Money & Enterprise · Tool 02 · Enhanced

The Swiss Enterprise Starter Path

You want to start something in Switzerland — a business, a freelance service, a creative practice or a community project. This tool helps you see your next steps, one small question at a time.

There are no wrong answers. Answer what you can, skip what you can't, and the tool builds a personal action plan for you at the end. Everything is explained in simple words as you go.

Words explained
AHV
Swiss social insurance — it pays your state pension later. If you work for yourself, you register with the SVA office and pay in yourself.
VAT (MWST / TVA)
A tax on sales. Most people only need it after selling more than CHF 100,000 per year.
Commercial register (Handelsregister)
The official public list of businesses. Small solo businesses under CHF 100,000 turnover usually don't have to be in it.
Turnover vs. profit
Turnover = all the money that comes in. Profit = what is left after you pay your costs.
Sole proprietorship (Einzelfirma)
The simplest form: you work under your own name. Easy to start, but you are personally responsible for debts.
Fiduciary (Treuhand)
A professional who helps with accounting, taxes and admin. Worth one paid hour before big decisions.
1 · Founder intake

What are you starting?

In plain words: Tell us about your idea. Who you are, what you want to do, and where you live. This decides which Swiss rules matter for you.
2 · Swiss triggers

Revenue, VAT, AHV and commercial-register questions

In plain words: This is about money and the state. If you earn money on your own, the state has three main questions: Do you pay social insurance (AHV)? Do you charge sales tax (VAT)? Must your business go into the official public register? Your numbers below give the answer. A rough guess is fine.
All client/customer revenue before expenses, CHF.
Use same as turnover if unsure.
Turnover minus deductible business expenses.
4 · Pricing, runway and VAT sensitivity

Can the idea support you?

In plain words: Simple maths: what does it cost, what do you charge, how many sales do you need each month to cover your costs? The calculator does the work — just type your best guesses.
Hourly / day-rate sanity check
5 · Funding readiness

Are you ready to ask for money?

In plain words: If you want a grant, a sponsor, a loan or an investor, they will ask for certain things. Tick what you already have and see what is still missing.
6 · Before you register

Answer this clearly

In plain words: Six honest questions to answer before you register anything. If you can answer them in one or two sentences each, you are more ready than most people.
7 · Your generated output

Starter path and next actions

In plain words: This is your result. Based on your answers: your best first route, what to do in the next 30 days, and who to contact. You can copy, download or print it.
Ecosystem map · resource referrals

Useful Swiss entrepreneurship resources

In plain words: Places that help founders in Switzerland — official offices, women's networks, funding platforms. Being on this map does not make them AfroSwissters partners.

This is a curated orientation map, not a claim that these organisations are AfroSwissters partners. Use it to help members find the right room faster.

Submit-a-resource workflow for the website

In Wix or another CMS, turn the resource map into a collection with fields: title, website, type, tags, canton, founder relevance, Afro-diaspora relevance, last checked date, source URL, contact owner, and partner status. Display partner status clearly as: resource only / informal contact / programme partner / sponsor.

AfroSwissters service layer

How to run this as a member support service

1. Intake

Member completes the tool and exports the action plan.

2. Triage

AfroSwissters identifies whether the main need is admin, pricing, funding, legal form, sector regulation, or confidence/accountability.

3. Referral

Mentor points to the competent official office or trusted professional, without pretending to decide legal status.

90-minute clinic format: 10 min grounding, 20 min Swiss rules, 20 min peer breakout, 20 min pricing/funding readiness, 15 min source navigation, 5 min next action commitment.
  • Regulated activity: refer to competent regulator before launch.
  • Non-EU/EFTA or uncertain permit: check migration/work permission before self-employed commitments.
  • Investor, shared ownership or debt: consult fiduciary/lawyer before signing.
  • Children/youth, health, wellbeing, personal data or vulnerable communities: add safeguarding, consent and privacy review.
  • Cross-border money/investment: check tax, AML/KYC, contracts and local counsel.

Static HTML cannot truly verify changing rules in real time. For a live website, use a small JSON-backed resource database and a monthly source-review automation.

Resource schema: { "title": "SECO SME Portal — Self-employment guidelines", "url": "https://www.kmu.admin.ch/...", "owner": "SECO", "topic": ["AHV", "self-employment", "evidence"], "last_checked": "2026-07-07", "review_frequency": "quarterly", "risk_level": "high" } Suggested live workflow: 1. Store resources in Wix CMS / Airtable / Google Sheet. 2. Add fields: source owner, legal threshold, last checked, reviewer, partner status. 3. Use a scheduled script to flag URLs whose title/status changed. 4. Human reviewer approves any changed Swiss legal/tax/AHV information before publishing.
Official source base

Source library

Review at least annually, and whenever VAT, AHV, commercial-register, migration, regulated-profession or association rules change.