Hi all,

I have been reading here on the forum for a few hours now,
and i can not find the proper help/how to.
before anyone gives handy link to a site you should know i do not speak a word French and my German ain't super either.

I want to start a one man company doing gardening painting DIY stuff.
what do i need to know?
what are the costs?

I also want to see what it would take to be able to become a importer of EU products like Dutch liquorice speculaas etc, and slotcar products.
most of it will be sold on a web based shop

I have a B-Permit and at the moment i am financially supported by my other half, we do OK but i need to start something of my own. i can not be the housewife

we live in Vaud-Pampigny.

any info would be very much appreciated accept comments like :
there is plenty info here.
read the forum etc, links to English or even better to Dutch sites are helpful, even better would be information from people who have done something similar, or have good knowledge of the how to.

Thanks for your replies.
Cheers,
Jaak

P.s (cant find the edit button.)

But i am Dutch, so an EU citizen.

If you are narrowing the possible answers like that, then you surely don't want much help.

You sure there is a market for your product and services in your area? If you do web sales, do you have a platform to work with? Are you familiar with the costs involved? A little research is important. We can help out with answers to specific questions... Broad questions, like yours, are tough to answer.

There is plenty to read, so do it! Here, I will even help you out with one link:
Here
This works too

Basically, costs are dependent on your Canton. Check with your local City Hall for details.

Whether or not it is worth importing or not depends on your (IMO) tax status, you can purchase (within CH and over the borders) and have the MwSt. deducted. Otherwise, you pay and expect the customer to pay more too. Sure that someone else is not already importing and selling your idea/product here in Switzerland?

There is lots to learn. My suggestion is to learn to communicate in the language you plant to do business in. Discuss, answer questions and read as a minimum. Most customers would love to speak English, if they are not forced.

Good luck, try to rephrase your questions after doing a little more looking around the web and your locals officials yourself. The best way to be best informed is searching the net (you will learn lots of other stuff parallel).

bests

The following is the link to the offical federal website for small and medium business operators. It allows you to download most of the documents you may need to establish a business and has a wealth of information.

https://www.kmuadmin.ch/

Caveat: it is only available in German, Italian and French.

Hi Scott,

Thank you for your reply,
I would like to know why you assume i do not want that much help?
I simply stated that a comment like : there is plenty info here, is not really helpful on its own, and i have seen a lot of comments like that, and that information in French would be useless info to me because i do not understand it, that sounds logical to me and does not mean i do not want much help, i just want useful help.

I also want to thank you for the links,
i will have a good read there, and see if i can narrow any questions i have left a bit down.

About the market for the products i have enough knowledge about the examples i gave, i also have a worldwide platform of connections in the products i want to import export, and i am also very capable to make a own website.

I plan to do business in English, but i will start a French course asap.

I am sorry but i do not know what (IMO) and MwSt means?

About a research of the market i want to step in, i am very aware of the potential of it, and don't get me wrong but i am a bit reluctant to give all information about it since someone else might get the bright idea of doing it before me.

I was researching the net for three days that is how i cam across this English forum which seems like a very good place to be, i was just disappointed in the amount of times i find a website that seems to have useful info until you get redirected to a link that is in French or is dead*
* not working


Hi Mica,

I want to also thank you for the link, i was hoping there was a English website that would have the necessary info, but i am getting pretty certain that it does not exist, i can understand the German it only takes longer for me to read it, but that is not a problem.

Thanks again for the replies they are very appreciated.

cheers,
Jaak

IMO = In my opinion
MwStr is short for Mehrwertsteuer = Value added tax (VAT), BTW in Dutch, TVA in French.

Hi Graham,

Thank you for explaining what it means.

Cheers,
Jaak

Hello Jaak

1. one important point for you is to find the way swiss purchase products.

ie try to find what is the estimate of online sales in Switzerland
then for the same type of products you plan to sale. and is it really a product you can sale online ?

2. then if you plan to sell online , you need an online shopping cart.
have a look at open source like http://www.magentocommerce.com/
great cart and free. (however quite technical if you plan to do modifications to the code: you need to know MVC framework and objected oriented language. it you want to use it as is , then very easy)


3. need to define shipping costs for your products: ie are your products light or heavy ?
mail order may not be adapted to your products because too heavy and not competitive for the individual shipping.


