Germany Meetup Opportunities

[Ikke]

I'm interested but have to see if it works with my schedule.

Also I would suggest starting a little earlier than 3 pm so we can make the most of the day.

Will there be presentations where people share their expertise? Or will it just be a meetup and talk?
Because I would suggest that a few presentations would really add some value for the people that come. To start it off I will offer to give a short presentation about the production of physical products or importing from asia if there is any interest in these subjects.

 

[chriswho]

Don't know if the question is still not answered but generally you have to at least register a business (Gewerbeanmeldung). When your revenue (Umsatz) is below ~17,500 € you can use the German "Kleinunternehmerstatus" which allows you to not take part on the taxes. To simplify that (indicating you are German) I'll write this in German as this is very specific:

Wenn du unter ~17.500 € im Jahr umsetzt, kannst du eine Einzelunternehmung mit Kleinunternehmerstatus anmelden. Das funktioniert entweder beim Gewerbeamt deiner Stadt oder direkt in der Stadtverwaltung - ist von Stadt zu Stadt unterschiedlich - und kostet ca. 20 €. Du bist dann von allen USt.-Richtlinien ausgeschlossen, d.h. du darfst/brauchst in deinen Rechnungen keine Umsatzsteuer berechnen, musst diese nicht abführen, darfst aber auch keine Einkäufe von der Umsatzsteuer absetzen. Außerdem hast du kaum bürokratische Hürden, darfst eine vereinfachte Steuererklärung abgeben (die im Grunde nur ein Anhang deiner privaten ist) und hast noch einige weitere Vorteile.
Du kannst auch mit Kunden anderer Länder Geschäfte führen. Wenn du etwa einem Österreichischen Unternehmer (bzw. Unternehmen) eine Dienstleistung verkaufst, bleibt diese mehrwertsteuerfrei. Diese Regel ist auch anwendbar, wenn du keinen Kleinunternehmerstatus hast. Wie das mit Privatpersonen aus dem Ausland ist, weiß ich leider nicht. Bei Unternehmen, die die USt.-Regeln befolgen, wird die landesübliche USt. berechnet (also 19 % bzw. 7 % deutsche USt.) und abgeführt. Ich schätze, dass du mit einem Kleinunternehmerstatus ebenfalls umsatzsteuerfrei in anderen Ländern operieren kannst - kann mir zumindest keinen Grund vorstellen, warum das nicht funktionieren sollte.

And regarding the topic: I am in and available in the beginning of the next year depending where and when this is exactly. Coming from NRW so Cologne would be a great selection.

Hi guys,
I'm new in the forum and I'm really looking forward to join
Besides the meet up I have a special interest about the tax stuff in Germany.
As soon we you earn money from a business (even earned money from feverr, upwork etc.) you have to register a business in Germany, right? And to earn money in other countries, you need a VAT?
I didn't want to create a new thread for that, sorry if this was wrong.

 

[theag]

I'm just a small shot :/

 

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[Hai]

Hi, I am looking for events, meetups, facebook groups etc. on the german "fastlane" scene. If there is anything, please let me know. Thanks a lot!!

 

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[Vigilante]

Wouldn't call myself a big shot.. But I do enjoy shots.. Shots of Jägermeister

No Jägermeister since my bachelor party 25 years ago.

 

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[Ascension]

Soo, where to start, where to end. Whatever I write now won't do the nine hours of constant talk justice, but I'll try to give you the points that stuck the most with me, as well as my overall impression.

@Seeker gave us a talk about his profession IT Consulting and analyzed how well it can match with the CENTS commandments. Right at the beginning, he changed the view I had of a consultant (as somebody who's actually consulting somebody on something) to more of a lend workforce.
It turns out that all service businesses are truly not created equal when it comes to Fastlane purposes. Even though companies pay very sizable amounts for IT Consultants your margins get pretty thin after you've paid for all of your employee's expenses and training, assuming you can even find qualified employees.

