Table of Contents

[hemmerling] Entrepreneurship, Self-Employment, Startup Business, Founding of an Enterprise

Fairs, Expositions, Conferences, Events

News Resources

General Resources

Sources for Industry Informations

Resources for IT & Engineering Entrepreneurs

Standard Term Sheets for Startup Companies

Europe

USA

Purpose, Objective of an Enterprise

Business Model Canvas

Lean Canvas

Value Proposition Canvas

General Terms and Conditions ( German: "Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen ( AGB )" ) )

Samples, Examples

Resources

  • Q: How does a lawyer learn to write “general terms and conditions”?
  • Q: How to write “general terms and conditions”?

Business Models - "How to make Money in IT"

Business Models - "How to make Money as Software Developer"

Business Models - "How to make Money as IT Administrator"

Business Models - "How to make Money in the Web 1.0 Internet Bulb"

Business Models - "How to make Money as Web 2.0 Internet Service"

Business Models - "How to position and self-present as Designer / Creative"

Moodboard

Literature

Business Models - "How to make Money as Hardware Developer"

Dragonbox Pyra & OpenPandora

Business Startup Models "Crowdfunding" & "Crowdsourcing"

Organisations

Idea Generation

Crowdinvestment

Crowdlending

Donation based Crowdfunding ( German "Spende" )

Reward based Crowdfunding ( German "Gegenleistung" )

Public Crowdfunding Platform

GOTEO - The OpenSource Software
GOTEO - A platform for civic Crowdfunding and Collaboration on Citizen Initiatives and social, cultural, technological and educational Projects
Public Art Machine ( PAM ) - Implementation of a Regional Crowdfunding Platform for Arts & Culture with GOTEO
Resources

Some other EU Platforms

    • “Public Funding. Made Simple. FundingBox is the platform for startups and SMEs to join tech-related communities and win public funding”.
    • “FundingBox Spaces. Get access to exclusive tech communities and discussion spaces”.
    • ”#1 for startup founder deals, accelerators & funding”.
    • “F6S is where Founders grow together”.

Some other Platforms

Startup Business
  • Companisto - “Crowdfunding for Start-ups | Equity-based Crowdfunding for Start-ups”.
  • Fundsters - “Crowdfunding-Plattform für Investoren”.
  • Innovestment - “Investieren in Innovation”.
General
Travel

Tips & Tricks by Experts

  • A crowdfunding campaign is a true marketing campaign - learn about marketing campaigns for small and medium size companies & for startup companies, first.
  • A crowdfunding compaign has a 30-days starting phase, and a 90-days financing phase. As with other marketing campaigns, you should force your efforts in the first weeks and the last weeks of your campaign. So the project creator should consider to invest at least 10 hours/week during the full project crowdfunding period of 4 months.
  • Crowdfunding is not for financing “structures”, i.e. current costs of an office rental or of a car, and especially not for financing the costs of living of the creator of a crowdfunding project.
  • The creator of a crowdfunding project must be a single human ( German: “natürliche Person” ), not a company, not a society, not a group of people. The project creator needs to have a business running, usually ( i.e. in Germany a “Gewerbeanmeldung” ).
  • 80% of the donating crowd should be “friends”, “acquaintances” before start of the crowdfunding campaign ( so at least these people should “know” the project creator ), while the rest, 20%, might be total foreigners.
  • Donaters want to help to complete a project. So crowdfunding is not suitable to finance already completed projecs ( e.g. a movie which is already shot and edited, or a house which is already built ).
    • Best practice is to cut a project into pieces and look, which part of the project is the most attractive for crowdfunding.
  • A recommended length for a pitch video is 150 seconds, while the core message should be told in 90 seconds.
  • As of 2014 and Germany,
    • The recommended donation range is 5 - 75 EUR.
    • A project sum of 3000 EUR - 5000 EUR is realistic.
    • Its ok and best practice, that the project creator donates ( up to ) 40% of the project sum by himself / herself, as “capital contribution”.
  • Best times for crowdfunding campaigns:
    • Best and most successful donation time is Monday noon :-), i.e. during worktime.
    • Avoid the “summer slump” and the time between Christmas and January.
    • So January - May/June and September - December are best campaign times.
  • In case of “Reward based Crowdfunding”, it is expected that the rewards are granted about 6 months after the end of the financing phase.
  • As project creator, it is not necessary to present bills to prove the exact costs of every investment. So in opposite to public sponsoring, you don´t need to supply an exact cost assignment ( German: “Zurechnungsnachweis” ).

