How to start a business in France

Bonjour mes amis! Do you want to start a business in France? Here’s what you should know.

France has a population of 65,696 million people and a GNI (Gross National Income) per capita of 41.750 USD. In 2014 World Bank placed France on the 38th position in the aggregate ranking on the ease of doing business (out of 189 economies).

Starting a business in France is relatively easy. Let’s see why:

• Where do you need to address to register your company?

The Centre de Formalités des Entreprises (CFE) handles all formalities related to your business registration

• How many days are necessary to complete all the legal procedures?

You need to wait 6.5 working days until your business becomes operational

• How many procedures are necessary to start a business?

5 procedures are necessary. Here they are (Source: www.doingbusiness.org):

1. Have your company’s name checked for uniqueness
To do this you can go online at the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) website (www.inpi.fr/)
Checking for company’s name uniqueness is not mandatory but in the long run it will save you time and money. If another company operates under the name you have chosen you can face a lawsuit. So it’s better to be safe than sorry. Moreover checking the name is free of charge. However if you want to check similar trademarks you need to pay 40 EUR for three classes and 400 EUR for all classes.

The procedure requires half a day to complete

2. Deposit the minimum capital required by legislation

To deposit the initial capital you can either address a public notary, the bank or the Deposit and Consignment Office (Caisse des Dépôt). Your capital will be blocked throughout the entire registration process.

This procedure takes 1 working day and is free of charge.

3. Publish a notice of your company’s incorporation

The notice of incorporation must include your company’s name, your name (or the name of the assigned manager), share capital and registered office. The planned publication will be communicated to you through a letter from the legal journal.

This procedure takes 1 working day to complete and its cost depends on the notice’s length (for 30 lines of 40 characters each you need to pay 5.48 EUR).

4. Address the Centre de Formalités des Entreprises (CFE) for your company’s registration
To register your company you need to address the Centre de Formalités des Entreprises (CFE). The Center is responsible for all business registration procedures. After submitting the request the CFE enlists your company with the Registre Nationale des Entreprise (Répertoire SIRENE) and obtains identification numbers from the RNE: SIRENE number (Systéme Informatique pour le Répertoire des Entreprises), SIRET number (Systéme Informatique pour le Répertoire des Etablissements) used mainly by tax authorities, and NAF number (Nomenclature des Activitees Francaises)

The procedure requires 4 days to complete and cots 83.96 EUR.

5. Buy company books, have them stamped and initialed by the clerk of the commercial court

Before you can legally operate your business you need to buy special accounting books. These books can be found at the commercial court or specialized stores. Before you can use them you need to make sure that they are certified by the Commercial Court.

The procedure takes 1 day to complete (simultaneously with the previous procedure) and it costs 45 EUR for three books (15 EUR per book) and 3.11 EUR stamping fee

Summing up: You can start a business in France in 6.5 days, following 5 procedures and paying 137.55 EUR in fees.