You aren't sure how your business is set up

If you don’t know, you’re probably a sole trader. You have to do extra things to create the other kinds of businesses, so they tend to stick in the memory a bit more. Do scroll down to find out whether you’re set up as a limited company.

Thank you so much for voting in this week’s poll! I’ll share the results next week.

Finding yourself

If you’re not sure how you’re trading, you can quickly find out whether you’re running a limited company by searching for yourself on Companies House.

Companies House is the register of all limited companies in the UK. It’s public information and completely free and open to search.

Simply click on the button below and type in your name, and see if you’re there.

You may want to try a few variations of your name, and even searching for your postcode, to be sure. Sometimes Companies House ends up with a middle initial vs a middle name, for example.

If you find yourself, be sure to click on the green Follow This Company under your company name. Log in or register, following the prompts. Then you’ll get an email anytime something is filed for your company. If it was something you weren’t expecting, you’ll know straightaway so you can sort it out.

Filing false paperwork on Companies House is a thing that fraudsters do. I’m a bit fuzzy to be honest on the details of how they use it, but I know that it happens enough that they have this following mechanism set up – so use it.