How To Start A Business In Sri Lanka.

how to start a small business in sri lanka

How to register your business in Sri Lanka.

It is a good practice to register your business before it is late. There is a late fee from your local authorities if you leave it for too long.

Let the fine aside, neither banks, nor any organization will recognize you as a valid business entity without the business registration. Even if you run your business totally online there are lots of advantages when running it as a registered business.

Situations where you need the business registration.

*To apply for a credit card.

*To apply for a bank loan.

*To battle law suits. ( Beleive me this is a possibility no matter how clean you are.)

*To impress your in laws :D

This post has been written with the assumption that your only source of income is from the online/ offline business you are running.

I know lot of sri lankans who run web hosting, web developing, web marketing businesses never register their businesses. And most of the people who are running offline services businesses also forget this fact. If you come here from a google search, ” How to register a business in Sri Lanka” , the following is written solely for you.

There are 3 Types of practical entities you can start.
1. A sole trade business. – You are the only owner of the business.
2. A partnership – Ownership can be between 2-20 partners.
3. A private limited company – Refer your old “business studies” notes.

When you are first starting out, it is better to go with a sole trade or partnership type of business. In order to register your business, you need to go to your ” Provincial company Registration Authority”. For western province , it is located at Union place near Nawaloka Hospital.

For a sole trade, the registration fee is just Rs 500/= and you can get it within a day If you pay Rs1000/=. Otherwise they will mail you the registration within 2 weeks.

How To open a business account in Sri Lanka.

Once you have a business registration certificate in your hand, the next important step is to open a business account with a commercial bank. If you have to prove your income in any situation, ( To get a credit card, Apply for a bank loan.) your bank statements will come in to your rescue.

To open a business account also known as a current account, most of the banks require you to meet the bank branch manager directly. So do not waste your time with banking assistances and go to the person who you should meet.

If you are running an online business you might have to think of ways to explain the business plan to your bank manger. In Sri Lanka most of the people are not familiar with the concept yet.

I did not have to go through the trouble as I am running a offline business together with my web sites. But do not worry, they are good people and will listen to you. After all, they need your business.

I almost forgot, you need at least Rs 50,000 to open a current account in Sri Lanka. I do not know whether any bank has lower their minimum requirement but when I had to check last year , the minimum was in 50k to 100k range.

If you want me to recommend a bank for you, I would say to go with Commercial, Sampath or NDB bank. HSBC is good, but why feed a foreign bank when we have awesome local banks here.

Once you have opened a business account, do not just leave it there. Financial Institutions make decisions based on the amount of transactions you have done and on the value of them. Consider this as a salary sheet. This is all you have as a legal document to prove your income. Do not go and ask for a loan with a blank bank statement. Just because you are running a registered business, no one will believe your earning capacity unless you have numbers to prove it.

So try to do all your business transactions through your bank accounts. Even pay your utility bills through this. Give your buddies cheques and get cash. Or vice a versa. Don’t tell anyone that you learn it here :D

How to apply for a Credit Card in Sri Lanka.
Once you have 3 bank statements with good numbers in it, you can apply for a credit card. The application form says that your business registration should be at least 2 years old but I have never seen anyone having problems if you have good numbers in your bank statement. I got my first credit card soon after I finish my A/L’s.

I do not know the exact situation behind Seylan bank at the moment. But one thing I know is they are super fast in approving your credit card. I have CC’s with 3 banks but Seylan service has been the best so far.

Keep Accounts in your start up business.
There are many small business accounting packages available. This is a very important factor for any business. I am not going to write the benefits of having a proper accounting system but keep in mind that it is a must. If you find it difficult to maintain accounts by yourself or if you do not have enough money to hire someone, at least keep records of your income and expenses. File all your invoices received and issued.

At the year end you can go to a small audit firm and ask them to prepare audited financial accounts for you. Do not worry; It will not cost you much. But the benefits are endless. Any bank will accept these audited financial accounts as a valid proof of your income.

Open an Income tax file.

Don’t put a face now! Having a income tax file is a great advantage. They are not going to rip you off. Most of the bad things you heard are spreaded by people who has never paid a single cent as income tax.

