Sarah Griffith-Head

Thankyou for the link Teamedup, it's interesting reading and will give me some ammunition to take to the Chambre de Metiers. My instinct has always been that society here will more readily accept people working together for a common good than individuals who are in business. I am sure they could simplify the complexities involved. Heath, the reason for how Chris' metier is described is simply down to that fateful day when we went to register him. He ended up telling the Chambre de Metiers what he was going to do! When they said they would have to check to see if chainsaw sculpture was a recognised occupation or not, well, I don't think they'll forget his reaction in a hurry. I still cringe at that day, I'm afraid he has little tolerance for beaurocrats. In the end he left them to choose what they wanted to 'label' his work as, although on the registration certificate he is listed as being able to anything with wood, not just sculpture. He is not a builder, he supplies the components used in the buildings and the furniture people want to. I hope that helps. Sarahxxx

Ive heard of vintners working in coops and obviously the farmers too. I always imagined that this reduced capital outlay, therefore reducing risk. In my head, everyone working separately and independantly yet for the common goal allows the individual to retain an identity yet still feel part of a team.Maybe my notion is a bit romantic, but the SARL route wasn't exactly what I was thinking of.  I totally agree with you about having a good accountant, I'll have a look at that link you sent me, thanks alot for writing, SarahX

Chris is indeed my husband Will, I am sure he's not unknown to the forum. He has been chastised and will not be writing on this subject again! I really would like some help from somebody who has experience of this. Sarahxx  

This is a tricky one, I'll be doing battle with the Chambre de Metiers next week and thought that I might ask for some help in advance. Please bear with me, I don't find it very easy to explain clearly. My husband works mostly on the convertion and renovation of old property, he is a carpenter and furniture maker (he hates labels) and is involved from concept to completion of a project, often liasing and organising aspects of the project that would hold him up, all of which is unpaid work. He has two main men that he works alongside (both are exceptional at what they do), the three of them are seperately registered and they all share the same love of working on old property, they're a gifted threesome and will only do what they want to do but as a result come up with fantastic results which is leading to more and more enquiries. Chris and his two cohorts are not interested in chasing money (it drives me mad, I want to go shopping in Paris!) but their potential has been picked up on and Chris has had offers of investment, which he point blank refuses, saying that he's not going back down the money route. A client of ours seems to be equally exasperated with the potential of the three of them and between us we are trying to nudge the business forward. I want to be involved and so does the client of ours, he has many years of experience in business. The collective skills available really are quite amazing but yet I see Chris working so many hours when I see no need for him to have to do so. I think I have two questions. Does anyone have experience of working within a society or co-operative in France, the system will inevitably be completely different!?  My thoughts are that instead of working as individuals these wonderfully skilled people could be working as a team within a fiscal regime that maximises the financial returns. I'm sure everybody could win, and I'm sure there must be a solution, the only problem so far is Chris, he is about as stubborn as they come, he is an exceptionally determined man and has never passed any responsibility to anyone else, he's a marvellous provider but it's going to kill him, please can somebody help me to brainstorm this? If I could I would hit him with a big stick, but I don't think that would work either. I hope I am making some sense? This is very important to me, Chris, Martin and WelshChris are a fantastically gifted and creative team who work very hard, take little time off, they deserve more reward for their endeavours. Many thanks in advance, Sarahxxx    

It was lovely to hear from so many familiar sounding names, I maintain that I am totally sick of the forum, not because it's a bad place just purely because Chris is spending far too much time on it ...I actually find that quite insulting. Perhaps you could indeed create your kind of peronal banning service on my behalf and just ignore him after 30 minutes and he might just stop. I really wish you all a Happy New Year with my love   SarahXXXX

I am not Chris, I am very much Sarah...I f you could please ban hin I would be grateful, we could perhaps have evenings together again.Does anyone else feel that they are over compenseting with the internet? I am me and not chris..With love S XXX