Companies: keeping them up to date
If you are running your business through a company, it is essential to administer it properly - this does not happen by itself.
Start with having articles of association that work for you so that you can appoint and remove directors easily, restrict the transfer of shares if needed and clarify the rights attached to different share classes.
Then, keep the filings up to date at Companies House, and keep proper internal records. By law, a company must keep registers of its shareholders, directors, secretary and certain other information at its registered office.
Proper minutes or resolutions recording the decisions of the directors and shareholders must be kept in a minute book. Sometimes, these technicalities are overlooked in the whirlwind of day-to-day business but inadequate company records cause difficulties if, for example, you want to sell the company, or there is a dispute as to ownership of shares.
Badly kept records may affect the company's value, or even, as in one case I had where the seller could not prove ownership, scupper the deal.