Do It Yourself Limited Liability Company Formation

Starting a limited liability company in the UK requires the submission to Company House forms, 10 and 12, plus a memorandum and articles of association to complete the company formation and registration.

Companies House Form 10

First directors and secretary and intended situation of registered office

Company formation Form 10 is where the details of the first director(s), company secretary and the proposed registered address of the proposed limited liability company are recorded. Details required include the names and addresses of the officers and in respect of directors the date of birth, occupation and details of other directorships held within the last five years.

Before submitting the registration forms visit the Companies House website and carry out a name check to ensure the name is suitable and available. Names similar to existing companies are unsuitable as are any names likely to cause offence. On form 10 enter the proposed limited liability company name in full including Limited as the last word and the proposed registered office.

A company registered office is the address where Companies House can send letters to the limited liability company after the company formation. Enter the names and addresses of the Company Secretary, and the Directors in alphabetical order. Companies House reject registrations with invalid addresses. It is recommended that all addresses and postcodes are double checked before submission on the royal mail site which is a check Companies House will also carry out.

Form 10 must be signed and dated by each officer and each subscriber to the Memorandum of Association or by an agent on behalf of all the subscribers to the Memorandum of Association.

Companies House Form 12

Declaration on application for registration

Company formation Form 12 is a statutory declaration that all legal requirements relating to the incorporation of the company has been complied with. This declaration can be signed by a solicitor engaged in the formation of the Company or a person named as director or secretary on form 10 under section 10 of the Companies Act 1985.

The Declarant signature on form 12 has to be signed in front of and confirmed by a Commissioner for Oaths, Notary Public, Justice of the Peace or Solicitor. The date and signing of form 12 must be after all the other documents are signed and dated as form 12 is a legal declaration that the details being submitted are true. The form must clearly show if a person has signed on behalf of a corporate director. If it appears that the person who signed is not a director, this will cause delay.

Memorandum of Association

Every company formation requires a Memorandum of Association which is the record of the limited liability company name, where the registered office is situated and the objects of the limited company. The memorandum of association objects clause can be as simple as to carry on as a general commercial company. On the first page of the Memorandum of Association enter the Company Name.

The Memorandum of Association includes the number of shares being issued which can be any number the subscribers feel appropriate. On the final page enter the name and addresses of the subscribers to the Memorandum. These are the persons who are taking up the first shares in the company. The number of shares issued to each subscriber can be set at one share each. This can be changed to whatever arrangement is required provided the total number issued is less than the total number of shares.

The company's memorandum delivered to the Registrar must be signed by each subscriber in front of a witness who must attest the signature. Also enter the name and address of the witness to the subscribers who has signed Memorandum of Association. This witness can be any third party able to witness and confirm the signatures are correct.

Articles of Association

The standard Table A, Articles of Association, is a statutory document that governs the internal affairs of the company and it is recommended that Table A is adopted in its entirety when starting a limited liability company.

If the Articles of Association is unmodified then it is not strictly necessary to send this document with the documents for registration. However if the Articles of Association are not submitted a letter has to be sent with the application stating that Table A without modification is being adopted. It is easier to simply send the unmodified Table A. If Table A is adopted without modification at least two directors must be appointed

If the company will have only one director then Table A should be modified to reflect this and submitted with the other registration documents. The articles of association delivered to the Registrar must be signed by each subscriber of the proposed limited liability company in front of a witness who must attest the signature.

Submitting the documents for registration

When Forms 10 and 12 and the Memorandum of Association have been completed and checked they should be posted to Companies House with the company registration fee to register the new limited liability company. The standard limited liability company registration fee is currently 20 pounds, 2007

A limited company registration is normally completed within 7 to 10 days when the Certificate of Incorporation will be sent to the Company registered office. Same day incorporation is possible at a registration fee of 50 pounds. If the express same day service is required the envelope should be marked for the attention of New Companies Section and Same Day Incorporation.

How to Make the Best Butter Cream Icing That Gives a Professional Taste

How many times have you looked forward to the dessert at a restaurant instead of the main course? With there being new dishes introduced into the "sweet dish" industry, there is no doubt that more people are interested in knowing the various recipes that will allow them to make the same dishes at home. One such dish is butter cream icing. It isn't so much of a sweet dish, but is more the "icing on the cake". There has been a lot of demand on the internet for the best butter cream icing recipe. Seeing that it can nearly be used in any sort of sweet dish, there is no surprise that many people are after the recipe. There are already many websites online that are offering a number of different recipes.

