A mixture of challenge and courage, starting a business involves a generous dose of planning, understanding the market, managing expectations, managing people (if necessary) and ensuring that the cash flow navigates positive territory.
Starting a business while saving money is therefore the Holy Grail of entrepreneurs. How to achieve this is what we propose to show you in this article.
How do I start a business?
In order to simplify the procedures for starting a company, the Empresa na Hora service was created, which can be found in citizens' shops, at the offices of the Institute of Registry and Notaries and on the Internet via the Empresa Online service on the Citizen's Portal. This service helps to simplify the whole process, as it has lists of pre-approved company names and memorandums of association that speed up the creation of a company.
Once you've decided on the company's legal form (sole proprietorship, limited company, S.A., etc.), you should go to the Empresa na Hora website and look at the lists of pre-approved company names and articles of association. This will give you an idea of the names and agreements that already exist, so that when you get to the counter you have several options to choose from. However, the name of the company will only be reserved when you register it at the counter.
At the counter you will then choose the name of the company, which is different from the commercial name of your company, and will be followed by the name of the legal nature of the company. You will then need to indicate the memorandum and articles of association, a contract which, among other things, defines the company's rules, partners, value of shares, registered office, activities and share capital.
After setting up your company, you have 15 days to submit the Declaration of Commencement of Activity to the Tax Office, which must be signed by your Chartered Accountant. You also have 30 days from the incorporation of the company to apply for the Central Register of Beneficial Owners.
Once your company has been set up, you must deposit the amount of the share capital in the account in the company's name. The deadline for this deposit is 5 days after the incorporation of your company. However, you can also choose to pay it into the company's coffers by the end of the first financial year.
How much does it cost to start a business?
The cost of starting a business will depend on the legal form and the number of partners who will be part of the company, but also on the movable and immovable property associated with it. The main costs of starting a business are
- Cost of registration through Empresa na Hora: 360 euros;
- Certificate of Admissibility for company creation: 70 euros, standard order or 150 euros for urgent requests;
- In companies with entries of real estate or shareholdings that have to be registered: 50 euros per property or share;
- Companies with movable property: 30 euros for each good;
- In the case of mopeds, motorbikes, tricycles or quadricycles with a cylinder capacity of up to 50 cm3. with a limit of 30,000 euros: 20 euros per vehicle.
Ways to save when starting a business
Once the company has been set up and registered, you still have to add up the costs of hiring, suppliers, credit (if necessary), taxes, rent, means of payment, electricity, water, etc. The list goes on and on, but you can optimise costs if:
- Hiring qualified technicians pays off in that you avoid training costs and even redundancies. Hire new human resources only when you need them.
- Outsourcing as an option for temporary or permanent activities.
- In many businesses, suppliers represent a very high expense, and you need to take this into account early on. Do your sums well, analyse what is essential to get started, and try your best to negotiate values at the beginning of your business.
- Save energy, cut costs on water consumption, reduce communication bills and optimise office supplies.
- If you take out a loan when you first start out, make sure you take a good look at the rates associated with it, and take into account the monthly instalment you'll be paying out of your budget. Be aware that Unibanco there are credit card for companies which help with expense control and accounting.
- Use a qualified digital marketing agency instead of investing time and money in hiring and training your own marketing department.
In addition to these savings tips, you should pay particular attention to the cashier and consumers' new payment habits. O Contactless is not just a passing fad. Sanctioned by the health authorities and the Bank of Portugal, the contactless payments are gaining a particularly important weight in the turnover of Portuguese businesses since the beginning of the year.
Given its "contactless" nature, this technology, when integrated into cards/smartphones/wristbands/automatic payment terminals, makes it possible to pay for a good or service without coming into contact with physical money, surfaces or another person's hand.
The whole process is very simple. The operator enters the value in the Physical TPA or mobile (automatic payment terminal) with contactless technology and turns it over to the customer. All the customer has to do is hold their contactless card close to the terminal (usually less than four centimetres away) and complete the transaction without having to enter their PIN. The whole operation is carried out quickly.
Time and hygiene are saved, but where is the cost containment on the part of the retailer?
A reduction in money handling costs (optimised payment process and easier accounting), higher average transactions and the guarantee that the payment is actually made are just some of the advantages of signing up for the Contactless TPA that REDUNIQ makes it available to businesses.
A REDUNIQ is the only acquirer in Portugal with PCI DSS certification, the purpose of which is to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data associated with the use of cards by their holders, which ensures that the entire payment process is truly secure in all its dimensions.
Saving with online media
Although you can't meet the legal requirements for officialising your company, there is another alternative business solution that will allow you to cut a significant part of the costs.
At the end of last year, analysts predicted that this year Internet-related businesses would top all the "most profitable businesses for 2020" charts, but nothing and no one predicted that they would surpass the best expectations, recording growth above 100% and, in some cases, even above 200%.
This is the case with e-commerce which, as well as giving them greater freedom of movement and good salary prospects, meet the new consumer habits inherited from compulsory confinement and are more budget-friendly for the entrepreneur, since most of the expenses of a traditional business don't go beyond the door.
In addition to direct savings on, for example, water and rents, the e-commerce solutions (online shops, social networks, etc.) give you the opportunity to sell a good/service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Gateways such as REDUNIQ payment solutions are a valuable ally in this field of e-commerce payments. Whether you have a website or not, with REDUNIQ @Payments, to which the functionality of accept payments by WhatsApp and SMS, your business can start selling online with no membership costs, no monthly fees, no need to integrate with back office systems and even accept online payments even if they take place via social media.
Alongside @Payments, which accepts Visa and Mastercard payments, the REDUNIQ provides digital entrepreneurs with E-Commerce solution which allows an online shop to accept payment for services (issuing Multibanco references), Visa and Mastercard payments, as well as the possibility of also accepting American Express and PayPal, from all over the world at no cost, and to analyse and manage sales made on the website. REDUNIQ trader area. If you don't have a website or online shop, you can always create your own project using the REDUNIQ partners.
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