Guide to registering a home business in Singapore

Home-based business

Did you chance upon a business idea recently? Or maybe you’ve started a home business and thinking if you should make it official? To register your home business, you will need to know the business structure you have. Checkout Pilotoasia.com for more advice and help on these matters.

There are four main types:

  • Sole-proprietorship (one owner) or partnership (two or more owners)
  • Limited Partnership (LP)
  • Limited Liability Partnership (LLP)
  • Company

You can refer to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) website for more details on choosing a business structure.

#1: CHOOSE A NAME AND REGISTER IT

Once you’ve had your business nature sorted out, it’s time to choose a name. Most importantly, try to stick to these rules when deciding on a suitable name:

  • One that is unique to your business
  • Words used are non-vulgar, obscene, or offensive
  • Allowed by order of the Minister for Finance

After that, do a quick check via BizFile+ to see if your chosen name is available. If yes, go ahead and register your business name via BizFile+. This name application will cost 15 SGD.

BizFile

Image Credits: bizfile.gov.sg

During the application, you will need to identify the primary and secondary activities of your business. Choose the most relevant Singapore Standard Industrial Classification (SSIC) code corresponding to your business activity. You can search for the relevant SSIC code here.

#2: RECEIVE YOUR UNIQUE ENTITY NUMBER (UEN)

After successful registration with ACRA, you will receive your UEN.

The UEN is an identification number that is generated for a business entity. You should use it when communicating with government agencies. You don’t have to pay! It is issued free of charge.

#3: CHECK WITH THE HOUSING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD (HDB)
HDB

Image Credits: The Straits Times

To proceed from here, you should know what’s under the HDB home business schemes. There are two main types. Firstly, the Home-Based Small Scale Business Scheme. Secondly, the Home Office Scheme.

Home-Based Small Scale Business Scheme

To cut to the chase, you won’t require HDB’s approval under this scheme. As the name suggests, you will only be able to carry out small scale home-based activities. Also, it should only function as an add-on to your income. Here are some businesses that can be carried out:

  • Baking
  • Sewing services
  • Small group private tuition (three students or less at a time)
  • Work as a freelance artist, journalist, photographer, or writer
  • Hairdressing, beauty, manicure, or pedicure services (massage services are not allowed)

However, there are several guidelines to keep. This includes having no physical or paid advertising for the business. You must also abide by the regulations of authorities like the Singapore Food Agency (where applicable) and the Fire Safety and Shelter Department.

Home Office Scheme

You will need to apply for a license under this scheme. There are permissible and non-permissible businesses to take note. If your business falls under the non-permissible category, your flat can only be used for administrative business activities. In addition, clients or customers are not allowed to visit your home office.

Here’s a quick look at the categories extracted from HDB’s website:

Permissible businesses
  • Accountancy services
  • Architectural services
  • Consultancy services (e.g. business, engineering, IT/ management, education etc.)
  • Design/ advertising services
  • Transportation services
  • Estate agency
  • Insurance/ financial planning services
  • Technology-based/ knowledge-intensive business
  • Trading office
Non-permissible businesses
  • Beauty, hairdressing, or massage therapy services 
  • Business by building/ renovation contractors
  • Car trading business
  • Card/ palm reading or fortune-telling in any form
  • Commercial school (e.g. music school, language school, tuition centre, etc)
  • Conducting of dressmaking/ embroidery lessons
  • Courier business
  • Food catering/ restaurants
  • Funeral chapels or homes
  • Maid/ employment agency
  • Mausoleums
  • Ophthalmic dispensary/ pharmacy/ medical/ dental clinic or veterinary medicine
  • Repair of household appliances, electrical products, footwear, etc.
  • Sales/ marketing that involves conducting seminars/ talks for large numbers of customers
  • Shops and any form of retail activity, including pet shops
  • Manufacturing, preparation, or processing of products and/ or goods such as:
  • Food products
  • Beverages
  • Textiles
  • Apparel
  • Handbags
  • Footwear
  • Wood and/ or paper products
  • Pharmaceutical products
  • Soap
  • Food chemicals
  • Additives
  • Joss sticks
  • Camphor products
  • Glass
  • Plastic
  • Rubber products
  • Domestic appliances
  • Watches and clocks
  • Other related products
#4: APPLY FOR A LICENCE

If you meet the requirements, you may go ahead and apply for a licence via GoBusiness. Formerly known as LicenseOne, it is a one-stop business licensing portal.

GoBusiness website

Image Credits: licence1.business.gov.sg

Meanwhile, get ready your Singpass details and credit card as you will need to pay a non-refundable administration fee of 20 SGD. The licence is valid for five years and you can renew it via the same platform.

Please contact the GoBusiness helpdesk at 6774 1430 or email them at [email protected] if you require assistance.

