How to start an Australian business. And register a .com.au domain name.
Starting a new business can be daunting and confusing period of time.
As you become more invested and dedicated to establishing your new enterprise generally people can become overwhelmed with the complexity of many different terms.
It can also become more stressful when you learn new things such as the high failure rate of new businesses.
Establishing a new business defiantly can be very difficult and often scary. But many of these processes are actually quite streamlined and simple tasks to complete. You have two options here. You can pay someone to setup and establish your new business and intellectual assets for you. Or you can simply do this yourself by following the steps and guidelines published here on the internet.
Here we will outline some of the basic steps you can complete on your own and start the ball rolling.
The first step is obvious. You’re going to want to name your business. It is perfectly legal to name your business and even start trading with a chosen name without making any kind of registrations at all.
It only becomes law to register your business if you start earning over a certain amount of money that is set out by the Australian government.
You might also want to start building and creating a website for your new startup company. The first step here is to register a new internet domain name. The domain name will be the address of your new website.
If you wish to register a domain name with the extension .com.au or net.au this is available to Australian residents only. The one requirement you must have before you can register your own Australian domain name is what’s called an ABN number. This stands for Australian business number. You can apply for an ABN number free in under 20 minutes. The only other requirement you will need to meet in order to register an ABN number as a sold trader is a TFN. (Otherwise known as a tax file number)
We have provided you with the reference link here to register your ABN. We highly recommend you register at the government address provided. We stress this because we want you to be aware there are many company’s hanging around on the internet who claim to be a great place to register your ABN and change you money for something you simply don’t have to pay for. To register your own ABN number as a soul trader is completely free and always will be.
Once you have completed this process and you have been assigned with your new ABN number. You now qualify to register your own Australian .com.au domain name.
When choosing your new internet address. We recommend that you keep your internet domain name as short as possible. Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo are not very fond of longer domains. A shorter name will also make it easier for your new potential or existing customers to remember your internet address. Also when deciding what your new Australian domain name is going to be. Keep in mind a factor called keywords. To explain this in slightly more detail. Try to use the same words in your domain name that you think searching internet users would type into the search engines to find you. This will help you greatly in the long run when you start learning about more complex subjects such as search engine optimisation. We won’t get into that right now as we are sticking to the basics for the purpose of you learning how to start your new business.
Once you have factored in what you feel would be the best internet address for your new company. The next step is to conduct a domain name search. The primary reason we conduct a domain name search is to establish if the name you have chosen has not already been registered. In the unfortunate even the name you wish to register has already been taken. You have three options.
The first option is to see if the alternative .net.au address is free. If you thought of a .com.au address and this has been taken. You have the option to use the .net.au variation. Keep in mind this could confuse people.
The reason people can become confused is they might go to the .com.au address version of your name instead of your .net.au address. And people may use the service from the .com.au address instead of your net.au page.
If the .net.au domain has also been registered. The second option is to choose a new internet name. We strongly suggest that even though it is perfectly allowed. Refrain from using a hyphen in your name. These are what we regard as non-search engine friendly domain names.
Even though you are free to register a name with a hyphen in it. This is something we don’t recommend.
The third option is to register the common international .com domain extention. Which does not require you to have an ABN number because the rules and regulations for other international extentions are different from the Australian registry.
Upon deciding your chosen name, and it’s available to be registered. You can then start the process of following through with your chosen domain name registrar’s registration process. The minimum period of time you can register a .com.au or .net.au address is two years. As opposed to the international .com extension which has an initial registration period of one year. At this point it’s also worth noting. If you wish to register the common standard .com addresses. You do not actually require an ABN number as this extension comes under a different international rule set.
Now that you have registered your domain name you might be thinking what do I need to do next. Well the fact is you don’t need to do anything until you are ready. The next step would to contact a web developer to design and build your new website for you. Or you could build your new website yourself with the many online website internet website builders. We recommend using wordpress as this is an excellent content management system. These can be very helpful because you don’t need to be a professional and you can choose from many pre made templates. Another other thing you will also need is a web hosting account. The web hosting account is where the files of your website will be stored. Think of your domain name as your address. And the web hosting account as the house with all your contents. Note that when you register your internet domain name. You will not need to buy a monthly web hosting account until you are ready to start building your actual website.
We hope that your new business becomes successful. In the event that your business takes off and starts generating a certain level on income and you start to exceed monetary thresholds set out by the Australian government. You will then need to head back over to the Australian government website and register yourself or your company for GST (General sales tax). To understand what these thresholds are we recommend you seek the advice and services of an accounting firm. At this point, it is highly recommended that you also now register your company’s name which can also be done on the Australian Government website. There is a big difference between an ABN number and ACN number (Australian Company Number)
Although registering an ACN is something you only need to do if you want to protect your company’s name and intellectual property. This is something small business owners never find themselves needing to do due to the size of the company and low level of direct competition.
However, if your company starts to grow is in size and starts to attract high levels of attention. The recommendation is to also register an Australian Company Number. (ACN)
ABN (Australian Business Number) Registered with the Australian Government
ACN (Australian Company Number) Registered with the Australian Government
TFN (Tax File Number) Registered with the Australian Government
GST (General Sales Tax)
Domain Name (The name of your company internet address) Registered with your domain registrar
Web Hosting (The files where your company web page is located) Same place as your domain registrar