I would love to be my own boss. If you are
thinking same, I have gathered some information from a recent workshop 'Starting a business in Germany', which might be useful for you.
Since August 2012, German government has slightly changed their law to allow non-EU students to start their business after
their studies here in Germany. According to Residence Act (§ 16), students can also support their studies with additional
income being freelancer. For example, they can be self-employed software
developer, doctor, architecture or language interpreter, whereas interpreter
may not be the best option in Hannover because more than 90% people speak
English here. However, you should keep in mind that as a student, you can only
work for 20 hours per week. After graduation, if you have a business plan to
implement, you can apply for 18-month residence permit but your business idea
should be something that supports Germany's economy. For example, there is no
Nepalese restaurant in Hannover. So, it can be very appealing business plan. For
PhD students, your business should be related to your research. Once you
have business plan, you need permission from foreign authority and serially need
to register your business at Trade Licensing Office. In case you are interested in freelancing, Tax Office is the place you should go to. EU students have to go through the same process but just that their application will be bit quicker.
On the other hand, if business is not
your cup of tea, after your study and during this 18 months, you can find a
suitable job.
So what are the things to keep in mind
before starting-up?
1. Research
your market
2. Develop
and test your product
3. Find
partners and suppliers. Especially if you don’t speak German, it’s very
important to find German partner.
4. Write
a business plan (Just a quick search in Google will give you million guides on
how to write one)
5. Get
funding.
In Germany, its quite common for students
to start their own spin-off companies upon graduation. Laser Zentrum Hannover is
one of the spin-off companies of the Leibniz University. If you are ambitious
enough, help is everywhere. So imagine you want to start a company
after University, German government has these amazing funding supports:
This funding is for innovative
technology-oriented start-up projects. The projects have to have a high
customer benefit and unique selling points in market. This funding is
available for all graduates from Universities. Even if you haven’t finished
University, you can still apply for it but the start-up team has to be minimum
3 people.
This is for students, who want to commit
on high-technology start-up after their PhD or Masters. Students applying for
this funding must have Masters as a minimum qualification. The team also needs
to be minimum of 3 academics or technicians.
The
Best thing to do:
Develop your idea in your PhD thesis and register a patent through your institute or University. After your study, buy
that licence and start a new company with it. That will be very profitable because
registering patent is very expensive.
Here are some of the links, which might be useful for you:
GOOD-LUCK!