What impressed me most about @Knugs' talk was how much he was able to get done while working as a medical doctor or training to become one. He started off with an overview of his past endeavors and shared his current workings and future goals.
As a 13-year-old selling BB guns he proved that a product that pulls truly trumps everything. Most of his entrepreneurial pursuits after that were focused on and around the medical field which leaves amazing room for innovation and added value. It truly showed how beneficial being an expert on something can be. 99% of people will never even think or know about the hundreds or thousands of unsolved problems in your area of expertise and therefore aren't even able to compete with you. His experience with partnerships in business urges you to consider carefully if your partners will actually bring anything to the table. A great piece of advice was to stagger the distribution of equity and tie it to certain goals which have to be reached first.

@Dolsin shared his experience in the energy business. And what I found especially interesting, his experience cold calling, developing a script and hiring 10 salespeople. If I understood correctly his employees all had some experience in the industry but no experience cold calling. That they turned out profitable really speaks for a proper script and a planned way to handle objections.
Unfortunately, he had to really drive home the point about not partnering with your friends. The story about gambling problems, law-suits, a lost business and a broken long-time friendship really solidified me in my conviction to never get into business with friends.

@#nowhere told us about his experience growing up in a family of entrepreneurs and his experience being a mechanical engineer as well as a salesman.
It's quite a different world. Instead of closing the sale over a couple hundred or maybe thousand bucks over a phone call you spend months with a person the close a deal over millions. And while most sales professionals have to be mainly good at selling (though they obviously have to understand their product as well) here a deep technical knowledge is required to not only induce trust in the customer but to actually be able to recommend them a suitable product.

@JDx told us of the difficulties selling websites, his experience in front-end development as well as his experience with @snowbank's first incubator. To him it wasn't worth it and he expected a little more one on one coaching instead of handling everything in groups.
That being said, I don't think this can be taken as a general statement over the worth of Snowbank's course but shows that there is rarely ever a slam-dunk and what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another.

I talked about my past failures, about how there's absolutely no reason to spend large amounts of money on websites and pretty packaging when you haven't even made a sale yet, just because you convinced yourself that that is what's necessary at that price point. Furthermore how you should make the time frame and the consequences of violating this frame crystal clear in a contract, everytime you hire somebody for anything if you don't want things to drag on for months and eat your time away.

In addition, I talked about my current venture and plans to manufacture, sell and rent out machines in the event space.
This was the really surprising part of the meetup for me. I went under the assumption that I would learn from everybody else's experiences and I did. But I did not anticipate how much you gain from simply sharing your situation with others. There are so many different viewpoints, concerns and ideas to add value that you just wouldn't come up with on your own.
For that alone, I can only advise anybody who can to attend the next meetup.

 

[#nowhere]

I call it mid-european meetup. Who is in??

 

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[Supa]

Wouldn't call myself a big shot.. But I do enjoy shots.. Shots of Jägermeister

 

[chriswho]

If we will be around 12 people I could provide some space (my apartment) as I live in Cologne. If we are more than that, we have to look for another location. I could do that as well. I can speak about things I learned about web projects (currently I am running two main projects, one of these has about 600k hits a month), newsletter marketing and some other stuff related to that. I am also an IT consultant at my slowlane job.

 

[Ikke]

Just back from holiday since last week.

Now let's make some decisions.

Date: How about 15 or 16 october.
Location: Cologne @chriswho his place/ cologne conference center?/aachen area.

Day planning:

12:00 Start: introducing yourself
13:00 Start presentations
Each presentation will be about +/- 10 mintues with +/-10 minutes Q/A ?
15:00 short break
15:30 presentations
17:30 go to restaurant
18:00 dinner

Something like this? Open to all your suggestions and great ideas.

 

[Knugs]

Great to hear.

There were 10 members originally, but some dropped out very last minute (including myself as my car broke on the road to Maastricht).

Definitely looking forward to the next meeting. If any other German/Dutch/Belgian (or beyond) members want to stay updated, PM your phone number so we can add you in the Whatsapp group.

next time you buy a German car

 

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[Longinus]

Waar woon je precies? Leuven?

Izegem.

If German folks want to meet up somewhere in NRW, I'm sure we can send a Benelux delegation. If we have to move further, well... we'll gladly take the Autobahn

 

[goodguude]

Interested as well, despite having to travel through the whole country, haha!

 

[Ikke]

Sounds like a great idea!

I like that idea alot!

Great!

Good, maybe we whould inventorise what topic each person will speak about. That way we can make a schedule and maybe cherry pick some topics that are of interest to most people.

