Registering your business is one of the many decisions you will make as a budding entrepreneur. While it might be tempting to operate under the radar, here are reasons why you should register your business. Registering your business:

• Gives you a good reputation with Customers, Partners and Stakeholders: As a registered business people take you seriously. Customers and clients, especially people you’ve never worked with before, need assurance that you are a legitimate business to carryout business transactions with you. When your business is registered, it put your clients at ease when making a decision about whether to transact business with you or not.
• Helps you attract Funding Opportunities: To qualify for a business loan, the Number one and non-negotiable requirement usually is that your business must be registered. Banks want to know that your business is organized, exists legally and is separate from your personal life and finances. Operating an unregistered business shows a lack of professionalism to banks and financiers.
• Gives you easy Identification: With your business registered, you are easily identified by law. This helps customers and potential customers to be able to differentiate between your goods and services and that of a similar business[1].
• Gives you Continuity: Companies like Nestle, Cadbury, Shell and Toyota are big multi-billion dollar businesses that have existed for decades but which started out as a small business just like yours. While the founders of these businesses may be long gone, the business continues to live and give their founders continuity. In fact, most of the people who formed these companies have been dead for a long time. Human beings live and die but businesses have the ability to last forever as they can be sold or transferred from one generation to another[2].
• Means your business can be considered a separate legal entity when registered as a Limited Liability. This protects your personal assets in the case of a business lawsuit or bankruptcy.
• Gives you access to Trade Credit/Supplier’s discount: A registered business also makes you eligible to receive supplier discounts or trade credit that you wouldn’t normally receive as an unregistered business. For instance, as a registered automobile workshop owner, you get discounts on spare parts and you can be allowed to pay for the parts after the customer has paid for your service.
• Gives you access to Government Contracts: If you plan to apply for a government contract, registering your business is a vital requirement for consideration.
• Allows you open Business Bank Accounts – You need to provide proof that your business is properly registered with the state to open a business bank account. A business bank account is an important asset to a small business because you can separate your personal activities from your business activities. It is also more professional to give your clients a business bank account for payment instead of your personal bank account.

you apply for a business loan; you are going to have to prove that you are actually a business by showing your business registration along with other application requirements before approving the loan can be approved. A registered business attracts bigger investors. If you are seeking private equity, you must be registered as a business. Investors want the protection of incorporation as well as a defined exit strategy which is defined in some of your incorporation documents. Venture capitalists prefer to fund actual corporations since corporations can later become publically traded.

[1] Jean, Murray. May, 2016.Why You Should Register Your Business Name with Your State. Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/register-business-name-39745769

[2] John, P.I. June, 2014. You Have Been Making A BIG Mistake! 5 Reasons Why You Should Register Your Business NOW! Retrieved from  http://www.smallstarter.com/know-the-basics/5-reasons-you-should-register-your-business-now/