You have just registered your company? Now what? A lot of people don’t know what should happen after they register their businesses. The CIPC doesn’t exactly give details on what you should do. In this post I will tell you what to do after registering a company in South Africa and will also give you a few tips on what you can do to make sure your business hits the ground running.
First of all, congratulations on registering your company, this is mostly a very happy moment for you. It definitely was for me. It shows that you are actually serious about your business, a lot of people don’t take the initiative, they don’t really go as far as you have, it all ends with an idea. I know people who have had business ideas for years and never executed any of them. I commend you for the courageous step you have taken. Starting a business is not easy, you will have a lot of ups and downs but it will all be worth it, here is what to do after registering a company in South Africa. This is based on my experience after having registered more than 3 companies.
1) What you need to know about CIPC
You will receive a tax number, that’s if you haven’t yet received it, and a confirmation that your company has been successfully incorporated. If you registered via FNB then you will receive a bank business card from them with your company name, it is not automatically active, you will need to activate it later. SARS will call you and ask for your tax returns if you make more than R120 000 in a year. A lot of people are usually afraid of SARS, you also don’t need to file any returns if you hadn’t activated your business card or made more than the aforementioned amount of money.
2) Build a website
I wish someone had told me the value of getting a website for my business soon after I registered my company. A lot of people don’t know the value of a website for a business because they are using it all wrong, they are just using it as a portfolio, it can be more than that, businesses with a website generate 60% more sales than those that don’t.
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you are in, try to get a website as soon as possible after you register, then go on and focus on other things. This is because you will benefit from something called SEO when you most need it, it works best for older websites, your website has to be more than 6 months old for you to get the best out of it. SEO is just optimizing your website to appear for your business keywords on Google. Example, you can optimize your website to rank for “construction companies in Cape Town”, when someone searches for that term then your website will appear, there are hundreds and possibly thousands of people searching for that per day on Google.
There are multiple people searching for exactly what your business provides, a website will put you in a good position to get some of them to be your clients. The good thing about this is that you don’t have to pay. Get a beautifully designed website from these guys, do it as soon as possible to better benefit from SEO, here is a more extensive article on how to use your website effectively.
3) Get found on business directories
You would be surprised at how many people use business directories to connect with businesses online. There are millions of people using business directories every single day. All you have to do is signup to one and state what your business does and leave it like that. It’s also great for SEO and it’s free exposure for your business, register your business now.
4) Marketing
Marketing your business in South Africa or anywhere in the world is not simple. The above (Website, directory) will do well but you need to have a solid marketing strategy. It doesn’t matter how wonderful of a business concept you have but you will need to be good at marketing. The good thing about marketing is that it doesn’t have to be expensive, especially digital marketing. You can reach more than a thousand people on Facebook for only R50. Here is a step by step guide to business marketing.
Conclusion
Those are some of the things you can do after registering a company in South Africa. These are mostly effortless things that can have a significant impact on your business especially number 2. Good luck on your journey. Have you just registered a business? Tell us about it in the comment section below.
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Rodney
4 Jan 2021Good content
Victor
12 Mar 2021We have registered our first company, W4C Projects. We have resources available to manage and complete any project, size does not matter. Thank you for the tip on marketing and web setup.
Kahleho Clement Chokwe
21 Jul 2021I have recently registered an electrical contractors company but I’m yet to get more out of it
sibabalwe
22 Jul 2021Good luck 🙂
Decent Bharo
10 Sep 2021Hello.
I am glad to announce the company registration completion. DBHARO CINEMATIX is a film production company registered here in South Africa. It is still at its infant stage. However, I will be happy to meet investors and sponsors so as to back this neophyte company to grow wings.
WhatsApp: +27840725613
Mobile: +27780729280
Email: db.decentbharo@gmail.com
Vanesse Mngomezulu
16 Nov 2021This is really useful. I just registered my business and I was like ‘now what?’. I did get an email from SARS that says I should have a Public Officer (for SARS), which would be me as I’m a solo entrepreneur but do you know if you have to fill out some type of form to indicate that you have chosen a Public Officer and send it to SARS? Because their email was pretty vague in answering this question