Mid-October Cologne meetup
-maxendio
-JDx
-Seeker
-#nowhere
-Longinus
-chriswho
-supa
-Cembo
-goodguude
-theag?
-ikke? - physical production or importing experience​

P.S. I messaged you regarding the FB group last week.

I just saw it and replied

 

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[chriswho]

I live right in the center of Cologne. I will Look for a place for us to hold some presentations. If I won't find any and if we are ~12 we can also hold presentations at my place if somebody brings a beamer. Would be in my living room then. I will hold you guys up to date regarding the place.

 

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[petkovic]

Hey guys,

if you want to come to Aachen on October 15th, I would be happy to organize something here!
Sorry that info took a bit longer than I originally thought, but I was sorting out travel around that time and that took longer than expected.

Of course, if someone can organize it in Cologne, that would probably even better because it is 1 hour less travel for everyone (except me and the Belgians).

 

[maxendio]

In my Opinion we dont necessary need presentations or anything like that. Just talking about Ideas or share some thoughts on specific topics and talk to other fastlaners would be nice as I have none in my friend group with the same mindset etc.

 

[Ika]

Hallo und Willkommen @NFT und @DejanM !

The Skype group never really happened.
And I slowly get to see why - personally I don't really have time for a regular chat without a clear goal in mind.

Specific calls for with a determined topic can be good though - so why not go that route?
If you come up with a specific problem that is either tied to Germany or can be better discussed in German, post it in here and we can hop on a call!
Maybe it's more productive than having a weekly call where a lot of time is spent on small talk, organising and no clear structure.

For example:
"Hey guys, I'm a freelancer that is currently using Upwork to get my clients. I do want to move off from UpWork though.
Let's chat about going from freelancer on UpWork to agency in control of their sales despite the German regulations on cold calling and emailing."

Just a thought though - I don't think a regular call will bring much value.
You can proove me the difference if you have any other ideas though haha


And one additional thing, and I don't want to adress this to you two as I've seen both of you post on this forum for some time.
A lot of people on this thread (German entrepeneurs in general) contribute on this forum 5 times, then post in here or write me a PM.
And are never seen again.
Just look at the number of posts in this thread, and the numbers of active german members.. The ratio is quite depressing.

So if you've just joined two days ago, posted 3 times (in here, and in both "I've read the book" threads), don't expect anyone to hop on a call without you giving them a great reason too.
If my time is incredbily short, you can only image how tight the schedule of the more experienced german members like @#nowhere and @Supa is.

 

[#nowhere]

Hallo und Willkommen @NFT und @DejanM !

The Skype group never really happened.
And I slowly get to see why - personally I don't really have time for a regular chat without a clear goal in mind.

Specific calls for with a determined topic can be good though - so why not go that route?
If you come up with a specific problem that is either tied to Germany or can be better discussed in German, post it in here and we can hop on a call!
Maybe it's more productive than having a weekly call where a lot of time is spent on small talk, organising and no clear structure.

For example:
"Hey guys, I'm a freelancer that is currently using Upwork to get my clients. I do want to move off from UpWork though.
Let's chat about going from freelancer on UpWork to agency in control of their sales despite the German regulations on cold calling and emailing."

I second this! I think if the purpose is clear and you think some of us could be of help... Go for it! I can speak for me only, but I'll be happy to help whenever I'm able to. But then things have to have a clear structure.

For socializing I would prefer something like the event which was planned here before. A skype call won't do much for the socializing goal.

And one additional thing, and I don't want to adress this to you two as I've seen both of you post on this forum for some time.
A lot of people on this thread (German entrepeneurs in general) contribute on this forum 5 times, then post in here or write me a PM.
And are never seen again.
Just look at the number of posts in this thread, and the numbers of active german members.. The ratio is quite depressing.

German phenomenon... Risk-adversity at it's best. More opportunity for us!

So if you've just joined two days ago, posted 3 times (in here, and in both "I've read the book" threads), don't expect anyone to hop on a call without you giving them a great reason too.
If my time is incredbily short, you can only image how tight the schedule of the more experienced german members like @#nowhere and @Supa is.

You never know what the others are doing but I think that Germans often times see "fastlane?! - s c a m"
Bc not one person gives it a try. Cultural problem.