Operating hours:

Monday to Friday: 8am to 8pm

Saturday: 8am to 2pm

Excluding Sunday and public holidays

#5: ADDITIONAL THINGS TO NOTE
Calculation

Image Credits: rikvin.com

Finally, before you go and get things done, remember that your business will be subject to income tax. To be specific, any income earned or received in Singapore from trade, business, profession, and / or vocation will be subject to income tax. For more information, head to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) website.

You may also register more than one business under the same address. For example, another family member of yours is also keen to apply for a home office… He or she may do so but must be an owner, authorized occupier, or tenant of the flat.

Now, good luck and get going!

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Trade Exhibits: Benefits, Pros, and Cons To Your Business

Trade exhibits are often inferred to as an opportunity to get a great deal of publicity for your business. Attending one can be beneficial for your brand, but along with the advantages are some disadvantages that you shouldn’t take for granted. Want to know what’s in store for you once you decide to join an exhibition? Keep on reading!

Here is a checklist of desirable benefits, plus pros and cons you need to weigh in. 

Pros

What are the things you can gain from signing up for a trade show? Find out below!

  • Direct Selling

Sell directly to a massive market. This is one of the main reasons why various businesses, whether big or small, prefer attending fairs and exhibits. Directly selling your product to the market eliminates the complications of online marketing or phone selling. 

  • Establishing Your Brand

Joining trade exhibits can efficiently market your brand. They pull in a highly concentrated market that’s interested in the product or service your business offers. Note that attendees won’t make an effort to visit the event if they’re not interested at all. 

So grab this opportunity to be noticed immediately. Stand out from the crowd! You can hire a show display manufacturer for guaranteed compelling booth displays.

  • Face Time

Trade shows allow you to meet potential customers face-to-face. You can engage in real-time conversation by providing your personal attention to them. Doing this instead of communicating through social media and phone calls will seem like you care, which benefits your company’s image

  • Build Relationships and Client Database

Attending trade shows is a great way to start building relationships. Personal interactions at exhibitions allow you to establish a more direct and effective relationship with your clients. This connection can be valuable in the future since it can contribute to your business growth and network. You can establish your client base by compiling email lists and business cards.

  • Launch Your New Products or Services

Use trade shows as your platform to unveil your brand’s new product and service. Doing so will create buzz and excitement for what is about to be revealed. You can provide onset product and service demos that’ll surely entice visitors, especially if you offer life-changing solutions.  

  • New Audience

Consider the new audience as your highly targeted market. What you need to remember is that they’re mainly interested in new products and services. They travel to trade fairs just to learn about new brands, products and services, and new solutions to their lifestyles. Hence, this is an excellent opportunity to launch a recently developed product and services.

  • Giveaway Opportunity

You can promote your business in trade shows by rewarding merchandise. You can provide freebies, giveaways, or swags that represents your brand. This is a major selling strategy not only to give the customers new things but to also enhance their awareness about your brand.

Cons

Let’s direct to the downsides, shall we?

  • Costly

Trade exhibits can incur high costs. Remember, you will not only pay for the booth space and displays. You also have to consider food, travel, and accommodation expenses for you and your staff.

  • Competition

There’s a likely chance you’ll be overshadowed by major competitors. Note that your huge competitors may also be exhibiting at the event. So you really need to exert effort on drawing the public’s attention to your stall. Yes, it’s not an easy job, but the benefits outweigh the cost.

  • Unguaranteed Results

Successful results aren’t guaranteed in trade shows. You need to also look at the side of possible low turnouts. Better do some research before deciding to exhibit at a specific event to avoid this. Also, come up with a plan on how you can attract visitors to your stalls.

Additional Benefits of Attending Trade Fairs

Here is a list of good results for your business once the advantages offset disadvantages:

  • Creates Brand Awareness and Lasting Impression

Getting into trade exhibits is your business’ gateway to raise awareness towards your target market. This will escalate your profile and generate brand awareness. More than that, you can create lasting impressions with the help of attractive booth stalls, fun activities with giveaways, and promotional items. 

  • High Turnovers

Exhibiting at trade shows can result in high sales performance and earn qualified leads. Apart from making your brand known, getting sales and potential leads are the second-best benefit you can gain in a trade show event. Coming up with substantial sales turnover and lead generation will mark your exhibit a success.  

  • Return of Investment

Some businesses tend to forget the saying, the higher the risk, the greater the return. Yes, participating in exhibition centers may be stressful and risky, but that’s actually a typical encounter if you aim for success. Being complacent is not a good thing. You have to know that complacency is a silent business killer. It’ll prevent your enterprise from pushing beyond to achieve exceptional success.

Summary

We hope our article has been helpful. Do you have questions or ideas you’d like to share about trade show events? Don’t shy away. We would love to hear from you!

