I have registered two companies in my lifetime.
Being a company director makes me feel very grown up indeed, although I am always disappointed not to immediately find myself wearing a pinstripe suit and driving a dark blue Jaguar. I had always just assumed it would come as part of the package – how else does the suit/car thing happen? I was sure there must be a form.
Alas, it was not to be.
Me adjusting my cufflinks
Perhaps though it just takes time, maybe when I have been a company director for ten or so years it will kick in. Or perhaps I could get a job with Marine & General Assurance (M&GM), the oldest actively trading registered company in the UK?
I’ve been reading about them today as they have just been taken over by Scottish Friendly. They are so old, their company registration number is 00000006. That’s pretty cool isn’t it? Obviously it would be way cooler if it ended 007, and they made x-ray glasses or pens that shot poison darts or something, but still, it’s not bad.
In fact, I even went as far as to search on Companies House to see if the company with the number 00000007 was still trading, just in case it did make spy equipment, and I could launch a takeover, but unfortunately it wasn’t. Sad times.
Scottish Friendly has doubled its assets as a result of the takeover, something that I could probably do just by buying a new printer; I’ve yet to even reach the dizzy heights of needing to register for VAT. Still, I don’t suppose that when M&GM registered themselves back in 1862 they ever imagined they’d be where they are today.
We all have to start somewhere.
Sponsored post. Image credit – pinstripe suit: bikeriderlondon/shutterstock
I’m in the same boat! Nobody tells you how hard it is running a business, it’s like having your first child! You figure it out as you’re going along but you’re right everyone starts from somewhere and before you know it there’s a snowballing effect and you’ve created the next big thing!