Legal Forms and Who can help me

Who can support your business? Have a look to the video about ‘Enrolling to a support program” from SUITES Project. Be inspired, decrease costs, promote your business, meet with people, grow your business.

 

In this part of Startup Guide you can find a specific information and links about:

  1. legal forms and administrative steps
  2. incubators and hubs
  3. investors and business angels
  4. financial oportunities
  5. events, awards and programmes

 

1. LEGAL FORMS & ADMINISTRATIVE STEPS

When you start a business, you have to decide on a legal structure for it. There’s no right or wrong choice that fits everyone. Your job is to understand how each legal structure works and then pick the one that best meets your needs. The best choice isn’t always obvious. You may, after reading this section, decide to seek some guidance from a lawyer or an accountant.

For many small businesses, the best initial choice is either a sole proprietorship or, if more than one owner is involved, a partnership. Either of these structures makes good sense in a business where personal liability isn’t a big worry — for example, a small service business in which you are unlikely to be sued and for which you won’t be borrowing much money. Sole proprietorships and partnerships are relatively simple and inexpensive to establish and maintain.

Keep in mind that your initial choice of a business form doesn’t have to be permanent. You can start out as sole proprietorship or partnership and later, if your business grows or the risks of personal liability increase, you can convert your business to an LLC or a corporation.

source: www.inc.com

Legal Forms & administrative steps in

 

2. INCUBATORS & HUBS

Business incubators differ from research and technology parks in their dedication to startup and early-stage companies. Research and technology parks, on the other hand, tend to be large-scale projects that house everything from corporate, government or university labs to very small companies. Most research and technology parks do not offer business assistance services, which are the hallmark of a business incubation program. However, many research and technology parks house incubation programs.

Incubators also differ from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Development Centers (and similar business support programs) in that they serve only selected clients. SBDCs are required by law to offer general business assistance to any company that contacts them for help. In addition, SBDCs work with any small business at any stage of development, not only startup companies. Many business incubation programs partner with their local SBDC to create a “one-stop shop” for entrepreneurial support.

Have a look to incubators in each country!

 

3. INVESTORS & BUSINESS ANGELS

An angel Investor or angel (also known as a business angel or informal investor) is an affluent individual who provides capital for a business start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity. A small but increasing number of angel investors organize themselves into angel groups or angel networksto share research and pool their investment capital, as well as to provide advice to their portfolio companies.

Venture capital (VC) is financial capital provided to early-stage, high-potential, high risk, growth startup companies. The venture capital fund earns money by owning equity in the companies it invests in, which usually have a novel technology or business model in high technology industries, such as biotechnology, IT and software. The typical venture capital investment occurs after the seed funding round as the first round of institutional capital to fund growth (also referred to as Series A round) in the interest of generating a return through an eventual realization event, such as an IPO or trade sale of the company. Venture capital is a type of private equity.

In addition to angel investing and other seed funding options, venture capital is attractive for new companies with limited operating history that are too small to raise capital in the public markets and have not reached the point where they are able to secure a bank loan or complete a debt offering. In exchange for the high risk that venture capitalists assume by investing in smaller and less mature companies, venture capitalists usually get significant control over company decisions, in addition to a significant portion of the company’s ownership (and consequently value).

Here is a list of most important business angels and investors in european countries.

International and European business angels networks:

 

4. FINANCIAL OPPORTUNITIES

List of public and private financial oportunities such as crowdfunding platform, public programmes, etc.

 

5. AWARDS & EVENTS & PROGRAMMES

Meet other startuppers, find investors, pitch & share your idea, find clients: a lot of events and awards all around Europe!

ITALY

SLOVAKIA

CZECH REPUBLIC

SPAIN

POLAND

TURKEY