Author: Staff Coworking Neuchâtel

Setting up your business in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland – The canton of Neuchâtel offers a constellation of benefits when it comes to business domiciliation.

Moreover, the recent partnership between Coworking Neuchâtel and IFJ facilitates the creation of companies in the Canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Click here to learn more!

4 good reasons to set up your business in the canton of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland.

Geographical location

The canton of Neuchâtel is located in the northwestern part of Switzerland. It thus offers an ideal geographical position in the center of Europe. It is also the meeting point of Basel, Geneva and Zurich. Indeed, all of them are located less than 2 hours by car from Neuchâtel; thanks to the fast and attractive highways and roads.

BONUS: the city of La Chaux-de-Fonds has an airport connecting hundreds of general aviation airports in Europe. 

Tax advantages

Of course, the geographical advantages are more than interesting. But the main advantage lies in the attractive tax system that the canton of Neuchâtel offers for companies and corporations. Indeed, Neuchâtel is thus the most interesting French-speaking canton in terms of corporate taxation, thanks to its tax rate of 13.57%.

Thanks to the 2019 tax reform, the cantonal and communal tax rate has been reduced from 10% to 7.2%; “which is equivalent to a net rate at all three institutional levels of 13.6%”. (ne.ch, Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel)

This ensures a stable tax system and security for companies, even international ones. A major advantage that will not be matched elsewhere… And also another good reason for setting up your business in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Ecosystem and wealth

The Canton of Neuchâtel is also an agile, diversified and dynamic ecosystem that combines with a stable and flourishing economic context; this to result in a wealth of varied industries offering specific know-how that can be transposed to your business. Isn’t this ideal? 

The field of high-level education is certainly very well represented in this canton, thanks in particular to its university ranked among the top 20 small universities in the world.  But what contributes to its wealth is especially the variety of industries residing in the canton. Indeed, luxury Maisons and manufactures, blockchain, industrial engineering, biopharmaceutical production, materials engineering, Medtech, photovoltaics and micromechanics are all found here, showing a small extract of the industries and skills that make the region live. 

In addition, there are numerous professional associations such as the FNSO, the Neuchâtel federation of professional associations of the Second Oeuvre, the FER Neuchâtel, the Federation of Romandie companies Neuchâtel, and the AIP, the Industrial and Employers’ Association. This varied offer allows everyone to find what they need or want. 

Moreover, the Canton’s location gives you access to a quality Swiss or European workforce. It will also allow you to evolve in a multilingual environment with more than 40 free trade agreements in the world. These dimensions are notably linked to the presence of numerous talents and a start-up incubator promoting innovation. Another tax bonus: the canton provides for an additional deduction of 150% of actual costs for R&D. Who can beat that?

The good life in the canton of Neuchâtel

In Neuchâtel

The cherry on top of the cake, Neuchâtel offers a qualitative and ideal living environment, located between lake and mountains. Spring and summer are warm and favorite periods for a picnic by the lake, with a breathtaking view of the sunset on the lake.

It is also the time of the festivals, and Festi’Neuch does not miss the boat by gathering every year international artists and music lovers. No less than 50,000 people fell in love with this lakeside setting during the 2019 edition.

And, of course, no one talks about Neuchâtel without mentioning its mythical Fête des Vendanges, which enlivens the city for an entire weekend at the end of September and brings together young and old during the festivities.

In La Chaux-de-Fonds

La Chaux-de-Fonds, on the other hand, relies on its watchmaking heritage; the latter is fueled by an extraordinary precision, growing complexity, rigor and meticulousness. Its international watchmaking museum witnesses the latter and traces the history of time measurement in the city that has been the birthplace of this activity.

To stay in the museums’ theme and to appeal to both young and old, the Muzoo, a fusion of the terms museum and zoo, is one of the favorite attractions for locals and tourists.

If summer is synonymous with the beach for you, the annual La plage des 6 pompes has become one of the city’s key international festivals, mixing a festive and cultural atmosphere, with shows and street arts as well as entertainment for all tastes. 

On the natural side, the mountainous region of La Chaux-de-Fonds offers a multitude of landscapes; ideal to discover these during the 4 seasons.

For ski lovers, the Chapeau-Râblé small ski station will fill your winter evenings with its romantic view of the illuminated city.

Whether by bike, running or snowshoeing, the country roads are the scene of unexpected rendez-vous with the local fauna and offer a simple getaway to clear your mind. 

You are a young entrepreneur, commuter, self-employed, looking for new challenges and wanted to get started but were still hesitating? This article has undoubtedly eased your fears.

It’s the right time for setting up your business in the canton of Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

Contact us!

As we know, the health crisis… enough about that! While the subject remains important. Today, we want to share something more positive with you. We are going to talk about the city of Neuchâtel, its opportunities and economic structure.

Innovation centre

Did you know that Neuchâtel is an innovative canton? And it is doing its utmost to continue in this direction! This beautiful city and its surroundings encourage all SMEs, start-ups, and entrepreneurs to develop in the region. To do so, they have created an ecosystem supporting businesses of all sizes to help them develop and build a promising future. In other words, a large number of companies in the canton are collaborating on a variety of projects, helping the most motivated ones to create the future of Neuchâtel. If you are looking for help to get your projects off the ground somewhere, the city will surely have the infrastructure to help you.

