1. Guideline – Application for a Business Name
2. Guideline – Approval of a Business Name

So, if you are thinking about registering a business (BK, this is for you la), go get the two guidelines above and run through them a bit.

Lets move on with the show. I now have an approved business name. I still have not registered my business yet. To do that, I need to submit “Form A”, which, at the SSM, are only given to those who have received a business name approval certificate. Of course, I had to enter into the que once again. In Part I, I entered the que for like 3 times, remember.. This time, to get my hands on the “Form A”. Luckily, the que was not very long. Less than 5 minutes later, an empty “Form A” was in my hands to be filled up.

Form A is a pretty straight forward form. Filling it up was not a problem. You need not worry about making mistakes. If you do make mistakes, just cancel it off on the form itself. They are not too picky about scratches and whatnots on the form. My form had a lot of scratches and cancellations on it, especially on the Type of Business Section – I had a bout with a few business types, could not decide how to really put them down in writing on the form. Oh yes, one thing to note, on the Branch Information page, if you don’t have any branches, just leave it blank. I got mine scratched off by one of the officer at the Information Counter.

Yes, I recommend that the officers at the Information Counter are utilized. Ask them to go through your Form A, after you’ve filled it in, to verify if there are any missing information. Do this before queuing up to get a number for Form A processing – better be safe than sorry. So, after like 15 minutes of form filling and verification at the Information Counter, I realized, a photocopy of MyKad is required along with the Form A submission. Not too worry. There are many such facilities just outside the SSM front door. 5 minutes later, I got into the que once again, to get a number.

Received a number, and was told to wait once again. This time around, there were like 50 people in front of me. It was already like 11:45 am. It’s a Friday. So, I waited till 12:00pm. The numbers were moving rather slowly. Perhaps, because only a handful of counters were opened. Lunch time, probably. I decided that I should come back later after Friday prayers. That was when I asked the Information Counter Officer if I could continue my registration online. Apparently, once I’ve started the process manually, it needs to be completed manually. Oh well.. I queued up once again, to get another number. Hoping that the new number will be in range when I come back after Friday prayers.

When I arrived, later in the afternoon, I had to once again take a new number. Apparently, the number moved very fast during my absence. Many went off for Friday prayers, perhaps. This time around, there were only like 15 people in front of me. So, after like 30 minutes, I get to submit my Form A for processing. Submission was pretty quick. The officer went through the form briefly, corrected a few entries (I entered one field in the Type of Business Section in English. The form needs to be filled up in Bahasa Malaysia). This is also the point where payment is made. A typical Business Registration costs RM60.00.

Once everything has been checked and payment made, the officer told me that processing time will take about one hour. After which, I can just go over to the pick up counter and pick up my Business Registration Certificate. So, I now have an hour to spend. How should I spend this hour? Hmmmm, there’s this reflexology shop just around the corner. Thus, that’s where I spent 45 minutes of the time. At least I get to sit down and get my feet massaged at the same time. Lovely…

Oh yes, just before I went out to get some foot massage, I stumbled upon the Butterfingers. They were there to register a company – Butterworld something.. Chatted a bit with them. Friendly bunch of guys, them Butter fellas.

After my foot massage, I headed over to the pick up counter. No number was given for picking up the certificate. People were just queuing up at the counter with their receipts (not really a que, though). After a few minutes of pushing and shoving, I finally managed to hand the officer my receipts. Thus, at about 5:15pm, after going through numerous queues, I finally got my hands on my Business Registration Certificate.

So there you go. My personal experience in registering a business. I do hope that this experience of mine will be helpful for those of you who has intentions to register a business. At the very least, I hope it prepares you mentally for the whole waiting process.

Here’s a tip for those thinking of going to register on your own over the counter. Do it online. How? I’ll cover that in another post. If you can’t wait, I think there should be some information about it over at the SSM web site. Head on over there and check it out.

Finally, if this series have been too confusing for you. You might want to read this Procedure Guidelines for Registration of a Business, instead. Have fun..

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It was my first attempt at business registration. Didn’t know what to expect. Had no idea at all what it takes to register a business on your own. I did go through a number of third party online regisration companies. However, their rates were simply too expensive. Some even had it at RM300. It’s not the price that drove me away from them, (well, yes, perhaps a little bit laa. SSM charges only RM60). However, the main reason I didn’t go with these online registration companies was because I wanted to personally experience the effort required to register a business.

How to register a business? So, here I am about to share with you my personal experience in business registration. Go get yourselves a cup of coffee. This will take a while.

The process of registering a business/company actually starts even before you take your first step to the Registrar of Business (Registrar). Before you make your move, you should first prepare at least three names. Like it or not, you must have three names, otherwise you will not be able to get a number for the name checking stage.

Business name, are there rules about names? Yes. The name must have at least two words. So a name like “ABC” will not do. Neither is “ABC DEF” although it’s got two words. At least one of them must be a proper word I guess. Is there a guideline which explains in detail about business names? Hmmm.. will try to find one and update in here.

Ok, I had three names in my list. My first list goes like this:

1. Maaxii
2. Maxii
3. i.Maxii

The list was rejected – needs to be made up of at least two words. I couldn’t get a number. Had to go out of the que and get a new set of names. So, after a brief moment with my thinking cap, I came out with this list:

1. Maa XII
2. Ma XII
3. i Maxii

Again it was rejected – The names have no meaning.. or something like that. She then suggested that I just end it with the word “Enterprise”. So, after another brief thinking cap moment, I came up with this list:

1. Maaxii Enterprize
2. Maxii Enterprize
3. i.Maxii Enterprize

I figured, it’s the third time I que up just to get a number to just do a name check. Nearly one hour has past since I got there. Let’s just go with whatever they say la. This time around, after exchanging smiles with Miss Name Validator, I managed to finally get me a number. So off I went to wait for the result of the name check. Time lapsed – 40 minutes.

I was number 1308 (about there laa). They were serving 1294 (so .. so laa). There’s only one counter serving name checks counter 11 (or was it 12? Hmmmm). Anyway, since there are about 15 odd people to go before my number, we decided (yes, I was not alone, all four of us were there) to check out the shops outside. Oh, did I mention that the Registrar is located at level 2, the Mall Shopping Complex.

Out we went to do some window shopping. Luqman needed a diaper change anyway. So, Luqman went off with Mama to get his diaper changed. Dina went with me to run around the hallways. We spent like 20 minutes running all over the Mall, Dina and I. It was fun.. a bit tiring, but fun. Hahaha…

When we got back to the counters, after 30 minutes of hallway running and some brief window shopping, they were serving 1305. Cool, just nice. So, roughly 5 minutes later, my number was called. My name check was successful. I can use the name MaaXII Enterprise. Awwww mannnnnn.. They changed the ‘z’ to ‘s’. Oh well, I don’t want to wait for another name check, so I just accepted it. So, that’s it. Name check stage completed. Total Time Spent – 1 hour 15 minutes.

Next up, the actual registration stage… soon.. very soon.

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