Seeking approval for the renovation at Town and Country Planning

One of the things that need to be done in order to open up these businesses are to submit the approval to get the shophouses renovated.

This is a bit complicated and not so easy to follow.  At the moment we are still at this stage and I am also very confused!

I thought after getting the business names registered we could already applied for the ‘Lesen Rampaian’ but we have not came to that yet.  Firstly we need to go to TCP (Town and Country Planning) department to apply for the approval for the renovation.  We went there twice to get some advice on how to go about doing this.

This is my understanding of the whole process:

There are two type of renovation:

·         Wall to ceiling renovation

·         Wall not reaching the ceiling renovation

For wall to ceiling renovation, this requires ‘Qualified Person’ to handle the planning, ie. we must hire an architect to design a proper plan or drawing (which can cost alot) to be submitted to TCP.

For wall not reaching the ceiling, this is a bit simpler where we could do this ourselves, just design a simple plan or drawing and submit it together with the following:

·         Plan Tapak (Location drawing)

·         Geran tanah (Land Deed)

·         Tenancy Agreement

·         Peta Ukor

For the restaurant, hubby has hired a design and construction firm to do the drawing for us.  For my tailoring shop, hubby has done the design/drawing.

And we have submitted my tailoring shop drawing and all the supporting documents to TCP on 25^th February 2012 and now waiting for the approval to go ahead.

Once we get that approval, then we can move on to seek approval for the ‘Lesen Rampaian’.

But I am still a bit blur on when we could start doing the renovation? 

At the TCP Counter

Do I look confused? hahaha..

Inside our shophouses

Lets have a sneak peek on how our shophouses look like.  Although there is still nothing to see of course.  They are empty and the only thing that exists are those 4 walls... for now.

We are still in the process of getting the approval to do the renovation and that may take a few weeks.  Once thats approved then we can start to renovate them and that sure is the most exciting part! 

I just love decorating :)

Oh.. remember we are talking about 2 shophouses right?  One belongs to hubby and the other one belongs to me.

Both will be renovated, separately with all its ups and downs.  I will record all these activities and everything that come along with it. 

So I thought it might be a good idea to blog all these in different colours so its easy for us to differentiate.  What I mean is this.  If the post is about hubby's shophouse, then the post will be in blue, if its about my shop house it will be in red.

Hahaha.. I think I like that and I am gonna do just that.

Excited!

Ok, now on to the pictures of our shophouses!

Hubby's shophouse which going to be a restaurant

My shophouse which is going to be a tailoring shop and boutique

My shophouse rear picture

My shophouse main door on the 1st floor.

Registering the Business Names

How do we start the business?

First and foremost, and I think the most crucial part is to register our business name with the AGC (Attorney General Chambers).

This is considered to be the first step.  We took some time to look for a suitable name as first.  Afterall a business name is the one that people need to know and remember.  This will be the name to be displayed for everybody to see and notice. And at the same time, we need some sort of ownership to the names so people could associate them with the person we are. 

The very important aspect of all these name selections are - it has to be unique and there is no other businesses using the same name.  Could be complicated since there are maybe thousands of business names in existence in Brunei right?

So how do we know if the names already taken?  There is a website for that, via the eregistry website E-Registry where we could check if the names are taken or not.  I must say its a good website, alot of information to learn and digest especially on this Page.  This is very handy and useful although it could pose some confusions if we are not careful and precise on the search.

At the same time we also need to select the business nature by using business codes provided by the AGC, this is based on all the business available in Brunei and which one we will be conducting, could be more than one.  Once that done, we submit the form to the AGC and register our business names and details online. This will take about a week and we have to pay B$5 per business name.

Tip:

The names could be either approved or rejected though.  So try to make sure the names are unique and not been used by other people otherwise you will need to do this all over again!

Once thats done, if the names are approved then we can proceed to get the business name act/certificate.  This will take about a week as well and the fee is B$30.

If thats done, then we are ready to roll!

We found the location.

We have no experience on this whatsoever. Its all based on interest and determination. Our heads were spinning all the time. Lots of thinking going on and the first that came to mind was the location.
Where we should start to open up the business? What is the best location that guarantee customers. Well.. of course there are lots of locations to consider. But we also know in some places the rents must be crazy and we have just started!

We are not going to spend so much money on expensive locations, arent we? There are locations at or near the city where the rents must be so high. And there are so many other restaurants and tailoring shops already. So we shift our attention and try to think on how to target customers at the surburbs area. After a number of surveys around the place we stay, we find an ideal location. Is in the residential areas and there are no restaurants and tailoring shops around 1km in radius (I think!)

So we thought, ok, that might work, then we started calling the owner of the shophouses and ask around. Hubby was really fast, he wants it there and then after a short discussion with the owner. He wants it and he pays the 2 months deposits as required by the shopowner. My tailoring shop came a bit later. But we took that on board as well. My tailoring shop is gonna be on the 1st floor at the same building, yoohoo…. We figured we didnt really need a shop on the ground floor for the tailoring shop as well as we are clever enough to get noticed by the community by doing lots of promotions at the shop and other means as well.

So the shop premises are now secured.

Thats our shop right at the end on the ground floor and the other one is the 3rd from the left 1st floor.

Our restaurant to be close up.

Introduction and some musings!

I am starting a new blog. Well.. I have a few blogs already but more to my personal journey through life. But this is totally something different! And exciting! I didnt expect both me and my husband to come to this stage in our lives. I am a middle age lady with a 17 year old daughter who, I am afraid going to leave the nest and spread her wings and have her own life. And leaving both me and hubby lonely and home alone, lol.

So we are going to start our own businness. Not one but two businesses to be exact.

Hubby and I always dream of doing businesses. Afterall its the right thing to do when the time is right. We are kind of tired of working for other people or other companies, we wanted to earn our own money from our blood and sweat so to speak. And thats exactly what we are going to do!

I always dream of opening a tailoring shop and a boutique. A shop that caters for woman and young girls alike. Make beautiful dresses and pretty cloths. Hubby is more interested to start a restaurant business, he was just in lost for a few moments on what type of business to go into. There are so many choices and type of restaurants out there. Its not an easy decision but he knows the bottom line is, it has to cater for our local environment and surroundings. And he found it!

As I said we are excited but I am nervous at the same time.  I know its not going to be easy, there will be hardwork, sleepness night and tiredness but we will preservere, I hope.  Insya Allah.

So this blog is all about that. A new beginning and a new venture for both of us since we never done this before, to seriously get on with it. We are in a very infancy stage of the whole thing right now. But we are moving forward and I will document all the things we do and the things that happen through this blog. And I am hoping this blog will act as a learning site for people (especially those who stays in Brunei) on how to set up a business and all the procedures and processes that come along with it.

I must say its already a headache.  There are so many procedures to follow, approval to get, things to be done, and money to spend.

But still, we are gonna do it!