After deducting all the tax allowed expenses you do not have to pay a considerable amount anyway. You can get assistance from a tax adviser for a very small fee to determine how much you have to pay.

When you applying for a bank loan If you have a income tax file under your name the whole process will be much easier for you. They do not care whether you pay Rs 5000 or Rs 500000 as tax. But they will know that you are a credible person with a sound income.

I am proud about the fact that I started paying income tax when I was 22. Do you know that I had only Rs 900/= in my bank account when I was 20? :D

In this article we have talked about how to start a business in Sri Lanka. The basic details regarding how to register your business?, how to open a business account?, How to apply for a credit card? And other areas related to small businesses in Sri Lanka have been briefly discussed. If you have further questions do not hesitate to ask them here at the comments section. I will do my best to answer them ASAP.

If you are determined to do something, yet do not know where to start, I always advice to start a internet business. It will only cost you few thousand rupees and you can use the earnings as a capital to start a solid offline venture. I know few dozen people who has successfully done it. Why not you?

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11 Top Secrets Of Online Money Making.

Posted in: Inspiring you, adsense, affiliate marketing, money making ideas

This is what every one is looking for, right? The real hidden secrets of online money making industry. I will keep things very simple and straight to the point. If you can get the following simple things right, Nobody in this world can stop you from making money. If somebody tries , you can laugh all the way to the bank.

1. Do not go on forums and say “I am a newbie”.
It is just like announcing that you are a loser. There is nothing wrong with starting something new. But You do not have to announce that you are a newbie. Every time you repeat this phrase it will be printed in your mind. If you want to become a pro, Start acting like a one.

I started this blog 3 months ago and I knew nothing about blogging back then. I read lot of forums and spent lot of time on great web sites like “problogger”, “copyblogger”. Once I was equipped with this knowledge I knew what I was talking about. So I did not have to play stupid on well known web master forums.

To tell you the truth, All the questions a new internet marketer asks, have already being answered some where. If you spend some time on Google, I am sure you will find all the answers to your questions. Spend time on digital point, warrior forum and learn things.

They all will help you become a pro internet money marketer.

2. Do mistakes as much as possible. If you have never failed, You will never succeed.
Failing does not make you a loser. It will give you enough motivation to rise from the dust. Many billionaires in this world today have made huge mistakes in their lives. The important thing is, learning from the mistakes.

My first ever online transaction was depositing good part of my school savings in a HYIP. I lost everything. I was 17 back then. I did not know anything and I was jumping from one Hyip to another. Then to network marketing schemes and cyclers. Once I got my hands on a copy of “rich jerk” it virtually changed my life.

But My first 2 websites was a flop. One was for adsense and the other one was for promoting virus guards as an affiliate. I thought once I put up those sites, people are going to come and click my ads, purchase those brilliant anti virus protections through my links. What more could a 17 year old guy from Sri Lanka can expect? Oh Boy, didn’t I came a long way from that point.

All thanks to learning from mistakes.

3. Be in a market which spends money and have a problem to be solved.
If your market users are not willing to spend a dime, there is no point wasting your time on that niche. For example lot of people have tried to sell myspace layouts. Why would they wanna buy something like that when it is freely available.

And make sure your target market is old enough to own a credit card. The system here is very different from a offline market. 80% of the sales are due to impulse thinking. Do not expect your visitors to bookmark your page and purchase your product on a later date. the Chances of that happening is very slim.

Internet is full of people who are looking to get answers to their problems.
How can I make some more money?
How can I reduce my weight?
How can I cure my acne problem?

If your market has a problem like this, and If you can come up with a solution with a good value, You are a winner. Remember , You do not always have to create products to solve problems. Or you do not always have to own the product. That is the wonder of affiliate marketing.

4. Do not give up too early. At least give it 4 months.

You cannot be a instant success. It does not happen that way. You will not make much money in the first few months unless you have a handsome advertising budget.

Most search engines will not even know that you exist. Do not give up at this stage. Even if you are not making any money.

Gradually improve your site and the overall strategy of hooking your visitors with your product. Read , Read and READ. Search , Search and SEARCH. If thousands of other people could do this, Why not you?

