Meetup IT Entrepreneurs?

[pbid]

Hi,
I just started a IT company in Singapore and I am not a Singaporean/PR.

Looking forward to meet some one in the same boat like me or who can provide their experiences.

Looking forward to make some friends.

Best Regards,
pbid

[Strong Eagle]

Hi,
I just started a IT company in Singapore and I am not a Singaporean/PR.

Looking forward to meet some one in the same boat like me or who can provide their experiences.

Looking forward to make some friends.

Best Regards,
pbid

You have just 'started' a company? Therefore, you have registered a pte ltd with a nominee director? You cannot start your own sole proprietorship... one can only hope you are not running afoul of the law.

[nutnut]

I beg to differ, you can start a Sole proprietorship on a PEP.

[pbid]

Yeah. Obviously I have started pte.ltd with a nominee director services. No faul play here.
What I am looking for is not actually how to open a company, etc.
I am more or like interested to discuss issues related to for example,
- cost of running business
- what are costs involved in recruiting resources esp. programmer, auditor etc
- best places to rent office

Would be great to hear from your experiences.

Best,

[Strong Eagle]

I beg to differ, you can start a Sole proprietorship on a PEP.

Most definitely not.

http://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/ ... fault.aspx

* The following groups of foreigners are not eligible for the PEP:

(i) foreigners who are issued with an Employment Pass under the Sponsorship scheme. Under this scheme, their direct employers are overseas companies which do not have a Singapore-registered office/business entity;

(ii) foreigners who are working or intending to work on a free-lance basis without any direct employers in Singapore;

(iii) foreigners who are listed as Sole Proprietors, Partners or Directors in a business/company registered with ACRA and are shareholders of that business/company.

(iv) foreigners working as journalists, editors, sub-editors and producers.

The gahmen most definitely doesn't want you to use a PEP as a way to start your own business.

[Strong Eagle]

Yeah. Obviously I have started pte.ltd with a nominee director services. No faul play here.
What I am looking for is not actually how to open a company, etc.
I am more or like interested to discuss issues related to for example,
- cost of running business
- what are costs involved in recruiting resources esp. programmer, auditor etc
- best places to rent office

Would be great to hear from your experiences.

Best,

If you do not have an EP with your pte ltd, and you are resident in Singapore you cannot run your company. Period. End. And, in my opinion, given the level of questions you are asking, you will not be granted an EP.

If you are not resident in Singapore, then this is not the place to start an IT company, especially with your lack of experience.

[nutnut]

I beg to differ, you can start a Sole proprietorship on a PEP.

Most definitely not.

http://www.mom.gov.sg/foreign-manpower/ ... fault.aspx

* The following groups of foreigners are not eligible for the PEP:

(i) foreigners who are issued with an Employment Pass under the Sponsorship scheme. Under this scheme, their direct employers are overseas companies which do not have a Singapore-registered office/business entity;

(ii) foreigners who are working or intending to work on a free-lance basis without any direct employers in Singapore;

(iii) foreigners who are listed as Sole Proprietors, Partners or Directors in a business/company registered with ACRA and are shareholders of that business/company.

(iv) foreigners working as journalists, editors, sub-editors and producers.

The gahmen most definitely doesn't want you to use a PEP as a way to start your own business.

Thanks for clarification, I have mis-information.

Cheers nutnut

[pbid]

@Strong Eagle: Why not? A foreigner can hold 100% shares of pte.ltd. My EP is already in the progress.

Unfortunately I get an impression that you guys are more interested to advice me for the things that I am not looking for.

Is anybody here in this forum who recently started their IT business in Singapore?

[Strong Eagle]

@Strong Eagle: Why not? A foreigner can hold 100% shares of pte.ltd. My EP is already in the progress.

Unfortunately I get an impression that you guys are more interested to advice me for the things that I am not looking for.

Is anybody here in this forum who recently started their IT business in Singapore?

You fail to recognize good advice. To start a business in Singapore, you are required to file for and meet the requirements of the Entrepass. You can certainly hold 100 percent of the shares of a company but if you think that will automatically give you an EP, you are sorely mistaken.

If you had done any reading on this forum you would have already discovered the requirements for starting a new business with the Entrepass, and the exceptions that have occurred from time to time, whereby an individual has successfully obtained an EP after forming a private limited.

Do you think the government is stupid? Do you think they would go to all the trouble of specifying an Entrepass and its requirements just so that someone like you could circumvent the entire process by setting up two dollar private limited and applying for an EP? You clearly don't know anything about setting up and running a business.

http://www.acra.gov.sg/Guide+for+Foreigners.htm

Have at it. This is the last you'll hear from me. And yes, I've set up an IT business in Singapore.

[JR8]

@Strong Eagle: Why not? A foreigner can hold 100% shares of pte.ltd. My EP is already in the progress.

Unfortunately I get an impression that you guys are more interested to advice me for the things that I am not looking for.

Is anybody here in this forum who recently started their IT business in Singapore?

Jesus kin christ. There are none as blind as those who do not wish to see!

[Seasoul]

If the company is created by PR/SG citizens, he might get an EP, given that the company has a capital, a solid plan and business activity etc, wouldn't he ?

More to the point of the thread, there is a monthly meetup, the Web Wednesday (http://www.webwednesday.com.sg/) that would be a good place to start for you. Been there a few times, haven't in a while, but it was a great place to meet IT entrepreneurs, and they often have interesting guest speakers as well.

I am myself looking for meetups for entrepreneurs in SG, so if anyone is keen to share info on groups or networking events, I'd appreciate it I'm not looking for a specific market or industry, more for general business meetups, targeted at people running start-ups or small businesses.

[kevin_al]

Operating cost & recruiting cost are not significant for me.

However, manpower & office rent is huge, driving my profit negative~

Yeah. Obviously I have started pte.ltd with a nominee director services. No faul play here.
What I am looking for is not actually how to open a company, etc.
I am more or like interested to discuss issues related to for example,
- cost of running business
- what are costs involved in recruiting resources esp. programmer, auditor etc
- best places to rent office

Would be great to hear from your experiences.

Best,

[noahark]

Hi:

What IT services are you currently providing? I am keen to meet up with some IT entrepreneur as well. I just started running a website as well, facing with problem in marketing it effectively.

[AnthonyC]

I am more or like interested to discuss issues related to for example,
- cost of running business
- what are costs involved in recruiting resources esp. programmer, auditor etc
- best places to rent office

Would be great to hear from your experiences.

Best,

Hi pbid,

I ran a media / web development company in Singapore for many years. I think i may be able to offer you some advice on running costs etc.

1. Office and utilities. If you take a space in a shop house around Chinatown, expect to pay $3-4k per month. Some of them are pretty run down, so you may need to spend some money on it dressing it up. I found having a presentable office really worth while, as it projects a professional image to staff and clients.

2. Accounting costs. You will face a few recurring or annual costs. Factor about $6-8k per annum to look after company secretary, annual accounts, tax computation and bookkeeping. For most IT companies, quarterly bookkeeping is probably enough, unless you have a lot of staff and need to payroll done monthly.

3. Hiring. There are some free forums and jobs sites you can put ads on, but for the most part, for hiring designers and programmers, I used jobstreet and jobsdb. I found these sites gave me the best quality candidates for this type of role. Expect to pay $4-5k for an experienced developer. Be careful hiring lots of juniors. A lot of our clients have found that junior staff actually cost you more in time and productivity losses. I think most IT grads expect around $1.8k per month.

Hope this helps.