If you think this photo is confusing, then wait until you read about Trusts ...

In the last few tutorials in this series, we’ve taken a look at two of the four main business structures in Australia – the Sole Trader business structure, and the Partnership business structure. Now it’s time to look at another business structure – the Trust. The main benefit of operating a Trust is that it gives you flexibility in how income is distributed.  Read more…

In the last tutorial in this series, we looked at one of the four main business structures in Australia – the Sole Trader structure. Now it’s time to look at another business structure – the Partnership.  Read more…

In my last tutorial in this series, we looked at one of the first steps in starting a business – ensuring that you have the right licences. Now it’s time for the next major step – choosing a “business structure”.

A “business structure” refers to the way your business is structured legally. And – just like licencing – it’s ABSOLUTELY crucial that you choose a business structure and actually register it.

It’s amazing how many people either don’t get this right, or skip this step completely. Don’t be one of them. Getting this wrong could destroy your business, and it could destroy YOU. Read more…

For the time being, we will ignore any discussions of whether or not you should be starting a business. For the purposes of this tutorial, I assume that you have already made the decision to start a business – and now simply want some guidance as to some of the formal steps required in setting it up in Australia.

One of the first things you’ll need to consider is whether or not you need to obtain any specific licences to operate a business in your chosen industry. This is what we will cover in this particular tutorial. Read more…

Whenever discussing "business", it's compulsory to show a photo of several corporate-types sitting around a monitor pretending to be working ... I promise I will never include such a photo on this blog.

These days there are quite a number of resources (both online and offline) that can help you with the formal requirements of starting a business and ensuring you do it properly. There are a tonne of business books and government services that have been created for this purpose.

But personally, I often find some of these to be less helpful than they could be. They can be poorly written, overly complicated, or just plain OVERWHELMING. So my goal here is to simplify them, and create a “digestible” series of tutorials that get you on the way. This series includes the following tutorials: Read more…