Resources

Business Startup Model "Lean Startup"

Eric Ries

DropBox

No Frills

Cost Centre ( "Kostenstelle" ) vs. Cost Object ( "Kostenträger" )

Business Model "Mentoring" + "Be funded" :-)

Business Model "Funded by the European Union ( EU )"

Business Model "Amazon FBA"

Business Model "Internet Sales & Sales in Real Life"

Fee Calculator for self-employed IT Experts, based on Market Research

Organisations, Networks and Lobbyists for IT & Engineering Entrepreneurs

Organisations

Resources

Local Social Networks for Entrepreneurs

Selforganization

Help Organizations, Business Angels

Germany

Bielefeld /OWL

Bremen

Region Hannover

Lower Saxony

East Lower Saxony ( Braunschweig / Salzgitter / Wolfenbüttel / Wolfsburg )

NRW

Events

Business Sponsorship

Business Sponsorship Providers

Commercial Consulting about Business Sponsorships

Startup Business Sponsorship, Startup Business Initiatives / Events, Startup Business Plan Competitions

Franchising & Corporate Descent

Corporate Descent ( German: Unternehmensnachfolge )

Franchising

LTD vs. Unternehmergesellschaft

LTD Database

  • WebCHeck ( UK ) - “Select and Access Company Information” #.

Resources

Free Musterprotokoll UG

Services for Founding an LTD or GmbH/Unternehmergesellschaft

Reisegewerbekarte

Handelsregisternummer, Umsatzsteueridentifikationsnummer

Dependent Contractor vs. Self-employment

  1. The insurance problem.
    • “Engineers and IT specialists who work as freelancers with long term project contracts, e.g. with a duration of 6 months, and therefore just serve for a little number of clients per year, have little chances to get a special liability insurance, called 'IT Police': The insurance underwriter suspects missing objectivity concerning the appraisal of liability cases, because the freelancer depends too much on the client. This is true even if you fulfil the requirements of the german pension fund Deutsche Rentenversicherung for self-employees, i.e. that you have a little number of minor clients per year and not just 1 client. If a freelancer, like a lawyer, or if a manufacturer, e.g. a manufacturer of standard software has many different clients per year, this dependency is low and so there are insurances offers”.
    • “Ingenieure und IT Spezialisten die als Freiberufler mit längerfristigen Projektaufträgen von z.B. 6 Monaten arbeiten und daher nur wenige Kunden pro Jahr bedienen, haben keine Chancen eine spezielle Haftpflichtversicherung, genannt 'IT Police' zu bekommen: Der Versicherer vermutet mangelnde Objektivität bei der Beurteilung von Schadensfällen, weil der Freiberufler zu sehr vom Kunden abhängig ist. Es spielt dabei keine Rolle, daß man von der Deutschen Rentenversicherung als Selbstständiger eingeschätzt wird, weil man noch eine Handvoll unwichtiger Kunden pro Jahr hat und nicht nur 1 Kunden. Für Freiberufler, z.B. Rechtsanwälte oder für Gewerbetreibende wie z.B. Hersteller von Standard-Software, die viele verschiedene Kunden pro Jahr haben und wo daher nur eine geringe Abhängigkeit vom einzelnen Kunden besteht, gibt es hingegen Versicherungsangebote”.
  2. If you run your own business as capital company ( “GmbH” or “Unternehmergesellschaft” ), there is the danger that you have to pay to the german pension fund Deutsche Rentenversicherung, like an employee. There are no objective rules, but there are discretionary decisions by the pension fund. For example, if you, though one of the owners of the company, sign a work contract with your company, this might be an indicator that you are an employee. But you might be the business manager ( “Geschäftsführer” ) of your own company without obligation to pay to the german pension fund Deutsche Rentenversicherung.
  3. True self-employed consultants have special contract rules: If the customer should't pay in time, the self-employed would withdraw the contract according to (1), and would stop working for the last 4 weeks, immediately, according to (2) :-)
    1. Besides that contracts are usually negociated for 3 months, the self-employed has the right for a 4-week withdrawal notice ( “Kündigungsfrist” ).
    2. The self-employed is entitled to define his own working hours.