Seeing that there are so many butter cream icing recipes available online, it is quite difficult to decide which one to go with. You could try finding a cook book that gave you a recipe; however the only problem with that is that the recipe would be quite common. I'm sure there have been times where you have tasted a dessert that had a butter cream icing and wondered what made it so better than the others that you have tried. The secret lies within the recipe that they have used. Every well known dessert bakery is known to use the basic butter cream icing recipe. So you might ask how it tastes different. Well even though they use the basic recipe, they are known to add a few of their own "special touches" which makes all the difference.

If you are in search of making the best dessert with butter cream icing then there is one thing that you have to remember. When making the recipe, make sure you experiment a bit to give it your own special touch. Obviously you won't expect your very first custom recipe to be the best that you can make to your ability, however it will be a start. Take a bit of time to choose the ingredients that you want to use in your recipe. Spending a bit of time and getting your ingredients right can make all the difference of making an ordinary or special butter cream icing.

There are many websites online that are offering a complete butter cream icing recipe online. Some are simply posted by random bloggers that have never stepped foot into a kitchen themselves. Ideally you want to be looking for those recipes that have been written by well known chefs. Most chefs are known to publicize some of their recipes. It may take a bit of time finding the right recipe; however the wait will be worth it. There are wonders that one can create with butter cream icing.

The A.C.E.S. Model Of Exceptional Customer Service

The A.C.E.S. model of exceptional customer service is a simple pneumonic and diagnostic tool that will help you evaluate your company's ability to deliver service to the customer. Once you have your diagnosis, you then know where to apply corrective measures if needed.

A.C.E.S. helps employees focus on the three component parts of customer service. This model complements my 4 (and 7) laws of exceptional customer service.

The ACES model is a simple formula Attitude + Competence + Empowerment = (exceptional) Service

The first component, Attitude, contains the attitudes and beliefs that are required to provide excellent customer service. These include the basic imperative of providing service to others (as oppose to oneself), of improving the customer's condition, that problems are opportunities to excel, that positive energy and good humor are essential, and so on. The attitude factor can be assessed at macro and micro levels including: the corporate culture, the overall workforce, the general tendency of a given person, or the specific communications during an interaction.

The second component is Competence. A positive attitude is only a consolation prize when competence is low. Many decades ago I was a new waiter at an upscale restaurant. A patron asked me if there was mayonnaise in the Caesar salad dressing. I checked with the chef and was told there was no mayonnaise in the dressing. He ordered it and proceeded to have a tremendous allergic reaction. I had a great attitude, but I was less than fully competent. The dressing was made from scratch. No mayonnaise was added, but it was made with the same ingredients, eggs and oil! A competent food server would have known better. For that matter the chef should have known better as well.

Employee competence is largely derived from intimate knowledge with all aspects of the product and/or services being offered. I live in Pennsylvania where you can only buy wine in state-owned liquor stores. While it has gotten somewhat better in recent years, most sales people in these stores could not describe the difference between a Chardonnay and Ripple! I therefore do most of my wine shopping in another state.

In certain jobs, competence in the job also requires the ability to handle people. I was on a USAirways flight that was fully booked. A man a few rows behind was angrily attempting to jam his suitcase into the overhead bin. He was so aggressive, that it looked like he was going to destroy the door. The other passengers watching him began to look a little nervous. The flight attendant arrived and, in the most perfect tone of voice (combining humor and boundary setting) said, "Are you trying to break my airplane?" The man immediately stopped and allowed her to take care of his suitcase. Not wanting to miss an opportunity at friendly jousting with such an obviously talented person, I said, "Excuse me, but are your planes that easy to break?" She smiled and retorted, "Don't worry honey. They give us lots of duct tape. You can use duct tape for everything." (short pause) They even use it at the Miss America Pageant." Now THAT is competence in handling people.

On a more macro level, it is important that the systems and procedures of a company are competently designed to provide the exceptional service. Netflix is an example of an incredibly competent system for renting DVDs. You do not have to leave your house. They come in the mail they are returned in the mail. If there is any problem, you simply contact Netflix on-line and it is taken care of (at their expense). The system is designed so that the incentive to get the most for your money actually supports the efficient returning of the DVDs.

