Register Your Business Online

Yesterday, I shared with our readers an emyth.com podcast on how to grow a business from art. If you are an artist doing your business, it would benefit you well to listen it or why not just read my points derived from the podcast. I shared this link with a few other new-found friends also active in the handmade arena in Malaysia which then led me to write this short page on how to register your business online in Malaysia. 

Contrary to popular belief (and I was one of them), registering online is so easy once you figure everything out. I will be focusing more on registration for sole-proprietor and partnership because that's what most small businesses would start off with (plus they're cheaper!). 

Han Solo or the Olsen twins?

First, determine if you want to register as a sole-proprietor or a partnership. CompanyFormation.com did a fairly good article on this and also one good answer from Yahoo! Answers. Make sure you make a learned decision about this.

The registration line starts here

Once you have determined the above, you will need to register as a www.malaysia.gov.my user. Registration is free. For first-time users, click on MyPortal on the top-right side of the page and click on "Not a member...". Fill up the form as an Individual and submit. 

The front page of malaysia.gov.my

Once that's done and you have received your confirmation email from malaysia.gov.my, you can proceed to register as a SSM subscriber. Yes, you will need to subscribe to both, the two systems have not merged and you will find out why later. 

Go back to the front page of www.malaysia.gov.my  and click on the My Services tab on the left. If you haven't already logged on to malaysia.gov.my, they would probably prompt you to do so now. This next step is a slick way to see what other services SSM offers on this website. To do so, do a search for "Online Services" with the keyword: ssm. A list of results will show all the services rendered by SSM on this website. You will find yourself coming back to this step often during this process. 

Select Online Services only to narrow down your search.

The search results would then show all the services available on this website for SSM. But, before you can go ahead to register your business, you will first need to subscribe as a SSM member. The subscription fee is RM5 a year and THAT is why I think they have not merged the two systems together *conspiracy theorist*. Anw, if you want to register your business online without having to go all the way to their office, RM5 is but a small price to pay. As such, proceed to click on "SSM - SSM Subscriber Registration", select ROB, fill up the form and check out to pay. Credit cards are accepted. 

IMPORTANT NOTE

• If you opted to register as a sole-prop, you will need to register on malaysia.gov.my and subscribe to SSM.
• If you opted to register as a partnership, you and your partner(s) will need to register on malaysia.gov.my but only one person is required to subscribe to SSM.
• Please do this step before going ahead.

What's in a name?

Once all the registration and confirmation has been done, you still will not be able to register for your business yet. You will first need to apply for a Business Name Approval. You wouldn't want to have someone else with another business with the same name, would you? So, to do so, just head back to the My Services tab, do the "ssm" search again and click on "SSM - Application for Business Name Approval (ROB)".  On this page, there is a whole list of procedure guidelines which you may do well to read through before you go ahead. Again, fill up the form with your Business Name and particulars and click Submit. They will get back to you within 24 hours which I thought, was rather efficient.

Finally...

Once you have received the approval for new business name through your email, you are finally ready to apply for your business! Here is the fee structure provided by SSM in their guideline:

Registration Fee 

1. Sole proprietorship using personal name as stated in the identity card  – RM30.00  

2. Sole proprietorship or partnership using trade name - RM60.00  

3. Registration of branches – RM5.00 for each branch  

4. Business Information Print-out – RM10.00

Head back to the My Services tab again (you know the drill) and click on "SSM - Online Registration of Business (ROB)". Again, on this page they have provided a very in-depth guideline on how to fill the Form A. Make sure you fill in your Name Approval No. provided in your email and fill up all the required details. If you register as a partnership, Step 3 requires you to fill in your partner(s)' information as well. Just click on the Open Form Owner Info (New Form) tab. The page also provided a handy tool to upload a Partnership Agreement (if any) but only in TIFF format. 

Once you have filled up everything and submitted them, you will then have to notify all your business partners. If you are a sole-prop, I believe you can go ahead to submit your form. But for partnership registration, all your business partners would have to verify their confirmation through an email link. Once that's done, only then can you submit the form for approval and proceed to pay the registration fees. My reply came back within 24 hours which again, totally surprised me at their efficiency. 

So this is the low-down on registering your online/small business online in Malaysia. I hope that it had been informative and if there is anything I missed out or you need help on, just drop me a line in the comment section below. 

Square Art is Malaysian small business selling mosaic art tiles. We do not offer company management services, however, we are in the business of sharing information and experiences. If you would like to know more about us or our products, visit us on our Facebook Page or follow us on Twitter.