Home / Registered business
What the registered business mark means
Some listings carry a Registered business mark. It is worth knowing exactly what we checked to put it there, because it is narrower than it might sound.
What we checked
That the company’s registration number appears on the CIPC register, that the company is in business, and that the registered name belongs to the business on the listing. We re-check once a year, because companies get deregistered and a mark nobody looks at again stops being true.
What we did not check
Whether they are any good. Whether they are solvent. Whether they are insured, qualified, or have ever done a wedding. Whether they will turn up.
The mark is a fact about a company register. It is not a recommendation, and it is not a guarantee. A registered company can still take your deposit and disappear — so the advice in our terms about never paying into a personal account, and verifying banking details by phoning a number you found yourself, applies to everyone on this site without exception.
If a listing has no mark
It means nothing at all, and we want to be emphatic about that.
In South Africa a sole proprietor has no CIPC registration to check. There is no number, because none is issued. Most wedding suppliers are sole proprietors — photographers, florists, makeup artists, DJs, cake makers, celebrants — and many of them are the best people in the business. A blank space where the mark would be says only that there was nothing for us to look up.
Judge a supplier on their work, their reviews, and the conversation you have with them. That is what all of this is for.
It cannot be bought
The mark has nothing to do with paying for a listing. A paid listing without a registration gets no mark; a free listing with a valid one gets it. If it could be bought it would be worth nothing, and you would be right not to trust it.
Registered, and want the mark? Add your registration number from your dashboard. Think a mark is on a listing that shouldn’t have one? Tell us.