The final component of A.C.E.S. is Empowerment. Generally this is a structural issue within the company. Employees must be empowered in terms of proper training as well as actual power to solve problems. The main question to answer here is, in what ways are employees able to resolve problems on the spot so that the customer feels like his or her needs come first (Dr Bob's 2nd law of exceptional customer service). Any employee at the Ritz Carlton is empowered to spend up to $2500 to solve a guest's problems. The result is that a guest feels like he or she is a queen.

As shown in the diagram on the right, there three possible situations where a person or company has only one quality. There are three possible intersections of two qualities, and one point where all three qualities intersect. The single quality points are self-explanatory. So, I will not describe them here. At intersection 1 we have a good attitude plus competence, but not empowerment. Here an employee knows how to do something and has a great attitude, but somehow is not empowered to do it. This situation can exist when there is a poor manager in charge of competent, motivated people. It is often depicted in movies of the hero who wants to do it, can do it, but is prevented from doing it by the system. In real life, this is the situation we have all faced when a service person says, "You are completely right, this is not fair, but the computer system will not let me fix your problem for you." If it is a chronic problem, people in position 1 generally become demoralized. Another scenario is more personal. An employee may not be assertive (self-empowered) enough or willing to take an appropriate risk, even if he or she really does have the competence and authority to do so.

Position 2 is a situation where an employee has a great attitude and the system actually does empower him or her, but the employee is not sufficiently competent. My recent tech support call to Dell is a good example. The tech had a wonderfully pleasant attitude and was empowered with wealth of technical resources close at hand. But he could not fix my problem in a timely manner. In the end, it took 2 hours to solve a problem that a more competent person could have solved in 20 minutes . I have been a loyal customer of Dell largely because of their tech support, but their competence is deteriorating, and I am beginning to re-evaluate this position.

If the employee is new, it may just be a matter of training. If training has been supplied and the employee is not becoming more competent, it is most likely a poor fit with the job.

Position 3 is common with people who are often labeled as having low emotional intelligence. In fiction, this is often the crotchety engineer who can fix anything, just keep him away from other people. A person who is often in this position may not be the most appropriate person for customer service. This type of person may benefit from personal coaching to help shift his or her attitude about the importance of Attitude. When someone is stressed and having a "bad day" they are often in position 3 for a brief period of time.

On a macro level, position 3 describes a company that values competence and empowers its people to succeed, but does not value customer service enough for people to experience Exceptional Customer Service. Now many companies talk about the importance of customer service, but go no further than platitudes. A colleague of mine worked at a major metropolitan hospital. There were many signs around the building touting the importance of the patient and the how the hospital was committed to delivering the highest quality of service. Unfortunately this was often an empty promise. For instance, on the oncology unit the doctors were rarely forthright with patients. Nurses had to go around doctors' backs to communicate more openly with patients and family. There was little teamwork and so on. Hardly the state-of-the-art in care.

Finally only at position 4 do we really attain high quality customer service. On a personal level, each individual must empower themselves to cultivate a positive attitude of service and competence. Empowerment also means being willing to take a few judicious risks. The flight attendant I mentioned earlier demonstrated a personal use of all three dimensions.

At the macro level, position 4 describes an organization with a true cultural attitude of service-to-others. It often requires significant corporate courage to move into this level. It requires facing the truth about how the organization is not implementing important values. IT requires spending near term money for longer term goals. The organization makes sure its staff and systems have the competence to act on the attitude, and that people are actually empowered to use their competence. Furthermore, the interaction effect of the convergence of these factors is highly self-reinforcing. Working in such an environment cultivates an even more positive attitude. Employees are motivated from within. Company morale is high. Companies that inculcate and empower their employees usually raise the bar of competence to higher and higher levels. Companies that would be examples of this are Disney World Theme Parks, Costco, and Enterprise rental car (see my article on comparing and contrasting recent experiences with Enterprise and Sears)

If customer service levels are not at the desired goals, the A.C.E.S. analysis provides a rapid way to zero in on the problem. You can ask yourself, "Where am I on this chart most of the time?" Do I need to update my competence in something? Have i gotten so focused on making the sale to make money that I am no longer focusing on the customer relationship? Do I feel dis-empowered to provide great service. The manager or leader can ask, "Where is my sales force most of the time?" What has changed in the ACES model that accounts for the drop in customer service in the XYZ department? Is there a change in the market place so that people are no longer competent? Is there a new manager that is dis-empowering people? Did we have a huge turnover of people so that now 34% of the department has not had the company training? Do we talk about an attitude of taking excellent care of our customers, but fail to take excellent care of our employees so the corporate attitude of excellence of customer service is not manifested in its employment practices? Customer Service is not rocket science. But, it is not necessarily easy to execute at high levels. It takes courage and honesty to look at where you are. And, once you know where the problem is you are halfway to a solution.

