Registering a Business In Malaysia

Nowadays everything needs to be registered
and a business is no exception

There's a summary of business registration process at the bottom of this post. If you are not interested in the long post, just scroll down to it.

To do business in Malaysia you would need to be registered with Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia (SSM). There is two type of registration, Registration of Business (ROB) and Registration of Company (ROC). ROB is what most of you would normally have to do. ROC requires company secretary and a lot of money to register. In short, ROB is for businesses and ROC is for companies (organization that employs lots of people).

To register a business here in Malaysia, you have two option. Do it Online or by going directly to SSM offices located throughout Malaysia.

I'll be honest, I was happy to know that SSM allowed business registration to be done online. That means I can save all the hassle of going to SSM and queuing up. Alas as it is a Government service it was beyond terrible. My suggestion to you is to direct yourself to the nearest SSM office. I tried to do it online but I could not get the web application to run properly. I had to dig up my Internet Explorer which did not solve the problem. I downloaded Firefox which got me a little further down the web application, but not very much. I tried it on two different computers and called a friend to try and do it on his. All with one big disappointing conclusion, IT WILL TAKE FOREVER TO WORK.

Hence I decided to register directly at an SSM office. I chose the one at Menara SSM @ Sentral as it was close and since it was the headquarters of SSM, it should also be the best place.  Surprisingly the process was exceptionally quick. It took me 40 minutes from parking to getting back to the parking area. By the way, Registration of Business is located on the 14th floor (as of the time of this writing).

Once you get there, go directly to the form counter and ask the person there that you would like to register a business. He/she would give you two forms that are stapled together. To the right of that counter is a place for you to fill in that form. It has pens and also up on the walls are examples of forms that have been filled up. Just look up for your form and follow as the examples are, except of course with your details. That's pretty much it.

Do keep in mind, you can include three business name that you'd want to register. They will take the first one if it's available and if it's not, they'll take the following ones. So make sure your preferred choice is on top and your next preferred is in the following choices. Regarding the name, make sure you choose names that are unique. I made a mistake of wanting "Phone Accessories Solution". The problem with that was that it is too general. You need a defining name. I finally sorted out with Luminar Technology. I had a fancy for lights related name. and Luminar was close to lumiere which was light in Italian. Or was it French?

Anyhow, after filling in your forms, proceed to take a number at the number counter and wait for your number to be called up. I only had one person in front of me in the number queue. 

Once your number is called up, go to the counter and pass your forms along with your Identification Card (IC). They'll check for the business name and see if it is available or not. If it is not available as it was on my case at first, you'd have to get the front page of the form again from the form counter. Filled that up with the new names and get a new number for the queue. So make sure you get unique names on the first go. Or else you'll end up lining up again. 

If the business name is available, they'll proceed with registration and you are required to pay the registration fees. There are two fees tier:

1. RM 40 for registration of business name using your name (i.e. Ali Bin Abu Enterprise)
2. RM 70 for registration of business name using a trade name (i.e. ABC Enterprise)

As I chose to register under a trade name, I paid the RM 70. After that they'll issue you a receipt and you can sit down while waiting for them to issue your business registration certificate. I waited for roughly 5 minutes before they called my name and issued my business registration certificate. 

AND YOU'RE DONE!

The process was quick really and not quite a hassle as I thought it would be at first. Registering online was worse and I could never get it to work. Therefore I suggest you to register directly at the counter.

As a summary for you people who wouldn't read a long winded post on how to register a business, here's a bullet list of what to do:

• Bring along your IC to the SSM office
• Once there, proceed to take the Registration of Business Form from the form counter
• Fill it up. There are examples of filled up form hung up on the wall
• Take a queue number
• Once your number is called, proceed to the counter and give your completed form
• If your business name is available, you'll have to pay the registration fees
• If not, you have to request a new front page of your form from the form counter and take a new queue number
• Wait for them to issue the business registration certificate
• DONE!

That's all from me for now, I'll post up on my supplier hunt on my next post. Leave me a comment if you have any questions!

Yours truly,

Young and Gunning