Step 1: Register business name

One thing that has stopped me from starting a business was the paperwork involved in having a business. I didn't know where to start.

Fortunate for us, the internet is great place to know everything. We just Googled how to start a business and it gave us information on what we can do. They weren't all accurate but at least we weren't as blind.

The first thing we did was to register our business name. It was the only step we can do which was not dependent on anything. It was a choice between registering with DTI as Sole Proprietorship or with SEC if we wanted to register as a partnership or as a company. We wanted to keep things simple so we chose to be registered as a Sole Proprietorship. It was cheaper (less than P500). And it allowed us to be flexible with having only 1 person sign all documents and not wait until all partners are available. However this may not be the best solution for everyone as it also assumes that all partners trust everyone completely.

We also needed to come up with a name for the business. We had several choice for the name of our rice dealer store but what we didn't know and what we didn't find in the articles that we read in the internet was that the business name should not include the word rice in it. Therefore we couldn't use some of the options we shortlisted; Rice Rice Baby, Rice and Shine, etc.