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

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

#71

Post by guylhem »

rodelrod wrote: post #68
guylhem wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don't forget that should you succeed you'd be regarded with jalousy and hatred. While the rest of your article may have some exaggerations, that's true and that's what is shaping my decision. I can live with some insecurity, I can live with deadbeat companies trying to avoid paying their bills and laws preventing me from hiring - I'll just go solo and focus on foreign clients. But if on top of that I'm hated and di…

I live there, just next to the train station that you describe as being in a war state, and while there are worrying incidents in the outskirts and suspicious neighbourhoods, center Paris is by far the safest city I've ever lived in, and the only one where my women friends feel safe enough to walk alone at 3am. If we're playing the anedoctal evidence game, the only place I was ever seriously threatened ("I will kill…

Please enlighten me.

Were you living in the Caribbean, or just a tourist? What were you doing? By any chance, were you going to the friday night?

(St Lucia is right next to my island - been there too, there is some unsafety but nothing too worrying)

There is not so much hate- we have people from all shapes and colors, and all creeds too. But FYI, in some places, including in the FWI, you should know tourist are not very welcome. They look for the sun, booze, girls but also for trouble. They hold sightseeing tours on the most poverty stricken areas and are arrogant. Many of them see local as dummies from the 3rd world.

So we don't really like them - personally I don't. We are not a bordello or a zoo, but just normal places were people work and live.

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

#72

Post by byroot »

guylhem wrote: post #63
epsylon wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FUD is strong in this post again. Please keep your political unargumented opinions for yourself. > all the immigrants can't find job and suddenly they accelerate the fall of the GDP (due to all the wellfare-state benefits that have to be paid). In 2009, of the 600 billion euros spent by the french government on welfare [1], 45% were allocated towards elder care, 35% towards general health care, 10% towards family…

> few French don't realize how awesome health care is in France And even fewer don't realize how good it can be in other countries too. Social security pays a percentage, the rest is up to you - you have a commercial insurance or a mutuelle. But some costs still are for your to pay. I work in healthcare. There are countries where in fact you don't have to pay at all. They have delay issues (try Quebec!) but if you ar…

> They have delay issues (try Quebec!)

Yeah .. 2 or 3 weeks to get a appointent with a doctor, 6 to 8h at the emergency service at the hospital. I prefer to be sick in France than in Quebec.

> There are already riots every 3 to 4 years, large scale ones.

Come on ! There was 2005[0], and 2007[1] but that's all. Both were due to a police blunder (or at least a supposed one). Only civil security handled it. There was no army involved.

Appart from these two ones, I don't recall any other "riot". And they are very localised (very poor suburbs).

> If there was a way to make a profit on my bet, I'd bet on civil war in mainland france within 15 years - and edge my bet with a smaller one, curfew and martial law within 10 years.

I hear that sentence since 20 years. It's a banality that is said by a lot of french right extremists and racists. They dream of a war to get rid of immigrants. It's sad and start to be boring.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_civil_unrest_in_France [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_civil_unrest_in_France

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

#73

Post by epsylon »

guylhem wrote: post #63
epsylon wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FUD is strong in this post again. Please keep your political unargumented opinions for yourself. > all the immigrants can't find job and suddenly they accelerate the fall of the GDP (due to all the wellfare-state benefits that have to be paid). In 2009, of the 600 billion euros spent by the french government on welfare [1], 45% were allocated towards elder care, 35% towards general health care, 10% towards family…

> few French don't realize how awesome health care is in France And even fewer don't realize how good it can be in other countries too. Social security pays a percentage, the rest is up to you - you have a commercial insurance or a mutuelle. But some costs still are for your to pay. I work in healthcare. There are countries where in fact you don't have to pay at all. They have delay issues (try Quebec!) but if you ar…

I'm not saying French health care is magical (comes at no cost) or perfect (could not be improved), I'm just saying that it's pretty damn good, and that for the majority of French people it turns out to be something they want to keep.

>No, not very long. There are already riots every 3 to 4 years, large scale ones.

It's all a question of perspective. We haven't seen anything like the LA riots, for example. And riot control has been for decades the jurisdiction of the police force and I sincerely doubt there would be the need for the army to intervene.

>If there was a way to make a profit on my bet, I'd bet on civil war in mainland france within 15 years - and edge my bet with a smaller one, curfew and martial law within 10 years.

I wouldn't be so sure.

>We badly miss a libertarian party in France. There's no hope in sight.

There's no hope in sight unfortunately because the whole political system is tightly controlled by politicians and closed to any new party. But I don't think that the grass is much greener anywhere else in the world.

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

#74

Post by wsc981 »

epsylon wrote: post #54
martinced wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are 100% spot on. I moved to Belgium (like many "wealthy" french people do) and will probably move further away. The situation in the eurozone is really degrading quickly: it's not gonna get better with the second state default of Greece and the 50% unemployment amongst young people in Spain. Portugal, Italy and France (Greece is economically dead as of now) are on life support. France let way too many people in…

The FUD is strong in this post again. Please keep your political unargumented opinions for yourself. > all the immigrants can't find job and suddenly they accelerate the fall of the GDP (due to all the wellfare-state benefits that have to be paid). In 2009, of the 600 billion euros spent by the french government on welfare [1], 45% were allocated towards elder care, 35% towards general health care, 10% towards family…

Perhaps some of his post might not be completely true, but I expect much the same. Recently I read that unemployment in France has risen to 15%. More unemployment means more people have little money to spend. Because of less spending, there will be reduced export from Northern-Europe countries to Southern-Europe countries. As a result unemployment in Northern-Europe will rise as well.

