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French President announces pro-business measures

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Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#121

Post by yardie »

ekianjo wrote: post #21
rikacomet wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from a Indian guy, planning on coming to France for Higher Studies: France is sprinting now, when others are exhausted (USA, UK, China, India).. France is where it is right now.

There are surely more Frenchmen settling in China right now than Chinese or Indians wanting to come and set up a business in France. I have no idea where you get impression it works the other way around.

> Frenchmen settling in China right now than Chinese or Indians wanting to come and set up a business in France

That's a pretty bold claim. Outside my window are quite a few chinese businesses. Not necessarily the YC-type though. Import/exports, textiles, restaurants, restaurant suppliers, etc. I'm sure for every frenchman that goes to China there are 100 Chinese coming here to start a small, family run enterprise.

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#122

Post by white_devil »

rikacomet wrote: post #79
jacquesm wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you should get some first hand experience there first before making such grand statements. France is in fairly deep trouble in spite of nominally getting out of the current recession early (in part because of a massive increase of public debt), it's Southern neighbor Spain (and major trading partner) is doing (much) worse. There are a lot of people working hard to try to solve this but to say that France is 'sp…

During depression, opportunities exist.

A collapse offers even better opportunities!

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#123

Post by MetaCosm »

archivator wrote: post #110
kybernetyk wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When entrepreneurs move to Berlin to work on their companies I'd say you have a real problem if that happens. Germany is pretty entrepreneur unfriendly (source: I'm an entrepreneur in Germany) and if your country is even worse ... well.

Huh, I've heard only good things about the startup scene in Berlin. What are some of the main issues from your perspective, if you don't mind elaborating?

Insiders only need apply. The over-regulation does nothing but protect the existing players and stifling start-up competition across dozens of industries.

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#124

Post by yardie »

smoyer wrote: post #116
yardie wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in France and I'm still trying to wrap my head around the 35-hour rule. I've only worked PMEs ( * General salaries are sort of trapped outside the big cities. You can work 35-hours but don't expect any pay raises. I think the avg salary is around 1500€/mo. I would say most people have built there lives around the 35-hour week and even though it's not an upper limit anymore I haven't noticed an uptick in workin…

Thanks for the information ... After working 60-80 hour weeks on the start-ups I've done, I just couldn't imagine how it would have been possible with the old laws.

You could, but that is a very big brass ring to put in front of your employees. If you are working that many hours there better be a good reason, like a big payday. Startups are different than PMEs because the only way you would even think about working 60+ hours is if you have some equity in the success of the company.

There are 2 ways the 35 hour week works:

1) You are paid for 35 hours/wk and work as much as you want all year long. December arrives and you go full RTT. You basically take a vacation while the company pays you the balance of those over 35 hour weeks. I've been in a few places where half the office is gone for the entire month of December, and sometimes November. If you don't use all your RTT by 31/12 you've basically worked for free.

2) Overtime. In my case my CDI (employee contract) is for 35 hours + 4 overtime hours that I've agreed to. Say the company only wants me to work 35hours/wk one month, too bad pay me 35+4. And if I go over 39 hours? RTT. Depending on the workplace, this can either get collegial or hostile very quickly.

Also, when it's 7-8 hours of work the french really do work those hours. This is in contrast to my American observation of working 6-7 and goofing off for 2-3. But then you're always having to stay late. This pacing requires proper project management, something that was really lacking in most of my american bosses (Americans tend to inherit the manager job, to go cadre in France you actually have to take courses on managing people).

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#125

Post by bvrlt »

civilian wrote: post #7

The visa thing is nice. Simplifying capital gains tax is awesome. I can't say that I'm a big fan of the tax breaks though. We shouldn't subsidize any business, they should fail or succeed on their own merits.

Agreed with "own merits" but that would be true is competition was local. Once you start compete with Delaware-based company, tax breaks can help and make it more fair.

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#126

Post by [deleted] »

jacquesm wrote: post #64

When French entrepreneurs move to Berlin and London to work on their companies you know you have a problem. France's capital gain taxes are a real issue, and even the new, changed and improved rates will not do much to counteract this. And that's just one of the things working against French entrepreneurs, the various employment laws don't help a whole lot either. It would be fair to class France as start-up hostile…

[deleted]

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#127

Post by subsystem »

kybernetyk wrote: post #106
jacquesm wrote: post #64

When French entrepreneurs move to Berlin and London to work on their companies you know you have a problem. France's capital gain taxes are a real issue, and even the new, changed and improved rates will not do much to counteract this. And that's just one of the things working against French entrepreneurs, the various employment laws don't help a whole lot either. It would be fair to class France as start-up hostile…

> When entrepreneurs move to Berlin to work on their companies I'd say you have a real problem if that happens. Germany is pretty entrepreneur unfriendly (source: I'm an entrepreneur in Germany) and if your country is even worse ... well.

I think what started the startup scene in Berlin was largely low rents and an exciting city more than if it's entrepreneur friendly. On the other hand a lot of entrepreneur seem to complain just out of inexperience in business.

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#128

Post by bradfordarner »

This is phenomenal news for France! After having married a French woman, lived in France and subsequently we moved back to the U.S., I realized how far behind France was in the entrepreneurial game when compared to the States. Yet, there are really brilliant people in France! These measures are definitely a step forward. I will be interested to see if they speak about it on Le Grand Journal this evening. Once we have children, we have thought about moving back to France because the education system is so good but, we have been very pessimistic about doing so because entrepreneurship is so looked down upon.

Unfortunately, I don’t think Hollande’s efforts are going to have too great an effect long-term. My experience has indicated that the French system is set up in such a way as to reward people who don’t take any risks. It is not simply the banking system or taxes that is to blame. There is a cultural stigma against taking risks that does not exist in the States. The education system is at least 100x better than the best schools in America, yet good test score count for very little when it comes to the hustle required in entrepreneurship, much less web based entrepreneurship where everyone is brilliant and hard working. There is simply not the same commitment to innovation. I often felt that I had made a faux pas when I lived in France and spoke about different business ideas at dinner or a party.

Unfortunately, politics is not the only problem holding the many brilliant people in France back from innovating and changing the world. In France, it is not culturally acceptable to want to be like Elon Musk.

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#129

Post by varjag »

ovi256 wrote: post #107
vacri wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A load of tosh. "Income tax rates in France" in google gives you them with ease. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_France#Taxes_on_inc... In order to hit 40% income tax, you have to be a single on 70k or a nuclear family on 210k. Even if they have 20% VAT equivalent, that only works out to another 10% of what's left, leaving 50% as disposable income. And that's the highest tax bracket, and given that the avera…

>There are many hidden taxes such as 'social security insurance payed by employer'. He's taking about hidden taxes such as this one, which is paid by the employer, so many French people I've talked to about it seem to think it's somehow magically not money out of their pocket.

You can see those as compulsory 401(k), health and disability insurance.

Re: French President announces pro-business measures

#130

Post by claudius »

return0 wrote: post #105
claudius wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because, err, Dubai is such an extremely democratic country where it is absolutely guaranteed that the government will jump in if you fail and where there is a large social security net in case your company goes bankrupt? Really, Cyprus and Malta are not that different from Dubai, and neither is their business model. The difference is that Cyprus and Malta are part of a larger entity that guarantees certain things, s…

Hey i'm not claiming it's a better place to live in. The point is, businesses are mobile nowadays and europe is doing everything it can to scare them away.

That certainly depends on the business, and given sufficient political interest, it is rather easy, especially for an economic area as large as Europe, to shut out external businesses exploiting tax loopholes or subsidies abroad.
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