4 ms·

Apparently The Mirror was not ready for the sudden influx of readers... Though, on the article, Germany is hardly ready for the Startup boom, the bureaucracy i

by tscs37 10y ago

Apparently The Mirror was not ready for the sudden influx of readers... Though, on the article, Germany is hardly ready for the Startup boom, the bureaucracy is hell. I have been thinking about going self-employed as a sidejob, boost my student-income a bit.

moreentropy 10y ago
> Apparently The Mirror was not ready for the sudden influx of readers... Spiegel online is huge, that extra bit of traffic shouldn't bother them, see http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/spiegel.de http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/spiegel.de Right now the site is down supposedly because of a power outage in a data center. Can't remember the last time spiegel online was offline, the outage is so high profile that #spiegelonline is trending in .de Right now Spiegel is resorting to publishing on https://www.facebook.com/spiegelonline/ https://www.facebook.com/spiegelonline/
otheotheothe 10y ago
I did, i can only encourage you to try it. I dropped out of University even because of my self employment. I would never look back and change that. There's not much bureaucracy as a Kleinunternehmer (small business owner), depends on the niche you work in tho but for IT stuff and even importig/exporting electronics i never had big issues. I am part owner of a US startup now, we have to deal with as much bureaucracy there...The big thing that makes the US different is that it's way easier to get capital, but there are as many weird laws which differ from county to county..
cntlzw 10y ago
Go for it! I imagine your sidejob will be some sort of consulting? With your Gewerbeschein it takes little bureaucracy and you don't have much to lose. Just be prepared for taxes and the risk of Scheinselbstständigkeit. Don't make the mistage anyone does and ignore them.
- tscs37 10y ago
  I haven't pinned anything concrete down but I'm leaning towards SaaS, something with low maintenance (hopefully).
WA 10y ago
> I have been thinking about going self-employed as a sidejob, boost my student-income a bit. This costs you 10 minutes and 25 bucks (Gewerbeschein). Then you can file taxes for your side income once per year, which takes another 30 minutes, because at the side-income level the calculation is: income - expenses.
- mschuster91 10y ago
  With just a Gewerbeschein for a single person company you're personally liable for all debts/obligations! Been there, done that and nearly went to jail. Never again.
  - BjoernKW 10y ago
    Same applies to the managing director of a GmbH (Germany-style Ltd.), even more so because with a GmbH you can actually be held criminally liable if your company goes bankrupt.
    - signal11 10y ago
      Wow. I remember reading somewhere that an early American innovation (1833 in Federal law) was - no more debtor's prisons, which allowed much more risk-taking in American business. I did not realize this persists today in Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison (Note that the US is often criticized for court fines which result in jail time if you're unable to pay, but that's a much later meaning. Originally it meant jail if you were unable to pay someone back.)
      - BjoernKW 10y ago
        There's no debtors' prison in the sense that you have to go to prison if you can't pay your debts. The criminal offence is delayed filing of bankruptcy: If your company can't pay its bills, it can't make payroll or its liabilities exceed its assets you have to file for bankruptcy within 3 weeks. The problem with this is that often it isn't entirely clear if a company really is bankrupt by that definition. A company can be nominally bankrupt in one moment and solvent again in the next depending on how you look at it from a technical / accounting point of view. This again unfortunately sometimes is preyed upon by both liquidators, investors and creditors, who might try to sue the managing director in order to recoup their losses from the director's personal funds. A conviction for delayed filing of bankruptcy both applies additional pressure and makes a director personally liable, GmbH or not. So, in short: No there are no debtors' prisons anymore but the effect you described very much still applies thanks to outdated and misguided German bankruptcy laws.

by tscs37 10y ago

moreentropy 10y ago

> Apparently The Mirror was not ready for the sudden influx of readers... Spiegel online is huge, that extra bit of traffic shouldn't bother them, see http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/spiegel.de http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/spiegel.de Right now the site is down supposedly because of a power outage in a data center. Can't remember the last time spiegel online was offline, the outage is so high profile that #spiegelonline is trending in .de Right now Spiegel is resorting to publishing on https://www.facebook.com/spiegelonline/ https://www.facebook.com/spiegelonline/

otheotheothe 10y ago

I did, i can only encourage you to try it. I dropped out of University even because of my self employment. I would never look back and change that. There's not much bureaucracy as a Kleinunternehmer (small business owner), depends on the niche you work in tho but for IT stuff and even importig/exporting electronics i never had big issues. I am part owner of a US startup now, we have to deal with as much bureaucracy there...The big thing that makes the US different is that it's way easier to get capital, but there are as many weird laws which differ from county to county..

cntlzw 10y ago

Go for it! I imagine your sidejob will be some sort of consulting? With your Gewerbeschein it takes little bureaucracy and you don't have much to lose. Just be prepared for taxes and the risk of Scheinselbstständigkeit. Don't make the mistage anyone does and ignore them.

tscs37 10y ago
I haven't pinned anything concrete down but I'm leaning towards SaaS, something with low maintenance (hopefully).

WA 10y ago

> I have been thinking about going self-employed as a sidejob, boost my student-income a bit. This costs you 10 minutes and 25 bucks (Gewerbeschein). Then you can file taxes for your side income once per year, which takes another 30 minutes, because at the side-income level the calculation is: income - expenses.

mschuster91 10y ago
With just a Gewerbeschein for a single person company you're personally liable for all debts/obligations! Been there, done that and nearly went to jail. Never again.
- BjoernKW 10y ago
  Same applies to the managing director of a GmbH (Germany-style Ltd.), even more so because with a GmbH you can actually be held criminally liable if your company goes bankrupt.
  - signal11 10y ago
    Wow. I remember reading somewhere that an early American innovation (1833 in Federal law) was - no more debtor's prisons, which allowed much more risk-taking in American business. I did not realize this persists today in Germany. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debtors%27_prison (Note that the US is often criticized for court fines which result in jail time if you're unable to pay, but that's a much later meaning. Originally it meant jail if you were unable to pay someone back.)
    - BjoernKW 10y ago
      There's no debtors' prison in the sense that you have to go to prison if you can't pay your debts. The criminal offence is delayed filing of bankruptcy: If your company can't pay its bills, it can't make payroll or its liabilities exceed its assets you have to file for bankruptcy within 3 weeks. The problem with this is that often it isn't entirely clear if a company really is bankrupt by that definition. A company can be nominally bankrupt in one moment and solvent again in the next depending on how you look at it from a technical / accounting point of view. This again unfortunately sometimes is preyed upon by both liquidators, investors and creditors, who might try to sue the managing director in order to recoup their losses from the director's personal funds. A conviction for delayed filing of bankruptcy both applies additional pressure and makes a director personally liable, GmbH or not. So, in short: No there are no debtors' prisons anymore but the effect you described very much still applies thanks to outdated and misguided German bankruptcy laws.