I've been working on setting up a social enterprise for a long time (not EPF Solutions). The plan is to set up a Community Interest Company, when I find the right people to be the other directors, and other people put some money in. I could do it on my own, but that doesn't give it the same credibility, and means I have all the responsibility for it. For anyone who doesn't know, a CIC is a normal limited company, but with a set of social objectives it has to abide by, plus a few other rules, that are approved and monitored by the CIC Regulator.

It may all come together at the right time, but it looks like I may need the business to start up before I've found the people and money, although it won't do much, if any, trading for a while. So I'm wondering if starting as a sole trader, and setting up the company later, is practical, or more trouble than it's worth. Any business can declare themselves to be social enterprise, but it's only enforceable to actually follow it through if it's a CIC.

This raises a few questions:

1) The name I want is available from Companies House, the domain name is available, and it's not a registered trademark. As a sole trader I could buy the domain, and try to register the trademark, but not reserve the company name. Is there a way, like having the trademark registered, that I can avoid the risk of losing the company name?

2) I'm already a sole trader, trading as EPF Solutions, and the social enterprise will use all the same equipment and facilities. Both are sitting at a desk staring at computers jobs, using the same software to do admin based work, just with a different emphasis. In fact the original plan was that my accounts work would be done by the social enterprise. Would I need to register it with HMRC as a separate business and report it separately on my tax return, or can I have one business with two names?

3) Will starting as a sole trader make things difficult when we're ready for the CIC to take over?

Any comments or suggestions of things I need to think about welcome.