If the situation stays like this for a while, social unrest will increase. The increased social unrest could create a very nasty situation in Europe.

I really hope I have a chance to emigrate from my country (The Netherlands) in the next 5 years or so, cause I don't expect the situation to improve, at least not without lots of violence involved.

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

#75

Post by ckarmann »

I have been there, done that. In my experience, the problems do not end after the business creation. If you are like I was, an unemployed guy trying to start its own business with a few equally unemployed associates, you applied for the ACCRE subvention which was, at that time (2005) the worst piece of bureaucratic form I ever experienced. Then you get a load of accounting obligations. The "siege social" was at my own address and I had to move after a while, which produced another round of bureaucracy hoopla to change the business address. It took some time and the post office was refusing to give me my mail as long as I couldn't give a Kbis with the new address. I haven't had the chance to have employees before the business collapsed, but what I've read about what to do when you hire people and the risk you take was very untempting.

Now the things has apparently been better, and a new very simplified status has been created for one-person businesses (the "auto-entrepreneur"). It is my status right now and it is quite fine. But if I start earning too much money (more than 30K euros a year) I'm forced to change my status and go trough all this again.

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

#76

Post by gadders »

arethuza wrote: post #55
gadders wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha ha. "We want Scotland to be an independent country! And that sacrifice its independence to the EU." Yeah, that's logical.

Well, as I'm more attached to the EU than the UK it seems perfectly logical to me.

Anglo-phobe! ;-)

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

#77

Post by wsc981 »

rdtsc wrote: post #58
martinced wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are 100% spot on. I moved to Belgium (like many "wealthy" french people do) and will probably move further away. The situation in the eurozone is really degrading quickly: it's not gonna get better with the second state default of Greece and the 50% unemployment amongst young people in Spain. Portugal, Italy and France (Greece is economically dead as of now) are on life support. France let way too many people in…

What are you thoughts, or maybe anyone else's on South America? Argentina, Chile, or Brazil?

I'm hoping to plan my next holiday to Chile so I get a better feel for the country. With that said, here are my observations so far...

I suspect Chile might be an pretty good country to live in. From the Wikipedia page it's stated that perceived corruption is low. The country has a major focus on IT (start-up Chile) and has a nice Mediterranean climate around Santiago. Spanish should also be an easy language to learn, I try to follow the free DuoLingo courses. It's also a major wine country :) I really like the ValdiVieso wines from Chile.

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

#78

Post by seanmcdirmid »

guylhem wrote: post #69
ckarmann wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the problem in France is the dire state of the political discourse, full of empty diatribes and finger-pointing that prevent focus on real, practical problems with painful solutions. Sadly your commentary is an example of this. Immigration is not a problem to the welfare state (it has been shown that new immigrants pay off for what they obtain) and socialists are not the only culprits when the welfare state yo…

This is the single most insightful comment in this thread. That's close to what the Economist said on that issue - the socialists have the political power to make such reports. These are centrist reforms - partly libertarian, partly social, but given the current status of France they are among the only possible solutions. Regarding immigration, it's not a problem when it's selected immigration like some country do -…

>Immigration is a problem if you are welcoming workers with little education, who come from social or religious group who holds their beliefs are superior and better than anyone else's, and are more likely to develop hatred towards the host country and grow that hate when they are forced into a social net they have no hope of escaping - and that'll also be forced on their kids due to racism etc.

Are you quoting Rush Limbaugh?

>How good could it be for say Isreal to welcome immigration in open arms from say Iran ?

This doesnt make sense, there were plenty of Iranian Jews who immigrated to Isreal. From what I understand, Isreal will take you if you are Jewish, they aren't very selective.

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

#79

Post by gadders »

arrrg wrote: post #57
gadders wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of free trade agreements that don't rely on this harmonisation. Unfortunately the EU is set on a course of political union, which I think the majority of the UK would not want to be part of.

Free trade agreements do not create common markets. (Well, they can, but if they do they include some sort of harmonization of relevant laws). Plus, the UK already excludes itself from practically all non-common-market activities of the EU. They aren't participating there anyway. I also think you are confused about what creating a common market entails. It necessitates common political decisions. The common sticking…

So if the laws that are raised relate only to trade and free movement, then fine. However, what about rules such as the maximum working time directive? Or limiting banker bonuses? Those are examples of a non-trade related laws that are imposed on the UK.

The goal of the EU isn't free trade, it is political union.

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

#80

Post by seanmcdirmid »

rtpg wrote: post #59
ctek wrote: post #26

Can anyone explain European rubber stamp-fetishism? Has there ever been a study done showing that rubber stamping practically everything (20 euro purchase at an electronics store) is effective in preventing forging of documents? To an outsider visiting continental Europe the practice looks redundant and almost comical.

It's just a way of identifying that a document is 'officially' from the company. Ideally you just lock up the stamp in a drawer. You can probably forge it just as easily as others, but at least with the stamp multiple people can "sign" for the company. In my experience it was more useful than anything. also: it's not euro-only. Go to Japan for a laugh if you want.

China also.

And then there is also the fapiao (stamped receipt).

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