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SEASON 2, EPISODE 19 SHOW NOTES
Time for another episode of The Germany Expat Business Show Mailbag. This time I’m sharing a question from Nutan Jaeger.
Nutan is a trained architect turned writer who moved to Munich with her German husband. She was laid off from her job and has worked as a freelancer in Germany before but always stayed under the mini-job level and making enough to cover taxes and insurance.
Her biggest challenge is figuring out how to start.
Should she exploring business ideas as side hustles and see what takes off? OR Should she create a business right away?
She also asked about working remotely from Germany for clients in the U.S.
It’s so fascinating to hear everyone’s stories.
My advice to Nutan would be to start something as a side-hustle rather than a full on business. For a few reasons.
The first being you see if you like doing it. You’ll also get a feel for what it would take to get it off the ground and see if you could make a living from it.
I am not an immigration or relocation expert. So I can’t speak to those issues directly BUT you can find tons of resources in my free guide listing all kinds of service providers in tools, link in the show notes!
Starting with a side-hustle might help you avoid a lot of bureaucracy and set-up effort (here in Germany or in the US) before you have a solid idea of what you want to do.
And a side-hustle is a perfect way to do some low stakes experimentation, build an audience and see if your idea shows any promise.
Since our exchange Nutan actually ended up getting a full time job. I remember when I started my printable business I was still employed full time at my agency job. It was really helpful to save a portion of my salary while planning to quit, rather than leap without a net. I think I quit when I was regularly making 1200-2000 Eur per month.
A final point about avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy. When I started my printable side-hustle I was so intimidated by the German system, that I started a U.S. based LLC. This was a total waste of time.
It got confusing to manage from a tax perspective and document upkeep and it just wasn’t necessary. In the end I lucked out and my German Steuerberater brother in-law helped me (I know feels like cheating). But just in case anyone who is thinking of doing that, I’d only recommend it if know you’re going back to the U.S. or home country.
For me, in the end it was better to ‘bloom where I was planted’ and do everything locally since I knew I would be staying.
Again, if you want more resources on how to get set up as a freelancer or start a side hustle in Germany you’ll find a ton of good stuff in my guide 35 Amazing Helpful Resources For Expat Start ups, Freelancer and Business Owners in Germany.