There are some cantonal pages in english too. Check etat.ge.ch for starting point. 

For french pages, I had to trawl through them very carefully, using translation pages and being sure that I understood terms that were not familiar. 

Unfortunately, the french is a massive extra challenge to starting a business. However, it should not put you off if you really want to do it..

Chris,

Thanks for your reply! I've already studied cantonal pages but they're not answering all of my questions. I was counting on some more info. Should I first register at "registre du Commerce" and then go... hmm.. where? or should it be the other way around. I also read that it is a bit complicated to start self-employemnt in Geneva and I should first start without registering and then be able to prove that my business works and I have clients (sounds weird). So should I sell stuff illegally first ('cause that's what it is without registering)? And how is "societe simple" different than "entreprise individuel"? I think I read too much and that's why I'm so confused now.

I think I will go to the Office de la promotion economique on Friday and see if they can help :)

in the meantime any answer or idea will be more than welcomed!

oh.. and French does not scare me :) I really WANT to make my idea real! :)

Olga,

You should talk to the appropriate office, that's for sure, but when I went there in the beginning of this year, I was told to first just start working, get some clients, get some invoices. Then, when I had a sufficient variety of clients, I should come back.

I guess they don't want to waste anyone's time with a "great business idea" that no one then follows up on. So, prove there is a market for your business and then go and register later.

In any case, good luck!

it must be late... clearly i'm agreeing with what you said above, i just neglected to actually read it first. my bad.

Olga, It's not illegal to start working as an independant w/o registering a company. It's a common practice when you do a service type of activity. You can do it up to 100'000 CHF turnover per year. You do have to declare the income for taxes within max 36 mths using a personal declaration (here I'd recommend a fiduciary ).

So they are right to say to start working now and register later. 

I know quite a lot about it as I'm doing a study on various institutions supporting entrepreneurshp in the region. I'll be available to talk after 12dec if needed.

You can call "Guichet PME" and ask for appointement in English : Tel: +41 22 388 34 34 but prepare your list of questions in advance.

Dear all,

Thank you very much for your help and sorry for not replying but I simply lost the thread and until today had not time to search (I couldn't find any place where all my posts would be).

I haven't gone to any office yet, I hope to get there finally next week and will immediately tell you what I found out.

What everybody says regarding starting the business without registering applies very weel to service type of activity and I understand how it may work but my idea is selling things imported from EU, so I'm not sure if same rules applies here. I did not find anything about that on official sites of canton and city of Geneva. Anybody got any idea about that?

Thanks!