Hi all,
Andy the total business novice here again.

I'm starting an online research business in Lausanne (sole proprietorship) and think I will pay startups.ch to do the hard work as my french and german are not good enough to do things myself.

I've been confronted with a number of 'deals' from this company. If you subscribe and pay for other companys' services, your fee to startups.ch (500 chf) reduces/ indeed can go to zero.

However, being a business-newbie, I've no idea if this is a good idea! Here is what is being offered. I've appending asterixes to what I think I will go for.

swiss Post 'account management and e-banking' (-150 chf)
winterthur insurance (-500 chf)
sunrise telephoney/internet (-100 to -300 chf)
***sage 100 business and accounting software (-250 chf, but one +500 chf software cost)
aduno creditcard payments (-250 chf)
creditreform (-500 chf)
canon printing (-250 chf)
interexperts SA tax (-500 chf).

I can see the benefit of good accounting software, but I do wonder if there exists opensource packages out there that can also do the job.

So, my question, should I avoid the above deals or not?

Thanks so much for any help on this issue.
Andy.

I would strongly recommend you to consult a treuhand (company accountant) or equivalent before you proceed - if your french and german are not good enough for you to do the company formation yourself, I think you may struggle badly with the raft of official (and dodgy fake!) paperwork that will hit you after company formation.