The guides
- Opening a business in Switzerland: the steps, in the order that mattersMost guides start with the legal form. It is the least urgent step and the easiest to correct. What cannot be corrected, once the lease is…
- Calculating your catchment area: method and pitfallsThe catchment area is the territory customers come from. It is calculated badly almost everywhere, because the most widespread method —…
- Choosing your retail location: what can be measuredAn expensive location is not a good location, and a cheap location is not a bargain. The difference can be measured, and it is measured…
- Negotiating a commercial lease in SwitzerlandThe commercial lease is the most structuring contract a business signs and the least re-read. The Code of Obligations protects a…
- What does commercial premises cost in Switzerland?The advertised rent rarely accounts for more than two thirds of the real cost of a unit. Service charges, energy, the initial fit-out and…
- Studying local competition: sources and methodCounting competitors is harder than it looks, because no source records them all and because they do not count the same thing. Knowing…
- Business plan for a shop in Switzerland: what goes into itA business plan serves the person writing it first: it is the moment when you discover that the turnover required is not the one you were…
- Sole proprietorship, LLC or public limited company: choosing your legal formThe legal form is chosen on one serious question: what happens if the business fails. The rest — image, taxation, incorporation costs —…
- The operating costs of a business, item by itemIn a Swiss business, staff is almost always the biggest cost item, far ahead of rent. That is counter-intuitive when you are looking for…
- Taking over an existing business: what to checkTaking over avoids the start-up phase and its uncertainty. In exchange, you buy a history you did not write: contracts, a lease, staff, a…
The figures, canton by canton
Population, income, benchmark commercial rent, taxation and flows — official data, refreshed at every import.
The vocabulary
The notions cited in these guides — NOGA, STATENT, catchment area, rent-to-turnover ratio, municipal tax multiplier — are defined in the glossary.
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