2017 has flown past and the new year is just around the corner. Amidst economic, political, and business uncertainty, this year has proved a challenge for everyone in the UK. Now the year is almost over, let’s take a look at what we achieved in 2017, thanks to our customers.
Many many happy clients
We’ve formed tens of thousands of companies this year. This gives us great satisfaction to see first hand the entrepreneurial spirit of this country! Since The Formations Company first launched in 2009 we have helped over 750,000 small businesses start their adventure. We’re ready for another busy year backing fledgeling businesses, giving them the best possible kickstart.
Our very first website in 2009
Our customer support team has been incredibly busy this year. So much so we’ve almost doubled its size – so we can keep providing first class support to all of you. We ‘ve also introduced live chat, so if you don’t fancy calling, you’ll still benefit from incredible support.
Our second Entrepreneur Award was a huge success
Inspired by the success of the 2016 competition, we decided that this year we had to run the Entrepreneur Award again. The Entrepreneur Award is a business grant created to encourage the brightest new minds in any industry. To show our support, we asked entrepreneurial people across the country to show us a business idea that stands out from the crowd. The winner got a £1,000 business grant to get them started. Plus, we set them up as a limited company, free of charge, including all the documentation needed. We also partnered with Barclays to offer mentorship and support from one of the leading financial institutions in the UK.
This year’s winner, unanimously by our judges at The Formations Company and Barclays, is Terence Chung, who created FRUU.
FRUU is a cosmetics company that turns surplus fruit and waste coffee into fun, vegan-friendly, cruelty-free and affordable cosmetics and toiletry products. The business aims to reduce bio-waste, otherwise destined for landfills, while replacing the need for petrochemicals. Made using organic fruit and plant ingredients, many of FRUU’s products come from post-consumer waste. It is now a fully developed e-commerce company: shop now for a late Christmas treat!
New products and tools to help your company grow
We always keep small business front of mind and we know the struggles of keeping a company afloat. We spend time talking to our customers to find out what tasks have proved most challenging during their years trading, and created world-class partnerships to help make small business owners’ lives easier.
SmartBusiness Apps
The challenges current small business owners pointed to most frequently were invoicing, bookkeeping, credit checking, creating a website, and storing their data securely. This is what our new product, SmartBusiness Apps, is here to help with. Worth over £420 a year, we offer a basic version of them for free with every formation. It includes:
Basekit – a simple tool that enables anyone to build a website and establish a professional online presence.
PlanHQ – a powerful business planning tool which considers each aspect of establishing a business, creating a professional plan. It’s perfect for applying for extra funding from banks or investors.
CreditHQ – powered Experian, this tool allows you to monitor credit scores for your business and others you are trading with, and check they are financially secure.
MozyPro – a data backup solution for your computer, in case it gets lost damaged or stolen.
2018 comes full of exciting new things for The Formations Company. We’re working hard to make the Entrepreneur Award even more successful this year, so keep an eye on our homepage and Twitter to find out more soon. As always, we’ll be partnering with the UK’s leading businesses to help you succeed in your own business venture, and we would like to hear your comments or suggestions.
There’s plenty of help and advice in our Help Centre and Blog, and we are working to continually create new articles to help you navigate the current business world.
From everyone at The Formations Company, happy holidays and happy new year!
Published Thursday December 21, 2017