But which economic sectors are the most represented? 

It is one thing to find a canton that promotes innovation, the other is to know whether the benefits are applicable to your company. Although all sectors of activity find a place in Neuchâtel, the support structure for some sectors is more advanced than for others. In other words, any business is welcomed with open arms by the canton, but for some, it will still be easier to access an ideal structure to prosper. If you belong to a sector such as the watchmaking industry, renewable energy, blockchain (or others), Neuchâtel will provide you with plenty of opportunities to move forward. From coaching to networking, there are many support services.

What about the financial side?

Let’s face it, tax changes can sometimes play an important role in a company’s location decision. The canton of Neuchâtel is doing pretty well in this respect. Indeed, the reforms introduced in 2019 by the state are rather attractive, since the cantonal and municipal tax rate has changed from 10% to 7.2%. We are not going to get into a detailed analysis and proceed on a case-by-case basis, but if you are interested in making some useful calculations, the canton’s website provides you with the information you need.

Is there anything else you need to know?

Well yes, otherwise our article would stop there 😊. As any advice is good to take, here is ours: Consider the domiciliation in Neuchâtel! In addition to all the other advantages, you can enjoy a beautiful region full of natural spots to discover. Remember also that domiciliation does not mean that your company has to be in this area permanently, only the head office will be located here. You can, therefore, have all the advantages at your disposal, while continuing your activities in another region. For more information on this subject, do not hesitate to contact our team!

So, when do you plan to move here?

To go further:

Creating your own company in the canton of Neuchâtel
Becoming your own boss in the canton of Neuchâtel

Have you ever thought of using a call management service?

Nowadays, we are somehow constantly interconnected with the rest of the world. Although we have developed various ways to communicate, one of the long-established options remains the telephone. In other words, this method is still widely used, in spite of our increasing exposure to social networks and applications. This is particularly evident during this pandemic, as many companies have had to change their structure and set up a teleworking system. In this context, it is indeed necessary to have a telephone as a means of communication. In other words, it allows us to exchange certain information in a clear, precise, and fast way.

Call center services

During a day at work, a telephone interruption can be disturbing. Not only does it force you to deviate from the task at hand, but it will surely affect your concentration on other projects. This means that you will spend valuable time setting up other tasks, which are not a priority at the time. But how do you avoid this kind of situation?

There are services that will provide you with many advantages, such as the delegation of your daily tasks, allowing you to concentrate on the essential ones. In other words, we are talking about Call Centers. This type of service is offered by a variety of companies, typically by some coworking spaces. To put it simply, we take here the example of Coworking Neuchâtel.

Among a variety of services, such as domiciliation, administrative management, or event organization, our shared space offers call management services. This means that in addition to having a local telephone number, the calls you receive are managed by our team of professionals. To ensure optimal service, we keep track of all incoming calls and forward them to you regularly. This will provide you with an organized and easy-to-understand record so that you can contact the relevant people by order of urgency. You may be wondering, but where is the confidentiality in all this? Do not worry, confidentiality is guaranteed by contractual agreement, to avoid any inconveniences.

As you have understood, a call center will allow you to reduce the administrative burden. However, if you would like to know more about this (or other services we offer), do not hesitate to contact us! We are just an email or a phone call away from you!

Choosing where to locate the head office is an easy thing to do in theory, but in practice it is far from easy to decide. However when you have a business, you have a legal obligation to have an official address.

Do not worry, you can have your legal address in one place, but do business somewhere else. In this case, the head office is your primary address, but that does not mean you have to work from there, which gives you a lot of flexibility.

So, where?

Remember one thing: location makes all the difference. Although this phrase seems extreme, it is very often used (typically in marketing) and very relevant in the context of the domiciliation. In other words, if your legal address is based in a key location, you will find many advantages. To make it simple, let’s list together various types of domiciliation that you can use:

1. Home address: sometimes used by self-employed and small businesses, your private address can be used as a place of domiciliation. As with all options, there are advantages to using this service: less expensive than renting commercial space or using the services of a domiciliation company. However, every advantage has its drawbacks. In other words, it will be very difficult for you to separate your private life from your work, and sometimes even to stay organized. For example, managing your mails can become an unbearable task, or you become reachable 24/7 for work and do not have a single moment to yourself (in this case it is often difficult to see your own home as a place to rest). As you can imagine, there are many other reasons why your professional life takes priority over your private life.
2. Legal address: In this case, it is much easier to distinguish your business address from your home. In addition, many large companies have their own facilities. This, of course, has benefits, such as better administrative management and far more flexible and manageable coordination of the company. However, the flip side of the coin is that your costs are much higher. This means that you will have to pay significant fixed costs each month, which you can probably avoid by choosing a more suitable option. In addition, it is even less obvious to be located in a prestigious area for an affordable price.
3. Domiciliation company: this option is typically the right compromise for many companies, regardless of their size. There are many types of domiciliation companies, but here we focus on coworking spaces. The advantages are very varied, e.g. your head office is located in an attractive area for your customers, or you may even find tax advantages there. In particular, you have the privilege of being able to network easily and free of charge, as the premises are occupied by companies from a variety of sectors. The coworking team is always there to share the contacts you are looking for. Moreover, the services offered by coworking spaces very often free you from essential but not very profitable tasks, such as mail management. And what are the disadvantages of using a domiciliation company? It will depend from one coworking space to another and on the services they will be ready to offer you.

