Choose a business or company name that you can legally use and protect – Companies House rules, sensitive words, trade marks and passing off, domains and social media – and show the correct legal details on your website, emails, invoices and premises.
Starting a business
Business Names Checklist and Trading Disclosures Guide
About this document
A name is one of the first and most important decisions for a new business. A name that is too similar to another business, uses a restricted word or infringes a trade mark may have to be changed later – after you have paid for signs, a website and marketing. This checklist helps you test a name before committing to it, and explains the information the law requires you to show once you are trading.
The document is laid out in the sections below. Each one comes with a plain-English guidance note explaining what it does and what to change.
Our templates are professionally structured starting points for UK businesses, not legal advice. For anything complex, unusual or high-value, have your final version checked by a solicitor.
Included in the pack
Starting a business
for every document in this category
Editable Microsoft Word files
Guidance notes in every document
Written for UK businesses
Download and keep
Need more than one category?
Documents All-Access gives you every category for 12 months for £295.
Compare options →Need it tailored?
We can adapt any template to your business, or write a document from scratch.
Talk to us →
