Start Your Own Business in Belgium seminar: where expat entrepreneurship meets local knowledge

Starting your own business can be an ambitious and sometimes frightening venture. Add the fact that you’d like to start your business in a foreign country and the project gets downright risky. Still, in Belgium more expats are making the leap of entrepreneurial faith than ever. “I have noticed an increase in expat entrepreneurship this year. The demand for this kind of activity has been much bigger than before,” says Louise Hilditch, co-founder of Local Knowledge, an organisation that exists to help expats set up and run successful organisations in Belgium.

Hilditch separates these newfound entrepreneurs into two groups: “There’s people who want to take the plunge and be entrepreneurial. Then there’s those who are without employment and want to back get into it, and look at self-employment as a way of going about that.”

Lifelong start-up dreams and obstacles

Shahul Hameed from India falls into the first group: “Starting a business has been my interest for a pretty long time. I came to Belgium to work for a company, but always had in my plans to start my own company, and I’m just now starting to move in that direction.” Hameed admits, however, that following his entrepreneurial dreams has not been easy.  “Managing time is really tough: I work a full-time job, work nights and weekends, and have a family to support.”

Even for those who find the time and motivation, the obstacles don’t stop there, says Maria Handayani: “For me the issue is language. I am from Indonesia and English is my second language, French my third. So for the project I would like to start up, it’s about finding someone I can trust who speaks Belgium’s legal languages.”

Showing expats the entrepreneurial reins

To help expats get their business up and running in Belgium, Local Knowledge co-organises half-day seminars called Start your own Business in Belgium with ING Belgium to take expats through the practical and essential steps needed to give their start-up project wings. One was held on May 13, and Handayani and Hameed agree that the real value of these seminars is the direct contact with the panel of five business experts. “I came to have more certainty,” says Handayani. "You read things on websites or via hearsay, but these sessions allow you to get advice from professionals who really know the reins and can give you step-by-step instructions on how to get your business running.”

Just the beginning

In addition to putting expats in contact with experts specialised in different aspects of running a business in Belgium (business planning, legal and administrative aspects, tax and finance issues and banking), the seminar provides a Local Knowledge guide book and printed copies of panellists' presentations. “We received a lot of useful reading material to follow up on, so I’ve got some homework to do now; it should be interesting,” says Handayani with a smile.

As only appropriate, the Start Your Own Business in Belgium seminar ends with an hour-long networking cocktail between the 50 entrepreneurially minded participants. Having just taken in an incredible amount of information in a half-day, this is where the project of starting their own business can really begin for Handayani and Hameed.

***In addition to this half-day seminar organised wtih ING Belgium, Local Knowledge occasionally organises free mini-sessions for start-ups. For more information, see their events page.