A supportive environment for new start-ups, the courage to foster a forward-looking start-up culture, and a supportive start-up climate: These are the objectives of the nationwide Start-up Week 2018, taking place from 12 to 18 November, featuring over 1,500 workshops, seminars, business simulations and competitions. The event is organised by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, with support from numerous partners in retail, industry, research, the service sector and associations from a wide range of industries.
Geographical barriers for start-ups
Dr André Helf, CEO of the COLLECTION Business Centre Group, is very familiar with the problems faced by start-ups and young companies seeking information during Start-up Week 2018: “We also have many start-up founders amongst our customers, and we naturally make a special effort to help them get their businesses off to a successful start. With our business centres, we offer a genuine alternative to traditional commercial tenancies – with us, the usually very young founders can preserve their capital, as they only pay rent for as long as they use the premises. We do not offer traditional tenancy agreements with very long terms.”
Furthermore, the space requirements of start-ups vary greatly: “We’ve often seen that start-ups begin very cautiously at first, which is only right,” explains Dr Helf, “most of them initially rent either small office units or co-working spaces. But once they realise their business is flourishing and expansion is needed, they quickly need new staff and more space – they can arrange this very flexibly with us; we’ll accommodate them swiftly as long as we have space available. Of course, the reverse is also true: if founders experience sudden lulls – which do happen – they don’t need to lose heart straight away: with us, they can quickly move back into smaller offices; we don’t put any obstacles in their way. This conserves capital, and we make a very significant contribution to business flexibility.”
Highlights of Start-up Week 2018
Start-up Week 2018 is taking place in very close cooperation with Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), a global week of action during which, in 2017, millions of young people in over 170 countries exchanged experiences, aspirations and objectives for innovative ideas and start-up knowledge at around 25,000 events.
One of the key focuses of this year’s Start-up Week is on ‘social start-ups’ – businesses that promise particular social and environmental benefits. Politicians and numerous associations are promoting ‘social start-ups’, which are also attracting a great deal of interest from professionals across many academic and technical disciplines. However, the economic challenge for these founders is particularly great when it comes to developing a solid, viable and sustainable business model. This is a key reason for drawing up a cost-optimised business plan and seeking affordable premises for business operations. Dr Helf explains: “In many major German cities, such as Cologne, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt and, increasingly, Berlin, the commercial property markets are booming – there is very little vacant space left. This is driving prices to sometimes astronomical heights. Unfortunately, however, these are also the cities that are very popular among young people and potential employees for start-ups – and they are university cities that have become home to many skilled workers because of the degree programmes on offer. We must be careful to ensure that a ‘scissor effect’ does not arise: it must remain possible for start-ups to realise their business ideas in these cities. In our business centres, they have the best opportunities to do so, not only because of the affordable rents and the enormous flexibility, but also because of our high-tech facilities, which are ideally suited to presentations. Communication is increasingly becoming a key element of entrepreneurial success. We are certainly keeping a close eye on that.”
Incidentally, COLLECTION Business Centre will be opening a new business centre in Cologne next year – in the newly built Wallarkaden on Rudolfplatz. This will give the city’s very vibrant start-up scene the opportunity to take advantage of affordable and flexible office space.
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