I think Ika put it straight. I'm happy to share some time, but then with a clear "agenda". Not just dabbling around.

Hope to meet some of you someday!

If someone wants to reach out to me, just write a PM.

Saludos!

 

[Ika]

The last couple of days I've seen countless facebook and banner ads for this website:

Entrepreneur Fastlane - Wie du dir ein Leben nach deinen Vorstellungen erschaffst

Don't visit it - it has nothing to do with the actual fastlane philosophy.
It just looks like the next "get rich quick" course.

The interesting(or concerning) point is that the founder (Karl Ess) has a big business and fitness related following to push his course on to.
That *could* influence the term fastlane for the german market.

I personally wouldn't pick up the book if it has a similar title to another bs course.


It's maybe interesting for @MJ DeMarco too if there are too big overlaps to the book (and your copyright).

 

[Ika]

Today I looked back to the beginning of this thread: started in 2015, 80% of the "founding fathers" here are long gone and forgotten.

This.
Another example: I tried to revive the German Skype group a long time ago (which didn't work out, for the best). Since then, I got a lot of PMs from Germans sharing their Skype ID to join. While I like the initiative, nearly most of them are logged off forever before I can even write out an answer.
We Germans tend to not stick around.

Great to see so much people (and an actual meeting) happening in here! While I couldn't attend, I'm happy to hear it worked out so well.

With that:

There will be another meetup in 6 months.

in mind, what do you guys think about a more recurring meetup? Maybe in different part of Germany each time, so the same people don't have to travel 10hours each time.

If some of you are interested, I'd propose a meeting in Düsseldorf in the beginning of April (I would be happy to organise)

 

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[hacktick]

Fastlaners Germany - created

 

[BaraQueenbee]

Ok, so concluding there are many germans.

Now lets get a date.
Second week January, a Sunday in Koln? Or such..

Lets do this

 

[Seeker]

Count me in.
It's probably best to write down all the names of people who are in; we can move from there.

Feel free to add yourself to the list:

-maxendio
-JDx
-​

Because I voted for mid October, count me in as well.

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[#nowhere]

If the time fits my schedule, we can travel together. As you know I have an upcoming event that is not entirely schedulable around start of september, so I can't commit for anything around that time.

From mid October on chances are way better.

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My "for sure" was targeted towards that eve

Because I voted for mid October, count me in as well.

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In

 

[Longinus]

Me too.

 

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[Cembo]

I'm in

 

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[maxendio]

Mid-October Cologne meetup
-maxendio
-JDx
-Seeker
-#nowhere
-Longinus
-chriswho
-supa
-Cembo
-goodguude
-theag?

 

[Seeker]

Being still a slowlaner I can't share any fastlane insights from my own experience. But there are two topics I could talk about that might be valueable, in case somebody wants to here it (reply or PM me). I would only pick one, depending on the feedback.

- "Time Management" - this would be pretty basic stuff everybody should already know - like how to set your priorities right by ordering your tasks by importance and urgency, how to cut more time out of your life and so on. Not sure if I'm entitled to talk about it, because I don't always take my own medicine here. But if somebody is completely new to this, I might be able to share some theory here that I learned in a course.

- "IT Consulting Business - Can it be Fastlane?" I've been an Consultant for 5 years and now almost 6 years on the consumer side of IT Consulting. I never owned my own business in that regard, but have plenty of experience in the business and could provide an insight on this branch - especially in the light of the Fastlane. I could also tell you why I personally don't persue it as a Fastlane. So if anybody is interested let me know.

BTW is there anybody - best would be a local from cologne who could organize a conference room in hotel or better the whole meetup? If we want people to present there should be a room with a projector (or "Beamer" as we Germans refer to it). This stuff also needs to be paid for. I don't mind paying a moderate attendence fee, but we should be clear about if we want that. In my eyes this would only make sense if we have enough people who are genueinly interested in doing this. I'm also perfectly fine with just hanging out, meeting some of you guys and have some drinks together. Of course hearing some presentations would add much more value to it, so I would favor that.

 

[chriswho]

Awesome man!!
Do you already know a good Place where we could go to eat?

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There's plenty of places here with really good food - we will definitely find something until then, when we know which type of food we prefer.