[ExoticPearTree]

> ... and a business plan?

Why would the government need a business plan?

It's none of their business what you want to do with your company besides a general description as "software development" or "consulting services" or whatever.

[logifail]

> It's none of their business what you want to do with your company

There are plenty of European member states that want the ability to control very precisely what you do with "your company". You want to call yourself "a software engineer"? Ooops...

In the EU it seems particularly the German-speaking countries are borderline obsessed with a) titles, and b) whom may use those titles. See, for instance, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34096464

[BerislavLopac]

> it seems particularly the German-speaking countries are borderline obsessed with a) titles

There is nothing borderline about that - the German cultural space (including very much the countries of former Habsburg Empire) is still completely obsessed with titles and formal positions despite many of them losing any practical importance in modern times.

[hermanzegerman]

I like that you know what an Engineer is in German, and not the 1000 BS Meanings it has in the US

[Bewelge]

Actually I think I might be mistaken that you are even required to make a business plan. It's listed as one of the steps on the states portal about founding. But it goes on to say that it's not technically required, just highlights its importance.

https://www.existenzgruendungsportal.de/Navigation/DE/So-geh...

[dpc050505]

Several sectors of economic activities have the potential for atrocious externalities and it's absolutely the government's business to know about these and make sure that you're following regulation to minimize these externalities. When you make your employees the neighbours sick (or straight up kill them) it's an enormous failure on the part of government. It's easy to be oblivious to that when you only think about software.

Exhibit A: https://www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/article/battery-facility-acc...

[logifail]

Except it seems that it's often large companies - typically those with lots of lawyers - who seem to get away with what I can only describe as "corporate misdeads" most regularly.

"Following regulation" sounds great until it's revealed that corporate lobbyists have been helping (co-)write regulations to make sure that fair competition is quashed.

[eidjdj174]

It’s interesting how people can apply thinking like “there are problems, it’s not perfect, better not to try” to government, but also be pro starting businesses