Firstly thanks for a great forum – seems like there are some guys and gals that really know their stuff!

I have a couple of questions and was wondering if anyone could help me in choosing the correct path to take.

I own a sport/fishing shop in the small town of Malmesbury in the Western Cape. I started the shop at the beginning of last year in less than ideal shop – zero walk by trade, but after a while word of mouth started to work and trade picked up – I am terrible at spending on advertising and spent under R3000 for the year. A couple of months ago I was approached by the guys that run our version of a mall to move to a vacant shop – this, after a bit of soul searching, I have done and have been in my new shop for around a month. I have had to hire one full time staff member now – but things on the whole are looking good, there is definitely a little cash at the end of the tunnel!

I have already established that I need to register for VAT – should I be thinking of also changing from a sole proprietor to a CC? I rather like the idea of my rather basic books – but maybe I should step up a gear? Sales should be around the R400 – R600K.

How do I go about putting my employee on the books as such? She gets a basic plus overtime and commission. Does it make a difference if I am a sole prop VS CC?

My stock control is terrible – is there a cheap way/system to barcode my stock?

Thanks for your time!