Do you have an idea and want to establish a business in France? If that’s the case, you’ve probably also wondered what are the procedures to do so.
First of all, it’s necessary to know that, regardless of your choice, one of the first things you will have to decide is the address of your enterprise, as it’s compulsory to have one within the French territory in order to enter the enterprise details in the registry of the Commercial Court. In France, there are three possibilities to settle the head office or secondary establishment of your business.
DOMICILIATION IN YOUR OWN HOME
This modality enables you to use your private address, providing that you reside in France, as your registered business address. It’s fairly easy and fast to use your home as head office if you’re a freelancer or a one-person enterprise. However, your activity may be restricted by your rental agreement if you aren’t the landlord, in which case you’ll need an authorisation to exert your activity.
In addition, there may be restrictions as of the amount of years you can use your private address for your business if you’re more than one member in the company. In that case, you need to know as well that only the address of the director can be registered. Doing otherwise is not legal. You also need to note that if you move to a different address, you’ll have to notify it and enter the new one again in the registry of the Commercial Court, paying the subsequent office address modification charges.
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RENTING OR BUYING THE EMPLACEMENT OF YOUR OFFICE
If you opt for a more traditional establishment, you can perhaps think about renting or buying your premises in France. This would provide your business with an office exclusively for your activity and reserved just for your company. Your professional and private lives are thus differentiated, although this is not highly recommendable if your company has only started to operate now and having a physical space isn’t vital to carry out your professional activity due to the fact that it will take quite an amount of your monthly budget, with prices going as high as € 10,000 / sq metre / year in some areas of Paris, and that only accounts for the surface.
In addition to that, you also need to bear in mind that the size of your company will vary over the years and so your spatial needs may be different, meaning you may have to move to a different address. This is particularly problematic because the rental agreements in France stipulate minimum stay periods. In this regard, you need to be very careful with the dates for administrative procedures to avoid having to pay for your rent for as long as three years more even if you aren’t using the premises.
If you want to buy your own facilities, you should think about the means of financing. By buying your premises, it's possible that your company will lose some investment opportunities as the available budget will be considerably lower, thus slowing your progress down. Moreover, it could mean that, just like renting the place, if the size of your company changes and you need a larger space, your facilities won't be really useful.
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DOMICILIATION IN A BUSINESS CENTRE
If you opt to register your enterprise by using the services of a business centre, you’ll have almost the same ease to do so as if you were registering your own address without even having to have a residence in France. All you need to do is to contact the centre and they will take care of the administrative procedures to create and register your company in a very short time span. By hiring a domiciliation service, you get an official address for your company in a generally prestigious area, in which you will receive also all your correspondence, and which will provide you with some premises elsewhere than your private address. Not only do business centres make the process quick and simple, but they put at your disposal secretariat and punctual offices rental services in their facilities should you request them. This is particularly useful if you want to meet some clients or have a reunion with the members of your company.
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CONCLUSION
If you’re a company starting its business in France, and you need an address to determine the location of your head office or secondary establishment without a strong investment or providing an address that interferes with your private life, making use of the domiciliation services of a business centre seems to be a very interesting option to consider.