The decision

Choosing your corporate address requires a great deal of attention in order to maximize your company’s profitability and opportunities. As you have read earlier, there are several criteria to take into account when making the right choice. Which ones have priority for you?

To go further:

How does the trade register work?
Starting your own business: preliminary advice and agencies providing assistance
Starting a business in Switzerland

Are you struggling to manage your mail?  

Can’t find the time to do so?

This task may often seem cumbersome and unnecessary, nevertheless it is crucial to deal with it properly. 

How to proceed

Although each company has its own way of doing business, there are certain possible ways of optimization that come up regularly.

First of all, do not neglect the time spent on this work. Quite frequently, daily tasks that seem insignificant to us are often neglected. The majority of people prefer to leave that for later because they consider they have other priorities. While this reasoning is understandable, do not get tricked! In other words, rather than putting it off and hoarding work to be done later, take some time every morning to get up to date with your mail. It may take you 30 minutes, or maybe 2 hours, to figure out how much time you have available for that.

Secondly, define a ranking method that suits you. To do this, you obviously need to know the type of mail you receive and send. The idea is therefore to define an option that suits you, such as sorting your mail by date received/sent, by importance, by alphabetical order, or so to say, in the manner that is the most appropriate for you. There is no perfect solution, it simply has to be logical and effective in the context of your business.

Thirdly, do not hesitate to engage a professional to manage this type of tasks. For example, you could hire an administrative assistant, but this may be too expensive. This is why the solution might be to choose the services offered by coworking spaces, aiming to manage your mail, parcels, and emails, or even serve as a call center. In this case, you have total control over your documents, without wasting any time on dealing with them. As the provided services vary from one coworking space to another, it is more advisable to get the information directly from the relevant staff, to make sure you find exactly what you need. Be assured, these services are of course protected by confidentiality agreements.

Now let’s discuss the e-mail. We all know how difficult it can be to discern which emails need attention, and which ones are just spam and irrelevant ones. In order to reduce the amount of time spent sorting these different types of emails, you can simply install filters. This does not mean that you will no longer receive any spam mail, but the majority of the irrelevant emails will be redirected to the spam section of your mailbox.

Conclusion

As mentioned above, there are many ways to optimize your mail management, therefore it is up to you to find the one that suits you best. And do not forget, that you can always use a mail management and call center service, which will save you valuable time on other more important tasks!

Every company needs a physical address, but not all know which one is better in their case. Yes, although it is a necessity, it can sometimes be difficult to choose the location of the company. This is where domiciliation makes the most sense. 

The domiciliation is, therefore, the registered address of a company. In some cases, and when the company can afford it, it uses its own facilities as the parent company. When the business is small, its founders sometimes register their own residence as a legal address. However, more and more organizations of all shapes and sizes are using a domiciliation company, which brings them many advantages.

Why the domiciliation?

Let’s be honest, the reasons can vary considerably from one company to another. To keep it simple, we list a number of them below, based on the most common and relevant ones for the majority of users:

1. Good value for money: unlike renting an office, a commercial space, or even a building, in this case, you only pay for your mailbox and the service that the company offers you along with it. In addition, each company has to manage its expenses differently. This means that domiciliation allows you to reduce your costs for instance the ones needed to recruit a new employee to take care of the management of the internal files.
2. Opportunity cost: the term is used in many contexts, but in this context, we are concerned with the time spent managing documents, appeals, etc… In other words, by using a domiciliation service, a person will take care of your mail, both physical and electronic, manage your referrals, or take care of your calls (optional service depending on the contract you have with the company). This service will give you more time to focus on your projects and goals.
3. Business address: it may seem logical, but having your address in a corporate location brings the reputation of a serious organization. In other words, if your head office is registered in a recognized place that reflects professionalism (i.e. a domiciliation company), your existing and future clients will readily consider your company as a more serious and prosperous one. This is particularly relevant for SMEs that use their private home address as domiciliation, or those renting offices in a location unknown to the public.
4. Important parcels: When you have to receive a large package, it can be quite frustrating, and especially time-consuming to take care of it. Therefore, it is more convenient to deal with an external company that will make the whole process easier for you, by receiving and sending the required parcels. You will no longer have to worry about where and when to pick up and drop off your packages.
5. Archiving: In some cases, the domiciliation company even offers you the possibility of archiving your files. Of course, in this case (as in all the cases) contracts are signed to guarantee the total confidentiality of your documents.

And you ?

Every company has different reasons for using domiciliation services. What are yours?