41–50 of 101 posts
I don't trust this list at all. I have just formed a company in Ireland and Portugal. Ireland is ranked 7 and Portugal ranked 48. In reality Portugal was about 3 times faster than Ireland, but cost about double.
I'm curious if anyone has worked for a company in Singapore, done lots of business with one, or better yet started one. By these rankings and the stereotypes I've learned it basically seems like a capitalist's paradise, with practically the whole society being pro-business and a gigantic minority of the population (42% according to Wikipedia) being foreign workers/students.
Except there's no startup ecosystem and the culture is very traditional.
Ranking for the G8 nations: 4 - United States 5 - United Kingdom 8 - Canada 15 - Japan 25 - Germany 31 - France 78 - Italy 120 - Russia With the exception of Russia, which has its roots in communism, Italy is by far the worst G8 country you could start a business in.
This (again) makes me wonder what Italy is doing in G8. Let's give China or Spain a shot.
Let's give China or SpainBrazil a shot
NPR story: http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/10/04/130329523/how-fake...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're wrong here. For certain businesses, foreign ownership can be the full 100%. When we opened our business here, we actually had the change to go this route, but choose not to because it would have been more hassle though. But I am also wondering how accurate this list is. And what qualifies as a "business"? Here in Thailand, many small businesses don't requite any form of legal entity and opening a small shop fo…
> You're wrong here. For certain businesses, foreign ownership can be the full 100%. When we opened our business here, we actually had the change to go this route, but choose not to because it would have been more hassle though. Could you elaborate on how it went with your business? I'd like to learn more because I like some parts of Thailand, but I always heard differently. Here's the top google result, for instance…
As far as our own company goes: we registered our first company a few years (2?) back and when we went into the process, we were also still under the impression that the foreign shareholders can only hold up to 49% of the shares. However, we quickly found out it was indeed possible for foreigners to fully own the company (according to the government official the regulations changed about a year before that). But we also quickly learned that this route would mean tons more paperwork and it would become more costly. We also needed to present our paperwork to the BOI, pay extra fees and hope they would accept the paperwork. And according to the government official, we would expose our company to tighter control from the government (which would probably mean more "tea money" as well). So, in the end we decided against full foreign ownership, although it was an option we considered.
I realize many people are negative against owning a business here Thailand, perhaps due to bad experiences. I can only speak for myself (and a few relations who enjoy doing business here as well). Maybe I should mention I don't actually do business here, we pretty much only work with customers abroad. I love living and working here and wouldn't want it any other way for the time being!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> You're wrong here. For certain businesses, foreign ownership can be the full 100%. When we opened our business here, we actually had the change to go this route, but choose not to because it would have been more hassle though. Could you elaborate on how it went with your business? I'd like to learn more because I like some parts of Thailand, but I always heard differently. Here's the top google result, for instance…
The way described in the article is indeed the way it has been until a few years back, but recent governments have made some attempts to become more open for foreign entrepreneurs; granted, it's still hard sometimes but I do have the feeling it's getting better. As far as our own company goes: we registered our first company a few years (2?) back and when we went into the process, we were also still under the impress…
In fact the only trouble I had at all was that PayPal wouldn't let me sign up with a business that had been started that day - I had to wait until the day after to start taking payments.
One of the few government interactions I've ever had that left me in a better mood afterwards.
Interesting that the countries with the most startups (USA, Israel, some in Europe, etc) aren't that highly ranked compared to surprises like Saudi Arabia. I really didn't expect Israel to be so low and Saudi Arabia so high. Anyone know why?
Starting a business in the United States is a little like pulling your own teeth while getting your fingernails trimmed with a wood chipper. The fact that it still ranks fourth overall just indicates how much worse most of the rest of the world is. It's amazing to me that so many nations (the US included) seem to want it to be so difficult for people to succeed in business.
I set up a Georgia LLC in the course of an afternoon. State registration, federal EIN, bank account. Income for the LLC is treated as personal income for me (it's a single member LLC that's disregarded by the IRS), so even taxes aren't that complicated. Perhaps I'm doing something very wrong or very illegal, but nothing I've read seems to suggest that. What did you find to be so much more painful?
It requires a lawyer to be even reasonably sure (as opposed to completely sure) you aren't doing something illegal. If I have to choose between paying for a lawyer I can ill afford and wondering for the first three years of starting the business whether I'm going to end up in court for doing it wrong, the process of setting up a business is not easy enough.
edit: There is a difference between "setting up" a business on paper (so you can claim to have one) and being able to start actually conducting business without running the risk of pissing off government.
Ranking for the G8 nations: 4 - United States 5 - United Kingdom 8 - Canada 15 - Japan 25 - Germany 31 - France 78 - Italy 120 - Russia With the exception of Russia, which has its roots in communism, Italy is by far the worst G8 country you could start a business in.
Note that the UK produced Adam Smith and, to a nontrivial degree, the US, and Canada. The culture and early government of the US in particular was notably influenced by the ideas of Adam Smith as well. What Smith called "economic individualism" is pretty much the foundation of a strong economy, and to the extent that we stray from that two things happen:
1. individuals find it more difficult to start and run small businesses
2. the economy suffers
I am not surprised at all at the relative rankings of these G8 nations.