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6 Reasons to Hire a Professional Property Manager

While managing your property by yourself may seem to spare some money, it is wise to weigh all the pros and cons.  You might realize that having a property manager is actually a worthy investment that could save you more money.

Although a professional property manager requires a salary, hiring one maximizes the profits you can get from your property.

Besides, you won’t have to invest much of your time struggling to handle your property. After all, you need to have peace of mind and reduce the headaches of managing your property.

This article analyzes the 6 reasons why you should hire a property manager:

  1.  Bringing Better Tenants and Managing Them

Most professional property managers know much about tenants’ market. Thus, they will guide you based on their knowledge to ensure that you get the right tenants.

They bring in good tenants to your rentals, and they also screen new tenants thoroughly for security purposes. Knowing that your tenants are safe and better will definitely give you peace of mind.

Besides, having good tenants is critical in maximizing earnings because they look after your property and tend to stay longer. Your rentals will not have long vacancy periods.

When it comes to handling tenants, property managers know how to deal with them and cater to all the tenants-owner relationship aspects.

  1. They Will Handle All Paperwork and Bills

Property management involves a lot of paperwork, including keeping records about your tenants and property bills payments. Being a property owner, you need an expert who can help you with these tasks.

Your property manager will ensure that all the paperwork is done effectively, in time. They will also ensure that you benefit from tax reliefs and allowances.

  1. You Don’t Want Much Stress

Your professional property manager will find and assemble the right team, including architects and agents, to work in your real estate.

This will enhance property management efficiency, leaving you with less or no stress about your property development.

You will also have enough personal time to deal with other things like your property’s legal matters.

Should you decide to get an expert to manage your property, try a property developer from Frasers property. It will cost you only a few dollars.

  1. Property Maintenance and Inspection

Whether you live near or in your rentals, maintaining a property can be a challenging task. But when you have a professional property manager, things get more comfortable as they can organize all the maintenance.

They will maintain and inspect all the items in your real estate, thus ensuring that tenants take good care of your assets but not destroy them.

  1. Finding the Right Rental Rates

You may decide to go round to see the amount of money other landlords are charging, but this is not a great way to find the right rental charges.

When you hire a good property manager, they will help you to set the right rental rates. They know how to carry out thorough research in the market to ensure that you set the highest possible rental rates.

This will guarantee you maximum returns and still reduces vacancy rates.

  1. Finding Market for Your Property

With a lot of experience in this industry, professional property managers are excellent at advertising your property. They know best about property marketing forums, and this is a grand advantage to your rentals.

When it’s time to sell your property, your property manager will give you the right guidance.

If you are looking for ways to maximize your property’s profits, hiring a professional property manager could be all you need. Make up your mind to hire a property manager today!

 

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Ron Bauer on the Importance of Reading Throughout All Stages of Life

Some Reasons Why Consistent, Lifelong Readers Tend to be Successful

Many factors contribute to a person’s degree of success in life. Some of the more influential ones are beyond an individual’s control, such as genetics, upbringing, or economic circumstances. Some factors, however, are well within an individual’s control—for example, abstaining from heavy substance use such as drugs and alcohol, or anything behavioral in nature. One of these behavioral factors is reading, specifically books. Lately, there has been a lot of research focused on the impact of reading in relation to an individual’s degree of success, and it turns out there’s a significant correlation. Consistent, lifelong readers tend to be more successful in virtually every aspect of life. Readers tend to live longer, earn more money, and have more fulfilling relationships. Not only that but reading books bestows different types of positive effects depending on a person’s stage in life. As an avid reader, Ron Bauer highlights the various benefits of reading.

Reading as a Child

The human mind is the most susceptible to new information when it is young. This is why experts have always recommended reading to children through infancy. It helps them to recognize sounds, acquaints them with language, and expands their understanding of the world as well as vocabulary.  Once old enough, encouraging a child to read for themselves as early as possible is incredibly important. Reading provides children with many benefits, both tangible and intangible. On the tangible side of things, it accelerates communication skills, increases vocabulary, and aids in the mastery of spelling, syntax, and grammar. All that is without even mentioning the volumes of facts and raw knowledge that reading imparts. On the intangible side of things, it broadens the imagination and expands comprehension and retention. In this developmentally critical stage of life, the practice of consistent, engaged reading sets a child up for a much easier time succeeding in the years ahead.

Reading as a Young Adult

Conventional wisdom is that academic success in secondary and post-secondary school is a prime predictor for success in later stages of life. Those who do well in high school, college, and university tend to land higher-paying jobs and have access to more opportunities for advancement. The link between active, engaged reading and academic success has long been established, but there is an ever-mounting body of evidence to suggest that reading cultivates empathy, and, hence, facilitates social skills, and can even play a positive role in forming healthy romantic relationships. As young adults navigate the crucial life milestones of taking exams, creating friend networks, and engaging in first romances, having a lifetime of book reading behind them will assist in many meaningful ways.

