Red Tape Translation

Tag Archive: government grant

Getting the Gründungszuschuss to Start Your Own Business

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Getting out of Unemployment with Self-Employment: The Gründungszuschuss

If you are facing unemployment in Germany or are right in the middle of it, you might be interested to know about a grant that the Agentur für Arbeit offers to job seekers on ALG1 unemployment benefits if they want to start a business in Germany. The idea of this “new business grant” (Gründungszuschuss) is to get people out of unemployment (ALG I) by encouraging them to become self-employed or to start a company. Naturally, this won’t suit everyone, so the Agentur für Arbeit is really interested in making sure that you’re the entrepreneurial type and that you have a viable idea before they approve your application.

It is difficult to find information about the Gründungszuschuss in English. Here are the basics.

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Kathleen Parker’s Shiny New Government Grant

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Recently dubbed “the queen bee of Berlin bureaucracy”, Kathleen Parker is now the proud recipient of an Agentur für Arbeit Gründungszuschuss – a government grant from the German Job Agency to support her freelance work activities. The process involved months of planning, extensive market research, and a 35 page business plan, written in perfect German with all relevant financial reports and outlooks. As only 10% percent of all applications for the grant are approved, the positive news was the source of some serious celebration at Red Tape Translation Berlin.

Thinking of Starting a Business in Germany?

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