Two UNlimited...

So, we finally got confirmation of our company becoming 'incorporated' and registered with Companies House. I've uploaded an image of the certificate of incorporation itself for all to see, with the important parts blurred to keep ourselves and the business anonymous (for now). Click on the pic above to enlarge. Myself and Mike each own 50% of the shares in said Ltd. company, which for the purposes of the blog we shall call 'Mexican Takeaway Ltd.'

So, exciting stuff! Although we haven't found any premises yet (another one fell through yesterday, ARGGGHHH!), it feels as though things are moving in the right direction. We have a meeting at a local branch of RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) today in order to sort ourselves out with a business bank account. We're doing this to get all of the proper foundations in place before we need them, in order that we can move quicker when we do. Our meeting is with my ex-girlfriend's cousin who is a business account manager with RBS (we'll call her 'Carol'). In the past I've been very anti-networking, as it seemed very 'cliquey', but it's only recently I've realised how using the connections of the people you have around you can help. I always wanted to do everything by myself in the past, but it definitely helps if you know someone who can help you. You're also likely to get the best deal possible, always a good thing. A friend I went to school with has recently given me a quote below his normal rate for logo design, his work is amazing. Another ex-girlfriend also put me in touch a couple of years ago with Bernard (the accountant) who then recommended the company who incorporated our Ltd. company. Things seem to happen more easily when you let your connections do the work for you, something it's taken me a while to accept.

So, Carol has guaranteed us the best deal possible on a bank account, and it's always useful to actually know the person you are dealing with as it means you start off with trust and more to lose, so both parties are likely to act properly (not in every case!). Hopefully in a few days we should have a working bank account, albeit with nothing in it!

Finally, we got a little website up and running for our venture. I found a website that allows you to host your own restaurant website for free! It's called Letseat.at, and it allows you to build a very professional restaurant website with even the most basic of 'web-design' skills. If you can use blogger, you can use letseat.at! It hosts the website for free and lets you choose from plenty of different formats and themes, it's brilliant and I don't understand why more restaurants aren't using it, especially those without a web presence at all! It also means that you control the detail and don't have to run to a web designer every time you want to put new details up or make a minor change, most likely costing you money! So, I designed a quick 'beta' site to use, and bought a 'forwarding' .co.uk domain name to point at the site. This allows us to use the .co.uk name when dealing with customers rather than www.letseat.at/yourrestaurantname for instance. It also allows us to use very professional email@yourrestaurantname.co.uk email addresses when dealing with agents and potential suppliers, giving us more credence. So, things are now moving in the right direction, albeit slowly. I'll be back with an update in the next couple of days re: Business no.2 finally!