Starting A Business Around The World

This is a Coda AI template that provides a template for organisations that facilitate business formation in their country/region to share with aspiring entrepreneurs.

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Judges: Link to video here (YouTube took too long): https://1drv.ms/f/s!AocVCnZ2DoHczyWu8DtygmMKg3Di?e=cIjhJ7

Introduction

Entrepreneurship is vital to an economy. Without entrepreneurs, there would likely be far fewer jobs available than there are currently, less innovation as well as increased prices and less variety in the goods and services that we purchase. Many people aspire to be an entrepreneur but in practically all countries around the world it is very rarely the case that you can just wake up one day and start a business. There is a process to follow and this differs considerably depending upon where you are in the world or where you would like to do business: in the United Kingdom, for example, if you would like to set up a limited company (one way, though not the only way of starting a business) you need to register with an organisation called Companies House; in the Netherlands, the equivalent is Kamer van Koophandel (KfK); in Spain, it is Registro Mercantil, and so on. One way of measuring this discrepancy is through the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business index *, which looks at a range of factors to see how easy it is to set up and run a business: in the year 2019, New Zealand was ranked number 1 across the world in order to start a business whilst Somalia was ranked 190. In other words, whilst it would take 4 days to start or register a business according to figures from the World Bank, it would take 188 days to start or register a business in Somalia according to the same institution.

This discrepancy in the time it takes to start a business can adversely impact either those who are completely new to starting a business or, alternatively, those who have moved to a new country and would like to start a business, or, those who are legally considered to be outside of the country (in the United Kingdom, the legal term for this is "outside of the jurisdiction") but would nevertheless like to run a business within the country. The economy of the country in question is harmed as there are slightly fewer entrepreneurs than there otherwise would be, mainly due to not understanding the formalities that come with starting a business.

How can Coda help?

Currently, in order to find out how to start a business in many parts of the world, you have to do extensive research to find out how to do this. For example, as someone from Britain who once considered running a business in the Netherlands, it took some length of time to understand the process. One has to use a search engine of their choice, speak to people, speak to agencies and then start all over again. This process is made even more difficult where there are different languages involved (in my own personal case, I was only an English speaker and official documents were in Dutch, the language of the Netherlands).

How about if we could create a template so that organisations such as Companies House in the United Kingdom and KfK in the Netherlands don't have to spend so much on marketing about who they are and what they do and, similarly, that aspiring entrepreneurs don't have to expend so much energy on finding out how to start a business in the country of their choosing? That's exactly where the Starting A Business Around The World aims to do.

Features of Starting A Business Around The World

There are a number of features with Starting A Business Around The World. These include: Advantages of each country explained - For certain countries, the advantages of setting up a business in the country is explained adequately. Key terms - Key terms and unusual terms are explained with the help of info callouts. Warnings - Things to watch out for are explained with the help of alert callouts. Checklist - Things to cross-off to ensure that you're on the right track when it comes to starting a business. Charts - Features statistical information to help guide aspiring entrepreneurs, particularly those foreign to the country, about the advantages of setting up a business in the country. Automated reminders - Some business obligations are recurring - for example, Hyperlinks - References are given official links.

What I liked about Coda

I actually really liked Coda. I found it very easy to use. The "\" operator is a very easy and ingenious way of accessing all the capabilities of Coda. I also really liked the cheerfulness of the "Chief Cheerleading Officer", Maria, on her YouTube videos; she was fun, had a great humour and also had an exceptional understanding of Coda.

Applications and Use Case For Starting A Business Around The World

Starting A Business Around The World has a number of use cases. These include:

  • Helping domestic residents of a country understand how to start a business in the country.
  • Helping those who have recently migrated to a country understand how to start a business in the country that they have moved to.
  • Helping those who wish to invest or start a business in a particular country whilst still living outside of said country.
  • Easing the process of communication by registries and official organisations involved with the facilitation of starting a business.

Recommendations

I really liked using Coda AI, and found it very intuitive and easy to understand. The only two recommendations that I have are as follows: 1) Advanced features of Coda AI are somewhat obscure - the use of the Coda language is somewhat obscured and not celebrated as much as it should. Whilst Coda is aimed primarily at those who might be beginners or prefer low code options, it would be nice if more resources were available to find out how to use the Coda language. 2) Glitch with backward slash - Although the use of the backward slash is an intriguing way to open up the features of Coda AI, there is a small glitch or undesirable feature in that when you press the "+" button to insert an element or item, the backward slash is left typed onto the document. This does not make a lot of sense. 3) Prefetch link - There should be a way that you can share a template with the world before it is officially published (for example, with YouTube, you are given a link which you can share with others even before your video is live on the platform).

** The World Bank Ease Of Doing Business Index came to an end in 2021.

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  • coda
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