Advice on setting up a business in France please?

[Steve]

 I have a house in France but currently live in the UK. We would dearly love to move out there full time so we are looking at potential ways of doing so. Two questions:

1) Let's say that I decide to set up a business making stocks, soups and sauces etc. that I will then sell on markets and maybe even into stores. How difficult is it to do that? Are there the same levels of bureaucracy and legislation that exist in the UK?

2) Is there a website somewhere that explains all this kind of thing?

Your help would be much appreciated

Thanks

Steve

[Bugsy]

Hi Steve,

Sorry I can't help you, we don't have a business, but if you put 'business' into the search facility box on the top right of the page you will find lots of discussions on that subject.

[Nick Trollope]

[quote user="Steve"] I have a house in France but currently live in the UK. We would dearly love to move out there full time so we are looking at potential ways of doing so. Two questions:

1) Let's say that I decide to set up a business making stocks, soups and sauces etc. that I will then sell on markets and maybe even into stores. How difficult is it to do that? Are there the same levels of bureaucracy and legislation that exist in the UK?

2) Is there a website somewhere that explains all this kind of thing?

Your help would be much appreciated

Thanks

Steve[/quote]

Hah! If you think that the bureaucracy is bad in the UK, don't try to set up a business in France. Does as Bugbear suggests, but don't be too disappointed.

Try this site, if you must...

http://www.apce.com/index.php

 

[Will]

It is basically pretty difficult to do this legally, and even harder to do it cheaply.The best possible advice is to talk to a French accountant - if you are not confident in your language abilities then there are English-speaking ones around. There are different procedures and costs depending on what you do, and the consequences of getting it wrong can be costly.

[Val_2]

There are also a lot of products and ingredients that are not allowed to be sold in France, especially certain food colours,chemicals and other non-natural ingredients ,plus the bureaucracy will be horrific. Why do you think that there is a very limited range of "foreign" foodstuffs here and even those that are world famous such as certain Heinz products or Nestlé products. As said, you would need to turnover a good deal to pay high social charges and if the products are not bought,you could end up with an expensive hole in your finances

[StartingOut]

I didn't really find it any more difficult to start a business in France than in England, except all the paperwork was in French, naturally. Whether there's a market for the products you suggest I don't know but a lot of stalls at markets do sell such like and there always seems a steady stream of punters.

I'd suggest seperating your research to what's involved in setting up a business in france and the associated social charges, they are higher than the UK but not so bad you can't make a profit - don't expect to get rich though, and seperately what saleable skills/products you have.

http://www.apce.com/index.php?type_page=IL&pays=1&rubrique_id=300000111 is a good place to start and your local chambre de metiers/commerce will help too.

All in all it's not as simple as channel 4 make out but not so difficult as others suggest and in many areas the powers that be have cottoned on to the idea that small business entrepreneurs can help the local economy.

Do get professional advice before you commit any finances as mistakes can be costly but if you've done your research and have a product people want to buy there's no reason you can't earn enough to live here full time.

If there's one piece of advice I can give it's learn French, unlike the UK, the French (quite rightly) don't have all the required info in 72 languages including Urdu and Swahili and the more you can do for yourself the better.

 

I'm with Bugbear on "The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one"

[Steve]

Thanks for all the advice!!

Steve