[james cairns]

guys is it possible to bring 4 small companies together , operating under the one name, creating a bigger advertising and customer awareness, with each company with the same name but in brackets their district different, but creating a bigger image with vehicle wraps and large advertising, like a franchise company like chemdry,

just wondered  of peoples views on the pros and cons of this setup

jinky

[WavieDavie]

A few problems spring to mind Jim. You'd effectively be partners and the bother that entails.

Probably better each either changing their trading names to Bloggs Group Windows (west) (south) etc or having the corporate Bloggs Group livery on all vans with the rider "owner operated by Jinky" or similar.

Once you got the vans in the corporate livery you'd have an amazing photo for an article in the local press, and all four of you should drive in convoy every so often - now that WOULD be customer awareness!

As to Bloggs Group advertising - you'd need to keep a track of the value of jobs you got from it so everyone could pay their fair share.

Have you changed your accountant yet? Stuff like this is best thrown at them for all the ins and outs. Try the local business link or chamber of commerce.

[james cairns]

davie it was just an idea we have at the moment , I know there will be a lot of issues and would probably take a while to set it up right, so early stages at the moment

as a lot of items need to be cross referenced

jinky

[sair]

i do this with a close personal friend

we are both individual partnerships with our spouses and invoice seperatly on all jobs or contracts iam v.a.t he is not

but we are the same trading name have the same livery on all our vans share the same web site even have the same logos on all our uniformed staff.

it means we can give a larger corprate image with a lesser cost

we are individuals in our own right the work is divided when its comes in we quote on same jobs together go to seperate jobs to quote for the other, we work as a team to secure contracts and distribute evenly the contracts.

the element of trust is paramount: you must be able to completly trust the other parties or it wont work.

[james cairns]

sair trust was an item that I thought might need to be taken seroiusly

but the rewards from the impact could greatly benefit all

we thought of the same name seperate advertising for each area with the operator paying for his own advertising in that area and recieving the benefits of their own advertising, section the areas and pass on what comes in for each area, so no one enters the others area like chemdry etc

basically the same name with in bracket the operator or area

[abacus]

Hi jinky
I would work if you set up a ltd company  to protect your name  eg joe soap ltd you and your friends could then trade in your own names eg jinky t/a joe soap you could put the joe soap on your van the benifit is that you can stop others from using the name you could even use the ltd company to do the advertising and for buyiny power then sell the goods to yourselves thew limited co could then even do work that my be to bigg for each individual thus creating a company for large commercials your vans would all be signwritten the same  could be a good tool the problems start when people dont have the same idears or think others are trying to take over ect trust is a big thing and communication with each other.

regards grant

[George P]

if both companies are advertised as same then it could be seen as same for VAT purposes, we queried this previously with vat office as we wanted to set up seperate company for commercials and domestics but were told that if same or simillar line of business then they would both be classed as one, slightly different to your set up but it may be same, i wouldnt know but would hate to see someone caught out when not realising they were doing wrong? - dont get caught out