Year for […]

    Read More
  • October 24, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    Corporate Directors: EEA or Non-EEA?

    If you are appointing a corporate director (making another company a director) we require some extra information about the company being appointed. This includes whether the company is based in an EEA (European Economic Area) country or a Non-EEA country.

    Read More
  • August 2, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    Can I form a Limited Company without a Registered Office?

    Are you forming a company from outside of the UK? See what you may need to do about your Registered Office Address. 

    Read More
  • July 23, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    The 5 Components of Business

    As the Made Simple Group is all about, well, making things simple, I was encouraged to pare this post back to basics and come up with what I feel are the five main components of business. Get these right and you should never really go wrong. A niche idea The best businesses I’m seeing are […]

    Read More
  • July 23, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    1 in 5 Businesses don't secure their domain name before registering their limited company

    Did you know 54% of small businesses have not registered their company name on either Facebook or Twitter? We, names.co.uk, recently undertook some research on businesses which showed some concerning results. 1 in 4 (28%) small business owners wait months after registering their company name to register their domain name which increases the risk of […]

    Read More
  • August 7, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    Real Business Case Study: Daniel Abrahams; Stevan Litobac

    Welcome Daniel Abrahams and Stevan Litobac are the co-Founders of MyCurrencyTransfer.com & MyTravelMoney.co.uk. Founded in September 2010 (with a little help from Companies Made Simple!), the award winning foreign exchange comparison site helps over 100,000 visitors per month find a fairer, cheaper and more transparent deal on currency. Last October, the site won an OPP […]

    Read More
  • August 7, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    Real Business Case Study: Michelle Carvill

    Welcome Every edition of the Real Business Case Study is special but today’s is extra-special. Why’s that? Because today we’re chatting with Michelle Carvill, founder of our new social media partners, Carvill Creative. Formed in 2002, Carvill Creative specialise in creating effective and integrated online visibility for businesses across websites, blogs and social media platforms. […]

    Read More
  • March 19, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    How do I form a Dormant Company?

    First, let’s look at the Companies House definition of a dormant company: “A company is dormant if it has had no ‘significant accounting transactions’ during the accounting period. 

    Read More
  • August 7, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    How to set up a Holdings Company

    A holdings company is one that owns shares in another company (for a full definition see Companies House); this other company is a subsidiary of the holdings company. In order to form a UK limited company with the name holding or holdings, the new company needs to own a majority (more than half) of the […]

    Read More
  • August 7, 2024 by Tom Richardson

    Real Business Case Study: Jasper Martens

    Welcome to our latest Real Business Case Study. Today’s edition has a marketing spin with us chatting to Jasper Martens – Head of marketing and communications at Simply Business. Simply Business is the UK’s biggest insurance broker, insuring over 250,000 businesses, a large portion of which are small businesses or start-ups. Can you tell us […]

    Read More