4. you need to define payment processor you want to use and fees.

thus before starting anything you need to have a very good idea of

- the products potential ,
- cost to import them (most likely to get a good price, you may have to buy them in bulk). thus need to finance stock and have some space to store them.
you can not really purchase them when there is a sale because the time to receive the product from your supplier and then to ship it to your client could be too long

5. then there is a very big work of marketing to do: promote the site, press releases, purchase ads, build traffic .....

it takes several months and costs money.

thus it is at least a 3- 6 months project to launch and then continuously bring traffic in order to get sales if product is unique and price attractive .

thus some market research is needed first before starting anything.

Hi Bunka,


I would like to thank you for the information,
The On-line store will be a our third income, so i have time to set it up.
I also have world wide contacts in the products i want to sell,
It will not only be for Swiss people, to be honest there not my target.
Thank you for that Link, this Maganto seems also very interesting,
and a option i will seriously reconsider.
I have a reasonable experience selling worldwide on E-bay, and know about weighing and giving the correct postage rates world wide with additional weight if more products or different products are bought.
with or without insurance and with or without priority.
Most of the making of website storefront i got down,

thanks again for your reply

The most important info i need at this moment:

What does it take in Switzerland to set one up-->

I have a B permit, but what kind of business permit do i need for that?
Will a einzel/one man company permit be sufficient.
As i want to start one, to start my own one man Handyman Company.
And can i use one business permit for both companies
And what would be the cheapest option for a permit that will be sufficient for both if possible.?


It seems tho more i read the more confused i get


Cheers,
Jaak

Yes. You can work on both companies. You don't need a business license as such. You need to update your permit to being employed as an independent (if you choose that route, but it's probably the easiest).

Your best bet is to do it as an independent. You do not need to register for VAT until you make over CHF75K per year. For the "handy man" gardener, I don't know if you need some type of certification. Your best bet is to go talk to the people at the registre du commerce in Moudon. They will tell you everything you need to know. But, you will need to speak French (bring someone who can translate for you).

You can import all your items, but you may need to pay import duties and customs charges for amounts over x and for food follow the labeling requirements.

I hate to say it but: there are plenty of links that tell all of this. I know Richard have even, at one point, provided a link that discusses import categories and tariffs.

Find user "Richard" and look through his posts.

Thank you miniMia,

That is very useful info.
I am still reading Help for Businesses/Freelancers in CH
but got confused with the different types of companies that are being dealt with in that thread, i do know Richard has a wealth of knowledge on all subjects it seems, he is like the walking business Bible.
the response i gave in my post is because these are the things i am still reading about and am trying to figure out. not if there is a market for my products etc, i will go back to reading more about it.
and it is no problem that you mentioned that there are plenty of links that tell all this. i am sure i will come across them or have already i first want to finish reading a few threads. before i start reading all the links i gathered.(English - German ones)
Thanks again

Cheers,
Jaak

Hi Jaak,

I'm doing something similar, setting myself up as an independent. I got lots of advice etc. but in the end I went to my local office du population and asked them (in English) what I need to do. They gave me a form to fill in and a list of documents I need to submit (like a Business Plan, which can be done in English). Now I just have to send this off and wait a few months for them to get back to me - voila! Sounds simple enough to me...but watch this space.

I will try and answer the open points in this thread.

Melitta: You only need to register with AHV if you want to be "an independent" and potentially get a permit if the trade is restricted in the location you want to perform it in. Note some "trades" are banned in some Cantons!! Usually these are exotic things such as palm reading or whatever.

Jaak: You want to set yourself up as a sole trader painting and doing gardens etc. To do this you need to go to the local commune/town hall/gemeinde and register with the AHV that you want to have your own business. Generally you need to define the branch that you are working in. As we are in Switzerland there is no such thing as odd jobs - you would be a painter, then a gardener and then a seller of products. BUT you only need the one registration. Your business can incorporate these multiple tasks. If becomes more difficult if you are aiming to form a company. There is no issue in doing the things you are briefly describing with the exception of importing food where the Swiss regulations for resale in Switzerland might well make this unviable.
Being very specific:
I have a B permit, but what kind of business permit do i need for that?
No business permit, just registration with the AHV that you are intending to operate a business.


Will a einzel/one man company permit be sufficient - yes, but not needed.
As i want to start one, to start my own one man Handyman Company.
And can i use one business permit for both companies. They are not companies as such just businesses and the "permit" as such is that you can work independently not per business.

And what would be the cheapest option for a permit that will be sufficient for both if possible.? To go down to the local town hall and register with AHV/AVS that you will be working independently and as such you will pay your own contributions. This costs precisely nothing but will mean contributing at least CHF 445 per year which is the minimum contribution for incomes up to 8900 p.a.

Hi guys,

I have been a long time away but i managed thanks to some of you.
Thank you all for your help

All i need to figure out now is how i do the taxes