IHK Service for Start-ups

Competent, concrete and unbureaucratic – that is the way the all of Germany covering IHK network, helps prospective founders to start their entrepreneurial independence. From questions about authorizations to preparing a meeting with the bank – the IHK conveys the necessary commercial knowledge for a life as an entrepreneur. For most founders, the local IHK is the first port of call.

Here the prospective entrepreneur will receive service geared directly towards his/her needs:

• Who starts off new can learn the "ABC of Entrepreneural Life" with the IHK Basic Information on Founding a Business – especially in interviews and IHK Seminars.
   
• In the IHK Business Start-up Consultancy, people who already have an individual concept can check their business plan together with an IHK expert.

In 2004, the IHKs held over 286,000 interviews, almost 70,000 Business Start-up Consultancies and seminars with approximately 37,000 participants. In addition, the IHKs held prerequisite exams, which are necessary for many business start-ups.

Links for Start-ups

Important ports of call for business founders and for support of prospective entrepreneurs can be found here.

Figures and trends from the 81 IHKs

What are the current trends in the field of business start-ups? Which conclusions should politicians draw? These are some of the questions the DIHK-Start-up Report 2007 answers. The report is based on more than 370.000 conversations between IHK-start-up councillors and potential founders of new businesses and captures the largest part of the start-up activity in Germany.

This English version represents an abridgement of the most important results stated in the current DIHK startup report. The current report shows, that the start-up activity in Germany in 2006 is decreasing in spite of improved economic prospects:

DIHK-Startup Report 2007 (PDF, 85 KB)