Imagine you are about to start up a small business. There are a range of decisions you will need to make, for legal reasons, at certain steps of the set-up process. The following questions ask you about several decisions you would usually need to make if you were setting up a real business. While you are encouraged to think of your own idea for a business, and to be a bit creative here, this exercise does not require anything like a complex business plan or any financials. Importantly, the business does not need to be, and in fact should not be, a complex business or a large enterprise for the purposes of this assignment (this will not get more marks). It should however be tasteful / not offensive in nature. This exercise is intended to focus your attention on specific decisions that have a legal aspect, and to explain your reasoning in making those decisions to us in a clear and business-like manner. Do not simply copy the business described below in Part B.
Some suggestions that may be of help (and which you are quite entitled to use as a starting point) include:
- a retail shop (perhaps selling goods that relate to a hobby, sport or pass-time that interests you);
- a restaurant or cafe;
- a small business of a type you have some personal experience working in; or
- an online business selling consumer goods through a website.
Questions
1. Briefly describe the small business you would like to start.
2. What type of business structure do you think would be the best one to adopt for the particular type of business you have described in question 1, above?
3. Explain why the business structure is the best one for this business.
4. Write down a name you would like to give your business.
5. Could you register the name as a trade mark? Explain why or why not.
6. What other registrations should you consider that involve the name of your business? What problems might you run into at this point?
7. Briefly describe two other legal issues or areas that you would expect to have an impact on the type of business you are setting up (as described in question 1, above).