Setting up a cooperative enterprise involves several key steps. Below is a non-exhaustive checklist:
- Budget for incorporation costs
- Choose the company name
- Determine the founding assembly (at least seven members)
- Register with the commercial register (with registration form, minutes of the constitutive assembly, articles of association)
- Draft specific articles of association (do not reuse those of other cooperative enterprises)
- Define the governing bodies: general meeting (GM), board of directors (at least three members), audit body
- Choose the bank for the blocked account intended for the cooperative shares and open the account
- Submit the incorporation documents to the notary and the commercial register for review and, if necessary, correction
- If an audit body has been appointed, request its acceptance
- Organize the inauguration of the enterprise
- Register with the AHV compensation office and conclude contracts for the mandatory occupational pension (LPP) and accident insurance (LAA) if the enterprise employs staff (the founder is considered an employee)
- Register with the Federal Tax Administration for VAT purposes.
