Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

colestreet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 104 posts

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#11

Post by jclos »

tucson wrote: post #2

Thanks for the post. What I find annoying is that to simply test a business idea where you need to store subscriber's email addresses you normally need to register at the CNIL for which you need a registered company which requires what is described in the article. It feels backwards somehow: you need to register a company (with all the paperwork involved) before you even know if it can work.

I think that this sort of stuff is why a lot of people are afraid to create start-ups in France. Yes, there are huge taxes, but huge taxes provide a benefit (living in a decent society). This on the other hand is just an artifact from the past that nobody has bothered changing, much like how universities ask students for photocopies of every degree they got every damned year, or how much physical paper is used for trivial stuff that should be computerized.

(just to clarify, I am not against the CNIL, just against the hoop-jumping mentality)

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#12

Post by kpao »

When I read things like this, I'm glad that I was in the US at the time I had the opportunity to create my app business (flight sim app for mobile). My school mates who are still in France are having a hard time with all the overhead of french bureaucracy when doing anything... most of them are thinking of moving abroad at some point.

The whole process in the US was so easy, finding a bank was a total non issue.

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#13

Post by yummyfajitas »

thenomad wrote: post #7
davidw wrote: post #6

0. Hop on a train and do it in London instead? Is that realistic, especially if you're unsure of success and don't want to go through all the bureaucracy?

With the current British government angling to leave the EU at present, that's a decision that might have unpleasant consequences in a few years for any French entrepreneur that tried this, even assuming it's practical now.

Even if Britain leaves the EU, is it really likely that they will leave the EEC?

The French entrepreneur cares about free trade, not much else. And I can't see Britain or Europe shutting down trade, regardless of whether Britain sticks around or leaves.

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#14

Post by [deleted] »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #13
thenomad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the current British government angling to leave the EU at present, that's a decision that might have unpleasant consequences in a few years for any French entrepreneur that tried this, even assuming it's practical now.

Even if Britain leaves the EU, is it really likely that they will leave the EEC? The French entrepreneur cares about free trade, not much else. And I can't see Britain or Europe shutting down trade, regardless of whether Britain sticks around or leaves.

[deleted]

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#15

Post by thibaut_barrere »

kpao wrote: post #12

When I read things like this, I'm glad that I was in the US at the time I had the opportunity to create my app business (flight sim app for mobile). My school mates who are still in France are having a hard time with all the overhead of french bureaucracy when doing anything... most of them are thinking of moving abroad at some point. The whole process in the US was so easy, finding a bank was a total non issue.

I don't know really; I started my company 8 years ago and it didn't appear to be that much of a hassle to be honest. I could find 3 banks willing to take us onboard in an afternoon.

And I only pay 140€/mo for the whole family health-care extension :P

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#16

Post by thibaut_barrere »

davidw wrote: post #6

0. Hop on a train and do it in London instead? Is that realistic, especially if you're unsure of success and don't want to go through all the bureaucracy?

If one week at most of bureaucracy is enough to stop your success, then you're not very likely to meet success anyway, since much bigger challenges await down the road :-)

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#17

Post by arethuza »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #13
thenomad wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the current British government angling to leave the EU at present, that's a decision that might have unpleasant consequences in a few years for any French entrepreneur that tried this, even assuming it's practical now.

Even if Britain leaves the EU, is it really likely that they will leave the EEC? The French entrepreneur cares about free trade, not much else. And I can't see Britain or Europe shutting down trade, regardless of whether Britain sticks around or leaves.

My understanding is that the EEC merged into the EC which then became the EU - so I don't think the UK has the option to stay part of the EEC and leave the EU.

Certainly EEC isn't a term that you here very often these days.

NB Perhaps you mean EFTA rather than the EEC?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Association

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#18

Post by thibaut_barrere »

raverbashing wrote: post #10
thibaut_barrere wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed on the banks: read my comment on the article, we pay 15€/mo for top notch service (used to pay more for sub-par service). Pick a bank that is entrepreneur-friendly, not all are interested.

Ah, you're using Credit Agricole. Mine was BNP Paribas, not sure which one the person in the article is using.

I can relate to what he wrote since initially I was at the CIC, which historically was good for entrepreneurs, but jumped the shark at some point, starting to sell me Virgin mobile phones etc instead of focusing on their core job.

Switching was easy and totally worth it!

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#19

Post by eps »

Can anyone comment on what it's like to run a startup or a smaller high-tech outlet in France? Taxes, social insurance / humangous vacations, bureaucracy matters - the boring day to day stuff. I'm sure I'm not the only one playing with an idea of moving to Europe, so a first hand account would be much appreciated.

Re: Starting your first business in France? Here are the steps, and some great tips

#20

Post by thibaut_barrere »

raverbashing wrote: post #3

Good tips Well, the bank thing seems exaggerated. Did they pick one of the main banks or one tiny one? Yes, I have had an account on France. Sure, mine was a personal account, but it was pretty straightforward. Online banking worked fine (true, I haven't done transfers) The weirdest thing (for me) about the French banking system (apart from cheques that rip from the widest margin of the book) is what they call a RIB…

Also: this is a must-read for anyone willing to start a company in France:

http://www.rsi.fr//change-user/pied-de-page/espace-telecharg...

It compares the various kind of company structures, how taxes will work for each case etc, with simulations.

Post reply on HN