In order to start a business in Malaysia, you are required to register your business or company with Companies Commission of Malaysia (Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia, SSM). According to the Business Registration Act 1956, business or company owner(s) is required to register his/her business within 30 days before and after the business commencement.

In case you are not aware, there are two types of business registrations. You can either register a business (ROB) mean where you register a new enterprise, or a sole proprietor business. For ROB, anyone can register for it if you would like to get a license for your business. The other type of registration is to register a company (ROC) which means you can register your company with “Sendirian Berhad” SDN BHD or ‘Berhad” BHD.

If you are living in Klang Valley, there are three locations where you can go physically and register your business or company. The three locations are :

1. Menara SSM@KL Sentral, No 7, Jalan Stesen Sentral 5, Kuala Lumpur Sentral 50623 Kuala Lumpur, Tel : 03-22994400
2. Tingkat 3 & 4, Plaza Alam Sentral, Jalan Majlis, Seksyen 14, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor. Tel : 03-55116500
3. SSM, Level 16, Putra Place, 100, Jalan Putra, 50350 Kuala Lumpur.

However, if you don’t have the time to go physically and register your business or company, the good news is now you can do it online. To begin, simply go to SSM E-Lodgement Services. (as always, registration online ONLY can be done “efficiently” by using Microsoft Internet Explorer)

The followings are steps required to register a business with SSM:

1. Before you can begin to register your business or company, you are required to sign up as “SSM Subscriber”. (The subscriber fees is RM5 per annum for ROB and RM120 for ROC).  There are mainly two payment methods; i. via Credit Card and ii. Financial Process Exchange (FPX), which I guess is interbank wire transfer.

   

   

2. Registration as SSM Subscriber is done over www.gov.my mygovernment service. If you are not mygovernment member, then you got to sign up as one. For SSM Registration, please register as INDIVIDUAL User.  Only 2 types of users that are allowed to register as SSM Subscriber: Permanent (Resident) and Malaysian (Citizen).
3. Once you are registered as SSM subscriber, you can now register your own business of company. Prior to registering a business or company, you are required to get your business name or company name approved. Both processes required to search for an unique name relevant to your business. For Application for Business Name Approval (ROB), click here, while Request for Availability of Name (ROC) , click here.

   
   

4. As I have registered a business (ROB), I will share my experience based on the processes taken to register a business. I guess there are not much differences between ROB and ROC, except there are more forms to be filled for ROC. For ROB, in order to get your Business Name approved, fill up the application form with all the required details. 

   

5. Upon submission of the completed form, you will need to wait for name to be approved. Normally it takes around 1-2 days for the name to be approved. It is advisable to choose your business name wisely and choose a business name with minimum 3 words. If your business is approved, you will receive an email notification with an unique reference number.

    
   In case you didn’t receive any email, you can also check your registration status via myPortal on www.malaysia.gov.my.

   
   

6. The next step is business registration. In order to register your approved business name, remember to copy the approval reference number stated in your email. Fill up the registration form accordingly.
7. After completed filling up all the necessary information, click the “Submit” button. Next, you will be redirected to to the payment screen.

   
   Make your payment according number of years that you want for your business.

    

   

   

8. Upon successful payment, you will receive two emails; one is a notification email regarding your application is successful and the another one is your business registration e-certificate (in pdf format). With that, you are now the owner of a registered business.
9. Lastly, if you need a physical copy of the certificate, you need to go to SSM personally and ask a print out of the certificate for RM10.

That is all. Good luck registering your own business or company online. Next I will share my experience on opening a new bank account for with the registered business.