Best countries for startups

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/smallbusiness/0809/gallery.best_countries_for_business.smb/index.html

by amrithk • 18 years ago

9 23 18 years ago

money.cnn.com

brk• 18 years ago

This is interesting, but I think it is missing some key points for technology startups (it seems to be more "new business" focused):

1) Availability of talent 2) Labor laws overall 3) Availability of ready market and spending power

I may be biased, but IMO the US is the #1 place in the world for technology startups when you factor all these things in.

noodle2• 18 years ago

i think you are biased, if you read a sufficient number of them you'll see that they do consider things like the available workforce and labor laws. the market thing is kind of dependent upon what type of startup you want to create, but if you're working on a web startup, it doesn't really matter where the company itself is located.

the article is referring to startups in general, not necessarily tech startups.

davidw2• 18 years ago

What other kinds of startups are there? Biotech... Still "tech" though. What else? "Clean tech". Almost all of them are some kind of "tech", even though those might be quite far from the sorts of web things we talk about here for the most part. I guess you could talk about computer-based tech and "other". Or "new businesses" (like, a new restaurant), and that's certainly worthwhile, but not really "startups".

Still, it's not a bad list. I wonder how much money you have to have to start a Danish company though. Places like Italy and Austria are nowhere near the cheap fees that exist in the US.

Edit: Georgia?!? Might be ok in terms of regulations, but has a significant "being blown up by the Russians" risk factor.

mojuba• 18 years ago

A curious fact: all English-speaking countries are in top 10. It would be interesting to speculate why.

rglovejoy• 18 years ago

Denmark is an English-speaking country? A lot of Danes speak English, to be sure, but their first language is still Danish.

fp• 18 years ago

He said "All English-speaking countries are in top 10", not "All countries in the top 10 are english-speaking".

jauco• 18 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_where_English...

There are over 50 countries where english is the main language. So that's not really possible.

run4yourlives3• 18 years ago

Because modern capitalism was an export of the British empire. Simple as that.

erictobia• 18 years ago

Any (non U.S.) folks with startups in the countries on this list? Is the article consistent with your experience?

run4yourlives3• 18 years ago

Canada here and yes.

I'm not sure what their definition of "Starting a business" is though, since technically in Canada all you need for that is a GST number, which you can apply for online for free and comes in the mail as soon as they can get it to you. You get a temporary number that you can use prior to that.

Trade is about right though, especially from the US. Where this free trade that we're supposed to have is I have no idea.

davidw2• 18 years ago

> I'm not sure what their definition of "Starting a business"

Starting some sort of limited liability company that is its own legal entity, is my guess.

laut• 18 years ago

I moved out of Denmark. If a Danish company sells something to consumers it has to charge 25% VAT, even if those consumers live somewhere else. Living costs are high. Corporate tax rate has been lowered, but pretty much all the other taxes are higher than USA for instance. Taking money out of the company costs you more tax. Very high personal income tax.

If you buy a USD $2500 computer you can't deduct the expense immediately. Or if you just buy a printer and that plus the computer you use the printer with is more than the limit of around $2000, you can't deduct it from your taxes immediately.

It's true that the paperwork for starting a business is pretty quick and easy. But for a LLC or Corp. type of business structure you need to put a minimum of DKK 125K (about USD $25K) in the business.

axod• 18 years ago

"It only takes 24 hours to set up a business in New Zealand, the speediest start-up time in the world."

How many companies do you need to setup???

JoelSutherland• 18 years ago

When talking with a friend who wanted to start an on-the-side business I was surprised by how concerned he was with the legalities (and how little with marketing).

The value of speed is simplicity. Outside the hacker world, I think there are a lot of people that are simply too scared by even minor legal paperwork to see past it.

vaksel• 18 years ago

yeah I think thats one of the biggest obstacles people need to overcome when deciding on it

tom_rath2• 18 years ago

Only one, but if it takes a filing cabinet of paperwork, three bribes, a $20k processing fee and a four-month wait after personally visiting the application centre 200 miles away, you'll be unlikely to start that business.

The time and resources required for incorporation are a good metric, but since the difference in the top-ten is only a matter of hours it looks trivial. In far too many nations, it's not.

CFS• 18 years ago

That's is not true that NZ is the fastest. In Australia it is about 5 mins to get a 'business' and about 40 mins to complete tax registration.

1. You do not require ANYTHING to start a business in Australia

2. There are three main types of 'business structures' in Australia

a) Sole Trader - NO PAPERWORK IS REQUIRED but most people register a name so they can get a bank account in their business name eg Fred's Flowers

Time: 5 mins Cost: $142 About half of all businesses are sole traders.

b)Proprietary Limited company Fred's Flowers Pty Ltd (similar to a US Inc)

To create a Proprietary Limited requires at least 1 shareholder and 1 share and 1 director.

Pty Ltd are legal entities that account for about half of all business in Australia.

Time: 5 mins Cost: $400

3. Limited companies. Fred's Flowers Ltd These are large companies, often listed on the stock exchange. I own and control an unlisted public company but we will be listed in a few months.

As much as I like our Kiwi cousins, it is not the 2nd best place to start a business in the world.

The methodology is deeply flawed to the point of nonsense.

furiouslol• 18 years ago

You should base your startup where your market is.

If your business is tech related, it would be best to do it in the US since they have the largest spending power for tech-related services.

If you are a mining contractor, you should do it in Australia as they are rich in resources.

Follow the market.

pchristensen• 18 years ago

Also 10 worst: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/smallbusiness/0809/galle...

Congrats to Venezuela for being the only non-African country to make the list!

cesther• 18 years ago

Don't rely on the CNN piece, they have paraphrased the bugger out of the original report. [ http://www.doingbusiness.org ]

For instance there there significant differences between the US and NZ on labour issues, within the report US is rated 1, NZ - 14.

Whereas CNN says:

"As in the U.S. and Hong Kong, hiring and firing is relatively easy to do in New Zealand, with no mandated penalties, notice or severance payments for fired workers"

If yr really keen to discover more: http://www.ers.dol.govt.nz/

Best countries for startups

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