Posted By: Expats Magazine, december 1999
Date: 12/29/1999
Working – legally – without a work permit
Expatriate partners and spouses know how hard it is to get a work permit in the Netherlands. Without EU citizenship, restrictive laws make it almost impossible. Accompanying your significant other to the Netherlands may appear to mean sacrificing your career. But in fact, there’s one company Dutch labor law will always let you work for: the one you start yourself.
The one thing you need when you want to start your own company is a residence permit. Once you have one, registering an ‘eenmanszaak’ (one-person company) in the Netherlands can be a matter af filling out a couple of forms and paying a nominal fee. The back of that little blue card might say you can’t take paid employment, says Kathryn Wentzel of Home Abroad relocation service in Amsterdam, “but it would never say you can’t be self-employed”. Nilgün van Geestel, from Turkey, does cross-cultural consulting for various firms including Amsterdam’s Tropenmuseum. When she accompanied her Dutch husband to the Netherlands, she did not expect –or want- to get a full-time job. “I figured, what can I do? What do I know best?” says Van Geestel, who lives in Hilversum. She capitalized on het public relations background, cross-cultural knowledge and Turkish business contacts by setting up as a market researcher. Seven years later, FIRM Activities is a B.V.; Van Geestel remains its sole employee.
When he retired from the United States Army, Charles Ruffolo settled in the rural community of Nijeveen, near Giethoorn with his Dutch wife. “People said, ‘you’re a natural-born networker’, “ says Ruffolo. So he made it his work. His one-person networking consultancy, RIBS, has helped clients including MCI and NFL Europe.
“I always had this romantic notion about coffee”, says American Leigh McDonald, who learned a great deal about customer service and coffee tasting while working for the US coffee shop chain Starbucks. “Starbucks was always something warm and welcoming”. Two and a half years after starting the Coffee Connection in Amsterdam as a sole proprietorship, McDonald’s Starbucks-like attention to atmosphere and quality has caught on enough for her to launch her own minichain. She’s about to open her second store, and a third is in the works.
Nilgün van Geestel: “You have to realize you’re facing a completely different work environment, business mentality everything is different”.
But for all the success stories, there are others out there with unhappier tales. “Almost half of startups do not survive the first year!”, says a text on Amsterdam’s Kamer van Koophandel Web site. “Why? Disappointing sales, neglected bookkeeping, underestimating the competition, not meeting legal requirements, etc. Many have not prepared well enough”. Van Geestel, Ruffolo and McDonald, successes all, did prepare. They made what, and who, they already knew work for them – and they kept learning and networking.
Legal foundation
The first step in starting a one-person business in the Netherlands is laying a sound legal foundation. This is actually the easy part, assuming you’ve got a residence permit. If you haven’t, Wentzel warns that the burden of proof you must present to the police can be quite heavy, depending on your nationality; you should discuss your case with them. But after the residence permit, there are basically just two more bureaucratic steps. You must register your business at the local Kamer van Koophandel (Chamber of Commerce, an official agency in the Netherlands) and the local office of the Belastingdienst (national tax service).
With the paperwork out of the way, you need to work yourself into the business culture. First things first: When in Rome, learn some Italiano. “I get more respect because I speak Dutch”, McDonald says. “And I fully recommend (learning it) out of respect for the country you’re living in”. Ruffolo, who works with foreign firms, says “it’s possible to do business here without speaking Dutch, but of course, your market’s going to be narrowed”.
General business operations, too, can be learned. Local Kamers van Koophandel give courses in skills such as management and business plan writing. Van Geestel took one through a women’s organization. “Here, of course, women and minorities usually have ‘extras’. You just have to know them”. Ask around to find out if there are equal opportunity resources you qualify for.
Asking around, in fact, will take you far. Not surprisingly for a professional networker.
Charles Ruffolo: “You’ve got to have confidence that your products or services are needed out there in the market. Don’t be intimidated”.
Ruffolo strongly advises beginners to speak up and approach other businesspeople who they want to work with or get advice from. A few years before he was to leave the US military, he joined the American Business Club and American Chamber of Commerce in the Netherlands (a networking organization, unlike the Dutch chambers of Commerce). He began attending meetings, sometimes driving for hours to reach them, and networking assiduously. McDonald worked at a restaurant her first year in the Netherlands, using the time to meet others in the industry and learn Dutch.
“You’ve got to be active”, says Ruffole.
“You’ve got to have confidence that your products or services are needed out there in the market. Don’t be intimidated”. He recommends contacting your home country’s consulate or commerce department; they exist to help business succeed. Get an appointment, explain what you’re doing and ask them to steer you to helpful people and organizations.
“Networking is a very important word if you’re a foreigner, an expat, and you want to get to know people and get them to know you”, says Nilgün van Geestel, who has made connections through women’s associations such as International Women’s Contact and the Vereniging van Vrouwen met Hogere Opleiding. “Talking to as many people as you can and getting their feedback about your ideas will help you learn how things work, not just in business but also in the broader culture”, she says.
The red tape, untangled
A business in the Netherlands becomes official when it’s registered at the local Kamer van Koophandel (Chamber of Commerce). The KvK will want to see a rent contract for the premises you’re going to operate the business from –even if it’s your house- and will charge a registration fee. Some activities are considered ‘vrije beroepen’ (professions in which one sells expertise, not goods) and don’t need to be registered; in that case, the KvK can supply a letter declaring your exemption, in case any other agency asks for it.
Second, at the Belastingdienst (national tax office), request an application for a BTW-nummer (VAT, or Value Added Tax ID number) and income tax return. With this application, you must submit proof of Kamer van Koophandel registration if you business requires it. You must also include your SoFi-nummer (social-fiscal ID number), which you receive once you register at city hall as a resident of a particular town. To do that, you have to have a verblijfsvergunning (residence permit). If you don’t you should talk to the local vreemdelingenpolitie (aliens’police) before starting this process at all.
以上是一些其他国家前人们在荷兰奋斗的经验,以做参考! |
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