I am planning to form a company and was wondering whether it would be better to do this via Companies House directly, using an Accountant or solicitor or a company formation agent.

On carrying out some research I found that the accountant that was recommended to me would charge a total of £250 + VAT for registering the company and an hour of tax advice. Whilst this has obvious advantages in terms of the tax, I do wonder just how much personalised recommendations I would receive. After all, it would take me about two hours to just relay and explain my personal financial circumstances.

The option of using a company formation agent seemed to be the optimal solution as I could register my business for about £30, giving an immediate saving of £220. Even with some of the premier packages offered by the incorporation agents I would still be less with money compared to the Accountants solution.

Starting my own business, I suppose I should get use to cutting costs and carrying out research of taxation and other matters on my own.

The direct application through Companies House was a non starter. From what I read, these company formations are thwart with complications, form errors and takes about three weeks to receive a certificate of incorporation.

Prior to investigating company formations, this was a subject I knew nothing about and I am delighted that I was able to comprehend and evaluate the options so that I could reach an information conclusion. There is hope in starting a business for me yet.

With all the talk of the credit crunch, house repossessions and the economic downturn, it is worth considering what effect this will have on people starting a business.

There seems to be two schools of thought of the subject. The first group believes that just about everything will tighten up; people will stop spending money, those currently in employment will stay there and that the risky journey of starting a business will be delayed until some sense of stability resumes.

This view does have some merit as we have seen company formations in the UK reduced by over 16% in the period between July and August 2008 and September not showing any signs of this downwards trend continuing.

The second school of thought consists of more bullish comments, namely that we have been here before with recessions and collapses and that people know that a rebound will be inevitable.

Even with the decrease in company formation activity, there still are nonetheless businesses starting up and some of these will inevitably be very successful.

If people are made redundant then they will find that unemployment benefit is not what it used to be and the option to live off the state is a pitiful existence. In the absence of being able to secure a reasonably job elsewhere, they might choose to turn their skills and knowledge to starting a business and working for themselves.

As in most situations, the reality is probably a mixture of both synopses with different individuals responding to the current economic problems in difference ways. It is really a question of which group has the largest membership.

When carrying out research it is important to take account of the time limitations and to assess this constraint against the material which would need to be gathered, and thus whether or not a successful project can be completed.

Researching an area in which the author already has preliminary knowledge is a strong advantage as it eliminates the need for background reading and thus provides more time for the actual investigation. As mentioned before, time was the most limiting constraint encountered during the project.
 
Since beginning the project, previously unknown information sources have become known to the author. Many of these sources have been government organisations and public relations departments of companies. The author now feels confident about exploring unknown areas of study and of finding the information needed to make the study successful.

In the main, the author believes that the project was successful, the objectives were met and the recommendations were well-founded.

A greater number of interviews would have made the project even better as it then would have been of greater use to a greater number of companies but these are lessons to be learned now and implemented on the next occasion.