UK startup checklist

Most startup checklists online read the same twenty items in no particular order, which isn't especially useful when you're standing at the actual start of it. This one is ordered by when things genuinely need doing, not by how easy each item was to write. Want it scoped to your actual situation rather than reading the whole thing? Our free checklist generator builds a personalised, printable version based on your structure and circumstances.

The quick answer: decide your structure, register, open a business account, sort basic bookkeeping, understand your tax obligations, get the insurance your work actually needs, then go find your first customer. Everything before that last step is infrastructure, don't let it become a way of delaying the work that actually matters.

Before you register

Decide sole trader or limited company. Don't overthink this early on. At modest income, sole trader is almost always simpler and cheaper once you account for accountancy costs. Read our complete sole trader vs limited company guide if you're unsure, and run the numbers on our calculator rather than guessing.

Check your business name is available. A name that's too similar to an existing company gets rejected at registration, and finding this out after you've printed business cards is worse than finding out before. Our free name checker on the homepage takes seconds.

Have a rough idea who your first customer will be. Not a finished business plan, just a genuine sense of who would actually pay you and why. Everything else on this list is easier to justify once this is clear.

Make sure you have some runway. Not a huge war chest, but enough to cover a few slower months without panic. This matters more than almost anything else on a typical checklist, and it's the item people most often skip thinking about properly.

Registration week

Register your company (or as a sole trader). Limited companies can be registered for free by opening a business account with Tide, ANNA, Revolut or Wise, or directly with Companies House for a small fee if you'd rather choose your bank separately. See our full registration guide for the complete walkthrough.

Decide on a registered office address, if you've incorporated. Your home address or a registered office service, this is published publicly either way, worth deciding deliberately rather than by default.

Open your business bank account, if it wasn't bundled into formation. Several genuinely free options exist, see our best business bank accounts guide, so cost is never a good reason to delay this.

Your first 30 days

Register for Corporation Tax with HMRC, if you've incorporated. This is a separate step from Companies House registration and doesn't happen automatically, you must actively tell HMRC you've started trading within the required window.

Set up your bookkeeping system. Doesn't need to be complicated, a genuinely free tool like Wave covers the basics well for a new, small business. Whatever you choose, start now rather than trying to reconstruct three months of transactions later.

Sort your invoicing. If your bank account includes invoicing (Tide and ANNA both do this well), you're already set. Otherwise, get a simple, clear invoice template ready before your first client needs one.

Get insurance that actually matches your work, not a generic list. Professional indemnity if you give advice or services a client could dispute, public liability if you meet clients or work on-site, employers' liability if you're hiring from day one, that last one is a legal requirement, not optional. See our business insurance guide for the detail.

Have a real conversation with an accountant, even a short paid one, particularly if you've incorporated. Getting your salary and dividend split right from the start avoids an unnecessary tax bill later, and our salary vs dividend calculator is a useful starting point before that conversation.

Your first 90 days

Note your filing deadlines properly. If you've incorporated, your first confirmation statement and annual accounts deadlines are set from your incorporation date, both carry automatic penalties if missed, even if the company barely traded. Put these somewhere you'll actually see them, not buried in an email you'll forget about.

Review your pricing against reality. Most new founders underprice in the first few months, once you have a handful of real clients or sales, it's worth honestly reviewing whether your pricing reflects the value you're actually delivering.

Check whether VAT registration is on the horizon. VAT applies to turnover, not profit, which means ecommerce and higher-volume businesses can cross the threshold faster than expected. Our VAT calculator helps you see where you stand.

Start building a simple record of what's working. Which clients, channels, or products are actually generating revenue. This doesn't need to be sophisticated, a spreadsheet is fine, but having it from early on makes later decisions about where to focus considerably easier.

Ongoing, every year after

File your confirmation statement and annual accounts on time, if you're a limited company. These recur every year from your incorporation date regardless of how the business is trading.

Revisit your structure decision periodically. What made sense as a sole trader at modest income may not make sense once profit has grown, our calculator is worth rerunning annually with your actual updated figures.

Review your insurance as the business changes. New services, new risks, or hiring your first employee all change what cover you actually need, don't assume your original policy still fits two years later.

Keep your accounting software and bookkeeping current, not just at tax time. A business that's reconciled monthly is far easier to understand, and far easier to sell or seek investment in, than one reconstructed once a year under deadline pressure.

Checklist by business type

The core list above applies to almost everyone, but a few business types have extra items worth flagging specifically.

Ecommerce and physical products. Add product liability insurance to your first-30-days list, and check the VAT threshold earlier than you might expect, turnover from marketplace sales counts even before you've taken much profit. See our ecommerce setup detail.

Freelancers and contractors. If any client relationship might resemble employment (their hours, their equipment, their direction), get an IR35 assessment early, it changes both your tax position and which structure makes sense. See our freelancer setup detail.

Agencies taking on staff. Employers' liability insurance becomes a legal requirement the moment you hire, not a nice-to-have, and payroll needs setting up properly before your first employee's first payday, not after.

Property businesses (SPVs). Mortgage and lending relationships work differently for a limited company holding property, loop in a mortgage broker early rather than assuming a personal-ownership process applies.

The one thing this checklist can't do for you

Every item above is infrastructure, useful, sometimes necessary, but none of it is the business itself. The business only really starts once someone pays you for something. Don't let a genuinely thorough checklist become a comfortable way of postponing the harder, more important work of finding that first real customer.

FAQs

What's the first thing I should do when starting a business? Decide roughly who your first customer is and what you're selling them, before worrying about structure, registration, or branding. Everything else is easier to get right once that's clear.

What do I need before registering a company? A checked, available business name, a registered office address decided, and the details of your directors, shareholders, and any person with significant control. See our full registration checklist.

What should I do in my first month of trading? Register for Corporation Tax if you've incorporated, set up basic bookkeeping, sort your invoicing, get any insurance your work genuinely needs, and have an early conversation with an accountant if a limited company is involved.

Do I need a business plan to start? Not a formal written one, unless you're seeking external funding or a loan that specifically requires it. A clear sense of who you're selling to and why matters more day to day than a polished document nobody but you will read.

How do I know if I'm ready to register? If you have a name checked as available, know your structure, and have a genuine sense of your first customer, you're ready. There's rarely a benefit to waiting for everything to feel perfect before registering.

How much should I budget to get properly set up? Registration itself can be free or a small fixed fee. The bigger, ongoing costs tend to be an accountant, a registered office service if you want one, and any insurance your work needs, typically adding up to a modest annual sum rather than a large upfront cost. Our startup cost calculator helps you work out your specific figure.

Do I need all of this on day one? No. This checklist is ordered specifically so you're not doing everything at once, before you register, registration week, first 30 days, first 90 days, then ongoing. Spread across that timeline, none of it is overwhelming.