Reading as an Adult in the Prime of Life

As an individual grows and ages, the benefits of consistent reading continue to accrue and coalesce. Some become more apparent at different stages in life. By the time a person reaches the prime of their life—roughly the ages spanning twenty-five to sixty-five years of age—typically, a career is adopted, a family is started, and large financial decisions are made. It is in this stage when a few of the overarching benefits of reading become truly valuable; those of improved analytic and planning abilities. It cannot be understated how useful the skills of planning and analysis are in the creation of a successful professional and personal life—they touch every facet. According to Ron Bauer, reading can even have a favorable impact on public speaking, which has an irritating habit of presenting itself as a necessity during this stage of life, whether an individual wants it to or not.

Another benefit of consistent reading that doesn’t seem to garner very much attention is that it reduces stress levels. Immersing oneself in a good book to relax deeply, although helpful at any age, is probably at its most effective when a person finds themselves surrounded by the many pressures of responsible adulthood.

Reading as Senior Citizen

As an individual enters their sunset years, reading books acts not only as a source of continuing education and leisure, it helps to maintain mental health in a way very few other activities do. Consistent and engaged reading keeps the mind active and works to stave off conditions that mainly afflict the elderly, such as cognitive decline and dementia. There are some strong evidence that the simple act of reading a book can work to lower blood pressure, as well.

Regardless of gender, race, creed, orientation, or economic circumstance, one quality that the vast majority of successful people share is a consistent and lifelong appreciation for reading books. It’s actually quite remarkable how universal this trait is among those who describe themselves as content with their personal lives and comfortable with their financial status. The conclusion is crystal clear: the regular and lifelong practice of reading books isn’t just good for people, it’s good for people in a virtually uncountable number of ways. And it is, by all available measures, a prime indicator of an individual’s likelihood for success in life.

 

 

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5 Must-Read Zoom Tips And Tricks

If you have been working from home during the Circuit Breaker period, you have probably used Zoom more than you know. In fact, we have been using Zoom to educate our preschool students. It is one of the leading video conferencing software applications on the market.

Zoom allows you to virtually interact with other people when in-person meetings and classes are not possible. This makes telecommunication easier and more convenient. It has essential features that are useful for small-scale and large-scale businesses. Moreover, it is a firm favorite with individuals who like to catch up with their friends. Interestingly, there was a Singaporean couple who ushered their wedding through Zoom. About 400 participants were in their Zoom room!

Zoom’s main features include one-on-one meetings, group conferences, and screen sharing. One-on-one meetings can be accomplished within unlimited time even with a free plan. Group video conferences, on the other hand, can last you up to 40 minutes with a free plan. Group video conferences can hold up to 100 participants for a free plan and 500 participants for a paid plan.

Lastly, my favorite Zoom feature is the screen sharing. It allows the participants to see what you can see. It is a helpful tool to have when teaching children.

#1: ZOOM CAN BE ACCESSED THRU BROWSER

Whether you have the Zoom app or not, you can access Zoom through the browser. For instance, you can join a meeting directly by using a Zoom web client link that looks something like this: zoom.us/wc/join/your-meeting-id.

#2: ZOOM HAS BROWSER EXTENSIONS

You can quickly schedule or start a Zoom meeting by adding a browser extension. There is a Zoom Chrome extension and Zoom Firefox add-on that lets you schedule a Zoom meeting via Google Calendar. The extension lets you schedule a meeting for a later time with all information about the meeting being sent via Google Calendar to make it easy for participants to join.

#3: ZOOM ENABLES YOU TO HIDE YOUR CLUTTER

If you are wondering how you can clean your room in a snap, stop worrying. Zoom’s virtual background lets you easily hide the flaws of your space. It enables you to assign a photograph that can best represent your style. Participants will not be confused or distracted by your messy room. Zoom swaps out your live background for preset ones like a stunning view of the Golden Gate Bridge or a view of outer space.

#4: ZOOM CAN TOUCH UP YOUR APPEARANCE

You do not need to spend countless hours in your vanity! Zoom can edit your appearance without putting any makeup on. Take a quick tour of the settings, and you will find “touch up my appearance”. This softening effect can hide small spots and zits that you may have on your face.

#5: ZOOM ALLOWS YOU TO SPLIT THE MEETING ROOM

When it comes to meetings, bigger is not always better. To avoid muting all the audio, the host can split a large meeting room into breakout rooms. This feature is not enabled by default. In fact, it requires you to access advanced settings. To enable it you must go to: Settings > General > View More Settings > In Meeting (Advanced) > Breakout Room.

Image Credits: unsplash.com

May these tips and tricks help you have the best Zoom hangout ever! 🙂

Sources: 1 & 2

 

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