Privileged graduated Freelancer ( "Freiberufler" ) versus Trade Business ( “Gewerbe” ) with need to apply for a Trade License ( "Gewerbeschein" ) and to pay Industrial Tax ( “Gewerbesteuer” )

  • “Gewerbeamt”.
  • The “Gewerbeamt Hannover” told me:
    • If you passed a graduated study and want to work in the industry / field of exprtise of your study, then the privileged legal status of a freelancer ( “Freiberufler” ) is granted to you. This is both true for contracts paid per hour ( “Honorarvertrag” ) and contracts where you have formally to deliver a good ( “Werksvertrag” ) - its the kind of work you do, e.g. software development as computer science graduant: If yo work in the office or laboratory rooms of a company, and have to obey orders by the boss of department, you don´t do industial work ( “Gewerbliche Tätigkeit” ).
    • Industrial work ( “Gewerbliche Tätigkeit” ) - An important criteria is that the self-employed is not linked into the internal processes of the customer's plant / office / company ( “Der Gewerbetreibende ist nicht in die betrieblichen Abläufe des Kunden eingebunden” ). The work must be sustainable ( “nachhaltig” ), which is the opposite of a single work ( “einmalige Tätigkeit” ).
    • If people without graduated study just apply for a trade license ( “Gewerbeschein” ) and then do the same work as freelancer with “Freiberufler” status, e.g. software development, they are in a legal gray zone, as the important criteria of beeing not linked into the internal processes of the customer, is not fullfilled :-(.
    • “Einkünfte aus freiberuflicher Tätigkeit. 2Zu der freiberuflichen Tätigkeit gehören die selbständig ausgeübte wissenschaftliche, künstlerische, schriftstellerische, unterrichtende oder erzieherische Tätigkeit, die selbständige Berufstätigkeit der Ärzte, Zahnärzte, Tierärzte, Rechtsanwälte, Notare, Patentanwälte, Vermessungsingenieure, Ingenieure, Architekten, Handelschemiker, Wirtschaftsprüfer, Steuerberater, beratenden Volks- und Betriebswirte, vereidigten Buchprüfer, Steuerbevollmächtigten, Heilpraktiker, Dentisten, Krankengymnasten, Journalisten, Bildberichterstatter, Dolmetscher, Übersetzer, Lotsen und ähnlicher Berufe”.

Affordable Workspace and Office

Offers

Resources

Crisis & Insolvency

E-World 2023 Startup Tips

Avoid the Proof Of Concept Pitfall ( PoC Pitfall )

  • Experts on the fair “E-World 2023” suggested: Startup companies must leave the PoC loop, i.e. the loop to do a proof of concept again and again, or to improve the existing proof of concept again and again. There must be a roadmap how to leave the PoC loop.

Startups must work together with Incumbents

  • Incumbents = Old, traditional established companies, which have access to a market / an industry, or control a market / an industry.

Pension & Unemployed Insurance for Self-Employed

Unemployment Insurance For Self-Employed ( "Arbeitslosenversicherung für Selbständige" )

Mandatory Pension Scheme for self-employed Persons in Germany ( 2013-07-01 - )

Resources

Forums, Newsgroups

 
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