Footings · starting from scratch
You're good at the work. This is everything else.
Registering the business. The paperwork. Looking like a real firm. Being findable when someone round here searches for what you do. None of it is hard, all of it is fiddly, and every hour you spend on it is an hour you are not earning. Footings gets your business open, legal and findable in three weeks — done with you, one price.
Three ways to open
What it costs.
Every option opens the business properly. The difference is how much is done for you before the first customer calls. All prices exclude VAT at 20%.
Footings Signature
£4,000
Everything, from the name up.
- Everything in Complete
- Your name checked and chosen with you
- Logo and colours applied to van, shirt and paperwork
- A half-day with a professional photographer
- Listed on Apple Maps, Bing and the directories that matter
- A 90-day plan for your first quarter
- Six months of Keep
Our recommendation — It gets the reviews and photos working from day one.
Footings Complete
£2,500
Open, and ready to be chosen.
- Everything in Core
- A page for each service and area you cover
- Van, workwear and card artwork, ready to print
- Review requests sent after every finished job
- A guided photo session on your first jobs
- Three months of Keep
Footings Core
£1,500
Open, legal and findable.
- Registration, done with you
- Quote, invoice and terms in your name
- Health and safety paperwork for your work
- Bookkeeping set up, ready for Making Tax Digital
- Logo, colours and a one-page site
- Your Google listing, set up properly
- The missed-call reply
- Introductions to an accountant and a broker
- One month of Keep
Keep
£125 a month
After your included months. Your listing kept current, replies drafted for your OK, one small change a month, a review every quarter. We remind you a month before it starts; stop before then and you pay nothing more.
Terms
- Payment:half to book your start date and half when you're open, or four equal payments — the same total.
- Open in three weeksfrom the day your checklist is complete. If we're late, 10% comes off for every week, up to 30%. Waiting on Companies House, your bank or Google doesn't count — we tell you the day we start waiting.
- Paid direct, never marked up: Companies House £100 if you go limited; your domain, about £12 a year; your accountant and insurance. Everything is opened in your name.
- We open a small number of start dates each month; a deposit holds yours.
What happens
Three weeks, start to finish.
We sit down together for the parts that need you. The rest happens without you having to think about it.
- 01Week one
Get the business to exist
A name that's actually available, and not already somebody else's. Registration, done with you — you file with us beside you, or through our partner accountant or your bank's formation service; directors verify their own identity with Companies House. A business bank account opened — we lay out the options plainly and you choose.
We introduce you to an accountant and an insurance broker. They advise you on the things only they should advise you on — sole trader or limited company, VAT, what cover you actually need. We make sure it happens and nothing gets forgotten.
- 02Week two
The paperwork, done once, properly
Quote, invoice and terms and conditions, in your name and your wording, ready to send. Health and safety paperwork and risk assessments for the work you actually do. Bookkeeping set up so your records are in one place from day one, not reconstructed in January.
We run the checklist for the things that catch people out: CIS if you work for contractors, VAT thresholds, and waste carrier registration if you take anything away from site.
- 03Week three
Look real, and be findable
A simple logo and a set of colours that work on a van, a shirt and an invoice. A one-page website with your services and a form that reaches your phone.
Your Google Business Profile, set up properly — this is the one that matters most, and it is free. It is how someone two streets away finds you. We set it up, show you how to photograph your work for it, and give you a simple routine for asking every happy customer for a review.
Included: the missed-call reply
If you miss a call because you are up a ladder, the caller gets a text straight back — “Thanks, I'm on a job. I'll call you back by six.” The first person to call back is usually the one who gets the job.
Straight answers
Who does what.
- We do
- The registration alongside you, the templates, the health and safety paperwork, the logo, the page, the Google listing, the review routine, the missed-call reply. The chasing and the admin that makes all of it actually happen.
- Your accountant does
- Sole trader or limited company. VAT. Tax. What you can claim. We introduce you and make sure the conversation happens — we do not give tax advice, and you should be wary of anyone who is not an accountant and does.
- Your broker does
- Public liability, tools, van, employer's liability if you take anyone on. Same principle: we introduce, they advise.
- You do
- Sit down with us for the bits that need you — the name, the services, the prices, the photos of your work. A few hours across three weeks, not more.
What is not in it.
- Paid advertising. Not yet. Advertising works when your diary has gaps and your reviews are in place. Spending on ads before either is true is how people lose money in month one.
- A big website. Core is one page that loads fast and gets you called. Complete adds a page for each service and area. When you outgrow it, we'll build the next one.
- Running your social media. You can post a photo of a finished job from your phone better than we can. We will show you what is worth posting and how often.
- Tax, legal or insurance advice. Covered above. That is what the introductions are for.
If something on this list would help you sooner, we will tell you and price it separately. We would rather sell you less now and still be working with you in two years.
What it replaces.
Bought separately — a logo, a site, the Google listing set up, terms reviewed, risk assessments, missed-call and review tools, someone keeping the listing current — the parts of Core run about £1,585 to £3,495, and Complete's about £3,517 to £5,727, before anyone joins them up. UK prices, checked September 2026.
Or do it yourself. The question is whether forty-odd hours of your evenings are worth more than two and a half thousand pounds — and whether you would rather be open in three weeks or eight.
Which one
If most work will come from people searching nearby, Complete. If it comes from one contractor or word of mouth, Core is enough — and we say so on the call.
Twenty minutes on the phone. You tell us what you do and where you are up to, and we tell you straight whether Footings is worth it for you yet. You may only need Core — we'll say so.
Where it leads
Footings is the first step, not the only one.
You do not need to think about any of this yet. It is here so you know there is somewhere to go when the admin starts eating your evenings — which it will, if the work goes well.
You are here
Footings
Get the business open, legal and findable.
From £1,500
When you are busy
Groundwork
One real week of your business, walked end to end, and a written plan — what is costing you time and what is worth fixing.
£500, credited against the build
How Groundwork worksWhen it pays for itself
Legwork
Your own assistant on your work number. Quotes from a voice note, invoices, chasing, records your accountant can use.
From £3,000, then £250 a month
How Legwork works
Tell us what you do.
Twenty minutes on the phone, a plain answer on whether Footings is worth it for you yet, and a start date if it is. No sales pressure.
Book a 20-minute callWe are not accountants, solicitors or insurance brokers, and we do not give tax, legal or insurance advice. We introduce you to people who do.