And also, it is important to know when to quit. If you are in the same stage after 6 months, Give UP. There is no point holding on to something if there is no improvement. If it does not show good results or potential after 6-7 months, consider that project as a flop. Move on with your life. Do something better next time.

5. Be prepared to spend some money.
What you get for Free is Free. Got what I mean? If you spend $250 for a project , You will double it in no time. ( Given that you know your basics.) But if you are only spending $25, then it is plain gambling. Nothing else.

If you are completely broke, at least spend enough money to buy reliable hosting and a private domain name.

6. Know inside out of the service / products you offer.
This is not the case if you are hiring copy writers and Support Personnels. If not, you should have a thorough understanding about the product you are promoting. Otherwise you will not be able to write the perfect sales pitch nor give reliable feedback to support tickets. If you fail in above 2 departments , there is no way that you can succeed as a online money maker.

7. Set short term targets and set deadlines.
When you first start, if your goal is to become a millionaire in 2 years, that will not happen. 2 years will fly by but you will go no where. If your target is to earn $100 in the first month and $200 in the second, that is more realistic and achievable.

If you set a goal for 2 years , you will forget it in 4 months. That’s the human nature. So if you really want to become successful, set short term goals and always set deadlines.

Deadlines are very important. Deadlines will drive you towards your targets. Otherwise you will leave everything for tomorrow. And that tomorrow will never come.

8. Have a passion for what you are doing.
This is really straight forward and I do not think it needs any more explanation. When there is no passion or desire, it is really difficult to get motivated and start accomplishing your plan. You can forget this when you a pro money maker and have more than dozen successful projects going on.

There will be a stage where everything you touches turn in to gold. Just like the time I am going through right now. And I am loving it. When you are in this stage , you can hire people and get the work done even if you do not have the passion for it. You don’t have to let a good money making opportunity pass by just because you don’t have the passion for it.

But until you reach that level, be involved with something you really , really like.

9. Do one project at a time.
This is a one big mistake most of the new comers are doing. They try to build a blog, adsense site, afiiliate promoting site, game arcade and a forum all at the same time. I was guilty of doing this when I first started out. I learned my lesson. This is not simply possible. Wait until one project is successfully off the ground.

10. Delegate your work.
You do not have to do the entire project by yourself. Leave the technical work to others. You do not have to master php, mysql, html and SEO. There are enough skillful labor that you can hire for few bucks. There is no harm knowing the basics in all those areas. But your time is more important. Your mission is to make money. So let others take care of coding work and you strategies your money making plan. That is far more effective.

11. Start doing it now.

You know, there is a very large gap between planning and implementing. You might be equipped with all the knowledge in the world. But if you are not using it what is the point of having it?

I know people who are day dreaming with their “income plans”. If I make $10 a day with this and if I can launch 10 projects like this I will be making $100 a day. That is $3000 a month. Wow ! I will be filthy rich soon. But when are you going to make this happen?

It is very easy to say something or plan something. It is much easier day dreaming everything. But those calculations will be just numbers if you do not start working on your project today. You might have a great idea. But no one will know you unless you execute it.

Kevin rose could have been just Kevin Rose if he did not create ” Digg”.
Mark Zuckerberg could have been just another Harvard graduate if he did not create “facebook”.
If Darren Rowse kept all his ideas to him self, there will not be a “problogger”.

They all are multimillionaires now because they started acting on their dreams. You will be no body and die with all your great plans if you do not start executing them today.

These are my little secrets of online money making. I am sorry If you expected some dark magic, It would have been nice if I could give you some, but the reality is you do not need any majic in order to make money.

Everything related to this industry has already been discovered and revealed. If there is something new, they all will be updated in web master forums sooner or later.

If you can use your basic money making knowledge with my 11 guidelines, No one can stop you from making money.

If you are completely new to this industry, I suggest you to spend some time on warrior forum and digital point forum. Look for new money making ideas. If you are too lazy to go through the threads, get your self a copy of a great money making guide. There are plenty available in the market. Do your research and you will be able to find one. If you need some recommendations, contact me here. If you already have the knowledge let’s start making money. You got to be in water in order to learn swimming. If you find any obstacles ? I am always here to help you.

Do not forget to read,
Start Making Money Now.
How to cheat your visitors to sell more ?

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