Breandan Fogarty formed the company on a Tuesday, eleven days after being let go. By the end of that fortnight he had the name registered, a logo, a business bank account and an entry on the companies register.
Four months on the company still existed and had never invoiced anyone. The whole of it had gone into the part of starting a business that cannot say no to you.
Registration is the one step in starting a business that sends a confirmation email. It is finishable, official and wholly within your control, which is precisely why it comes first and why it says nothing about whether the business works.
The paperwork is the part that cannot refuse you
Every other step involves somebody who might not be interested. A customer can decline, a supplier can ignore you, a conversation can lead nowhere. A registration form accepts you, takes a fee and issues a certificate, and for somebody recently made redundant that is an extremely appealing use of a week.
Breandan had not exactly wasted the money. Most of it he would have needed eventually. What he had done was spend the one stretch where he had time and no income on the only part of the list with no customer attached. Settling the order before any paperwork took about fifteen minutes.
The fifteen minutes that put it in order
His skills, what he had saved, the idea itself, and the part he had avoided looking at: how many months the savings genuinely covered at his real outgoings rather than his imagined ones.
What came back · in about fifteen minutes
a short list rather than a general one, because what is required differs by trade and by where you are. Two items on it were things he had not done, and two he had done early.
how many months the savings covered. Not the comforting version – the one with the standing orders in it, which was shorter.
thirty days, specific actions, aimed at the part of the list that can refuse you. This is the section he had been avoiding by being busy.
what could be tried while still receiving support or working part time, and what the rules in his situation actually permit, which he had assumed meant nothing.
He kept the company, since it existed and the fee was gone. What changed is that month five contained the first conversations that could have gone badly, and two of them did.
The starting ladder, rung by rung
Rung 1 · Find out what is genuinely required first – not what is advisable eventually. Some trades need a licence or insurance before anything happens at all, and some need almost nothing. These are different lists and only one of them is urgent.
Rung 2 · Count the runway with the real outgoings – the number with the standing orders in it. A comforting runway figure is the most expensive thing on this list, because every decision after it is sized wrongly.
Rung 3 · Go at the part that can refuse you – the first customer conversation is the only step that produces information. Everything else confirms what you already decided, which is why it feels better and teaches less.
Rung 4 · Keep the safety net while testing – where the rules allow it, and they often do. Giving up support before there is any income is a choice people make for tidiness rather than for any practical reason.
For Breandan the decisive rung was the third. Four months of activity had produced nothing that could go wrong, which is another way of saying it produced no information.
Why busy is the easiest thing to be after redundancy
Because it answers the question everybody keeps asking, and does so without needing anything from anyone else. A registration, a logo and a bank account make four months of defensible activity, which is what you want when explaining yourself at a family dinner.
Worth saying without judgement: wanting that after redundancy is reasonable, and the cost is not the fees. The cost is spending the only stretch of free time you will get on the part of the work that teaches nothing.
- Finding out what is genuinely required for your trade
- A runway figure built on real outgoings
- A first customer conversation inside the first month
- Keeping support or part-time work while testing
- Checking the rules with the agency before taking work on
- Registering because it can be finished in an afternoon
- A runway figure that leaves out the standing orders
- Four months of activity that nobody could refuse
- Giving up a safety net before there is income
- Treating the certificate as evidence the business works
The order is the entire discipline: what is required, the runway, the customer, the testing. Most begin at registration, the only rung with a certificate at the end.
What it costs next to the alternatives
Breandan could have carried on, which cost fees already paid and four unplanned months. Here is how the usual routes compare with getting the order right first.
| Approach | Cost | What it does about the order |
|---|---|---|
| Register first and work it out after | $50–500 | Produces a certificate and no information |
| Read a start-a-business checklist | Free | A general list, including things your trade does not need |
| An accountant or lawyer | $150–300/hr | The right call for entity and tax, and better used with questions ready |
| Post-Job Biz Starter | $19 | The minimum for your situation, the runway, and the first client |
“Is leaving the paperwork not risky?” Nothing here suggests skipping it. The argument is about order, not about avoidance, and some trades genuinely cannot begin without a licence or insurance – that is rung one rather than an afterthought. What a planning tool can do is tell you which items are required before you start, which are sensible once money moves, and which can wait; what it cannot do is decide your entity type or your tax position. Entity choice, registration, licensing, insurance and tax all vary by country, state and activity, and some rules about working while receiving support are set by the agency and differ by scheme. Speak to an accountant or a lawyer, and check your own obligations with the relevant authority. This is general educational guidance and not legal, tax or financial advice.
Two more who had the list in the wrong order
“I had business cards, a website and a registered name before I had spoken to one potential customer. The first real conversation told me more in twenty minutes than the previous two months had.”
Nollaig S. · six weeks of setup first, Spokane WA
“I assumed starting meant giving everything else up on day one, so I nearly did not start at all. Keeping two shifts a week meant the runway stretched far enough for the idea to be tested properly.”
Sorley K. · tested for four months, Erie PA
If the question is what can be earned while a claim runs, the Unemployment Safe Side Hustle Planner covers that side properly. Results vary; this is general guidance rather than legal or financial advice.
Fifteen minutes, and the list stops being alphabetical: what your trade genuinely requires first, how many months the savings cover at real outgoings, a route to a conversation that might go badly, and what can be tested without surrendering the safety net. The certificate still comes. It simply stops being first.
*Individual results may vary.
