Help setting up business!

[FunInTheSun2019]

Hi!

Looking for some advice.
My best friend and I have both decided after going through really crap times lately, that we are going to finally take the big leap and do something positive, setting up our own business..

Can you with..

What type of business would we register as?

Obviously we both want to be equal partners in the company.
Neither of us want our personal address available for Joe Bloggs to see.
And we don't want our own personal assets to be under threat, if it all went wrong.

Look forward to the advice

Oh forgot to add..

If we are hiring out third parties to clients, would we need insurance? Or would it be down to the third party to make sure they are insured?

If you don't want to use your own name/address, then you'd have to set up a limited company, but even then, your personal details would be publicly available on Companies House unless you also used nominee directors/accommodation addresses.

Most businesses don't have a problem with their owners' names & addresses being known to suppliers/customers. Do you have any particular reason for the secrecy? People can be quite suspicious when they check out a business and find the owners have hidden their true identities. 99% of the time, it's just not necessary.

Re insurance, yes, if it's your equipment, you need to insure it.

A lot of your questions depend on the type of business
If you don’t want to risk personal assets you need to be ltd company. You can be 50/50 shareholders. An accountant can sort this out easily and cheaply. You can get a “drop address” from most local business centres - mine is about £15 per month
You will probably need public liability and/or professional indemnity insurance.
If your clients have a contract with you but you then contract a 3rd party I would expect the client to claim for damages from you and then you could claim from the 3rd party but again it would depend on the set up

Argh thank you that's very helpful.
The secrecy of certain people not wanting to be able to type my name into google and find my address, is due to me suffering for years with a abusive ex partner. He found out previous addresses I lived at and vandalised my property etc..so I now suffer crippling anxiety, but since my last move I have managed to stay completely off radar so far. So I would not want it to be easily available to find out my address.

Both of your advice is very useful. Thank you!