Portal: “We start a business in Germany”

Starting position/challenge

More than half of all companies in Germany are founded by people who have a migration background. However, information about the official requirements and the actual steps for founding a company, cannot be obtained from one single source. In order to bring together the relevant information and link it to qualified consulting services, the cooperation of the IQ Competence Centre for Migrant Entrepreneurship and the IQ project “XeneX” of IQ Network Bavaria – MigraNet resulted in the website www.wir-gruenden-in-deutschland.de.

Implementation of the portal

Since 2015, the website has been providing straightforward information about setting up a business in Germany. Multinlingualism is a central component for good comprehensibility. The portal offers the diverse content in English, French, Polish, Spanish, Bosnian, Russian, Chinese, Ukrainian, Arabic, Turkish, Persian, Tigrinya and Vietnamese. Additionally, a consulting pool is docked to the portal, which gives those seeking advice the opportunity to openly discuss questions with competent advisors. Currently, ten consultants are active in the consulting pool. Beyond that, wir-gruenden-in-deutschland. de differs from other web pages, in that advice-seekers are guided consistently and accompanied step by step during the process of establishing a business.

The website has prepared its information for three groups of people: EU nationals, non-EU nationals, as well as refugees. Within the framework of these divisions, specific information is provided for students, university graduates and professionals living abroad. The portal also links the complex matter of residency law with questions of founding a business and the requirements for the respective professional field. Both the website and the advice provide detailed information on key questions such as, “Which formal qualifications does self-employment in the respective occupational field require?”, “What are the different categories of self-employment  and what do they mean?” and “What is necessary for a business plan?”. The site receives between 1,800 and 2,000 hits per month, with an upward trend. The personal consultations via email, telephone or face-to-face, which have taken place through the webpage, have been received by over 600 people worldwide.

Conclusion

The website currently provides information in 14 languages. Simultaneously, it offers a wide range of personal advice. According to the project staff, so far, around ten percent of those advised have set up their own businesses.