ladybgemini said:
if you go to the nation business register you can register your business name. Cost me £70 for a year.
If you are a sole trader you do not need to register your business with Companies House.
HTH
Rachel
Not critising in anyway what you have done, but be aware of companies like this. The register which you sign up to is not a legal requirement.
A sole trader does not have to register there name anywhere, apart from the Inland Revenue for tax & ni purposes.
You can end up paying alot of money to one of these registration companies but they dont really do anything for you. Alot of the information they provide sole traders can be obtain from the Inland Revenue & Companies House.
The aim of the register is to make sure that you dont work under the same name as someone else in the same trade. Unfortuantly not every sole trader is on the register, it just tends to be the ones who have also regsitered. So the purpose of checking the name doesn't work as you are not checking against a full list.
If you want to check that you dont have the same name as a limited company, do this through companies house (where all limited companies are registered by law). For a small fee you can check, you may even be able to get basic information like this for free.
I have been a Chartered Accountant for 8 years and so many people get ripped off by these kind of registers. They dont provide a service for small traders. They look official and important but aren't.
Dont want to upset anyone, it just makes me angry when business pray on nervous people setting up new business.