How to register a sole proprietorship with SSM.

Assalamualaikum, hello all!

In a previous post a few months ago, I mentioned how I have officially registered a sole proprietorship with the Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia, or SSM, in Malaysia. I’ve been meaning to post this up on the blog for future reference, but, yet again, procrastination won me over.

A little back story.

Earlier this year, I officially started my ‘side hustle‘ doing resume/cover letter reviews and career consultations. Alhamdulillah, despite not marketing it as much as I probably should, I’ve been getting people reaching out to me to hire my services. And, Alhamdulillah, things have been good.

The services I offer have also expanded over the past few months. I decided to start teaching an online class (my Job Search 101 class), mainly because I was bored at home. I was also invited to organize my first ever paid (online) workshop with final year Law students at a local university, which was something I was not expecting.

How to register a sole proprietorship or business with SSM.

For the purpose of record-keeping and organizational purposes, I decided to register this ‘side hustle’ as a business with SSM. This was, again, something that I did on a whim, but maybe that’s just how I like to do things.

Since my ‘business’ is a self-run business, I registered for a sole proprietorship. You may register a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a Sendirian Berhad company, depending on your needs and your goals. You can read this post by RinggitPlus to see the differences between these three.

I officially registered with SSM in mid-April. The MCO at that time made things a bit more complicated, as I was not able to go to the SSM branch to register the business.

Thankfully, SSMOfficialPage on Twitter was very responsive and told me that there was an option to register online without visiting the SSM branch. This was obviously my chosen route, as I’d prefer to do everything online and not having to queue up at the branch!

A quick check at SSM’s Facebook page confirms that registration and activation of the EzBiz account can still be done online now during PKPP (thought it is a bit different than mine previously).

So in this post, I’ll go through step-by-step on how you can register a sole proprietorship with SSM online!

Step 0: Have all that you need beforehand.

Make sure you have:

• Your business name. You can either opt to use a personal name (i.e. your own name, like Mohamad Enterprise) or a trade name (i.e. a business name, separate from your name, like Busy Bees).
• A list of owners (if you’re registering for a partnership). This includes IC number, contact information, etc.
• Branch(es) information, if any.
• Business information (what services you are offering, type of business).

Step 1: Register for a EzBiz account

Register for an account at EzBiz. I’ve screenshot the things you’d need to register for your (free) account below. All of the information required are just related to you (the owner), so no need to worry about having your business information just yet!

Step 2: Activate your EzBiz account

Depending on when you are activating your EzBiz account, things might be a little different.

Usually, you will be asked to go to an SSM branch with your IC card to activate your ID in-person. However, during PKP/PKPP, you are allowed to request activation online via email.

This video by SSM on Facebook sums it up pretty well (and you would also receive an email after registering for your ID!). But, essentially you will need to email the following to ezbizactivation@ssm.com.my:

• Your identification card (front and back).
• A picture of you holding your identification card at neck level. Make sure the resolution is clear, and preferably with a clear/plain background!
• Any other supporting documents (passport first page, driving license, birth certificate, etc) to support your activation application. I submitted my passport page, just because I already have a copy of it on my phone.

When I did it previously, it took two days for them to activate my account (mainly because at that time, we had to send the email to their enquiry email, which meant it had to be forwarded to someone else). I also did not send a picture of the back of my IC, so I had to resend it to them.

They will get back to you once your account is activated, and then you’re ready for the next step!

Step 3: Submit your business registration on EzBiz.

Once you have your EzBiz account activated, it’s time to get to the nitty gritty part – actually registering your business (using Form A or Borang A!).

This is also where you’ll need the information from Step 0 above (about the business, the owner(s), and everything else!)

You can either choose a Personal Name (like the one in the picture above), or a Trade Name (which you can opt for if you don’t want to use your own name as your business name).

If you’re an online seller (InstaShop, Shopee, etc), you can also select it here!

Then it’s time for your business address and mailing address (if different). If you have any branch(es) of your business, you’ll fill it up in the next page (see below)

Then you have to provide some information on the type of business you want to conduct. I provided just a rough overview about my business, but not going into too much detail (considering how I’m growing it as we go along). You will also need to add the relevant business codes for your business.

I personally find the business codes a bit confusing, as you’ll have to scroll through and find the relevant codes that matches your business. So have fun going through them!

Then it’s time for the owner(s)’ information. If you plan to register a sole proprietorship, you will only have one owner (like me). If you are registering a partnership or a Sendirian Berhad, you’ll need the information of your other owner(s) as well.

Step 4: Submit, make the payment, and get approved!

And you’re done – the only thing left is to make the payment for your business registration. The amount you’ll have to pay will depend on:

• your business name (personal names cost RM30/year, trade names cost RM60/year)
• the number of year(s) you want to register for,
• any branch(es) you have,
• business info (RM10/each).

After I submitted my business registration and made the payment, it took SSM less than a day to approve it. I was honestly shocked, since I submitted it around 11:20am in the morning. By 8:15pm that very same day, I received an email notifying me that the application was approved.

All in all, it was quite easy to register a sole proprietorship in Malaysia.

So, all in all, it was a pretty quick and straightforward process. If you have all the information needed, it shouldn’t take more than a day. With PKPP, being able to activate it online made it a lot easier as well.

Final tip from me: This post highlights a way for you to search on SSM e-info to see if anyone has registered a business under your chosen name(s). This helps you to narrow down your business name options and ensure that it has not been used before!

Good luck to anyone out there who’s thinking about registering a business, whether it be a sole proprietorship, partnership, or others, in Malaysia. If anyone has any other tips or suggestions, do share them in the comments section!

Until next time – stay awesome & take care!