PowerPoint Tip - Create Section Markers

A complex presentation may be divided into several sections. In order to help your audience understand where the current slide sits in the whole structure, you can create section markers that appear throughout the presentation. Each slide displays all of the section names, but the current section is bold, or a different color, so that the audience always knows which section you're currently discussing.

I was recently asked how to create such a presentation, and here is the technique I used:

1. Add separate text boxes at the bottom, one for each topic. Use a color that's readable but not too obvious. Gray works well on a white background. Make sure they'll fit well on every slide and adjust as necessary.

2. Copy the text boxes to all of the section slides, that is, the 1st slide of each section.

3. For the 1st section, add animation to the first section name, choosing Emphasis>Change Font Color, and change it to black or another color that will stand out without being distracting. Use the With Previous start, so that the animation occurs when the slide is displayed. Set the speed to Very Fast. Another animation you could use is Bold Reveal.

Note: An alternative is to just bold the word for each section.

4. Copy the text boxes to the other slides in that section -- the animation will come along.

5. Go to the second section, and add the same animation to that section's name, with the same settings. Copy that to the other slides in the second section.

6. Continue until you've finished the entire presentation.

Klim Snow Gear - A Brand You Can Trust

Thousands of companies manufacturing snowboard out fits. But Klim snow, a brand one can trust. It produces several types of snow gears but among them klim snow gear's, snow gloves, snow bibs are very popular.

What does one tries to find out while choosing a snow gear? Definitely, the answer is a popular brand, which provides maximum warmth, possessing all rounder quality, a bit different style from other snow gears and the most important thing is always a good deal is that which suits to your budget.

These gear possesses all those above mentioned quality for example the latest fashion in snow jacket is the convergent jacket. They support an interior ipod pocket and a goggle pocket, and the out side of this jacket is fully designed with HellyTech fabric, it has an adjustable hood and pit vents.

The new fly racing switch race Klim snow gloves are totally made with water resistant neoprene. It is suitable for winter moto, enduro, snowmobile and watercraft racing. It is totally Lycra laminated neoprene back and fingers. Adjustable wrist closure And it is warm and flexible.

The snow boots are designed with adjustable double Velcro straps for secure fit and easy adjustment, Titanium Gel mid sole, Pro-tech microfiber with Diamond Lite winter proof oz insulation and available in all youth sizes.

The pull over 1 piece tube design helmets extends to upper chest and it protects lower face, neck and upper chest from the cold wind. The Gore Wind stopper fleece eliminates wind chill. It is totally water resistant, and specially made with all weather material.

With the all above mentioned quality Klim snow gear is proves that it is the best snow gear. So it is advisable that Klim snow gear a brand you can trust.

The End of Overeating - Review

The End of Overeating is a book written by Dr. David Kessler former head of the FDA. The book tries to find out the real cause of the ever growing appetite of people in America as it is quite clear that people today eat a lot more than they used to in years before.

Through his own weakness with some foods and his in depth knowledge of how the food industry works, Dr. Kessler set out on a journey which encompassed talking with people with eating problems, food scientists, as well as going over relevant research.

The conclusion he came too is that overeating is actually caused or at least made worse by the sort of food we eat, the food that has become more common in recent years. It isn't sugar or salt or any other single ingredient of food which is making us addicted to food but a combination of sugar-fat-salt which is actually tapping into our thought processes and creating an addictive desire for more and more food.

This, in Dr. Kessler's opinion is what is making us eat far after we're full.

The End of Overeating is an interesting book with a fresh viewpoint. The book is easy to read despite being a bit repetetive at times. It has become quite popular with many readers although some say it doesn't really say anything that isn't already known.

The one big problem with the book is that despite Dr. Kessler's attempt to help people take real action to stop overeating, the advice isn't topnotch and again, it is mostly stuff you've heard or may have tried.

I do recommend this book but don't expect it to work miracles along or to help you stop overeating forever.