Create your small business to be your own boss, and work when you want to, do you like it?

More and more French people are getting started, especially in the craft trades. To save time and work in complete safety, it is best to equip yourself, from the outset, with tools such as electronic signature, the basis when choosing dematerialization. We explain why!

Craft trades attract the French - Credit: Pixabay

Creating your business to be free, and not having a boss on your back, is attracting more and more French people. It's more flexibility in your life, because you manage your time as you want. Fancy a mid-week break? Why not, if in return, we are ready to work late at night, early in the morning, or on a Sunday instead (or maybe not, if we earn enough part-time).

Of course, setting up a small business, finding customers, coping with the ups and downs while keeping your spirits up, it requires having strong backs. As for the rest, registering as a micro-entrepreneur is very simple. As for social contributions for the self-employed, good news, they will drop by the end of the year (also know that when you start with the status of micro-entrepreneur, their rate is reduced anyway, thanks to ACRE).

The dematerialization of companies to save money

Today, when working in business, there are many tools to avoid wasting time and get straight to the point, such as CRP and ERM software. Administrative management is more or less demanding depending on the type of business, and the number of quotes and invoices to be made each week. Since the health crisis and the confinements, the dematerialization business has accelerated.

We then realized that using less paper also helped to fight against global warming.

One of the flagship tools of this dematerialization is the electronic signature, useful in all sectors for a self-entrepreneur, a VSE, an SME, or a start-up. When you adopt it, you forget about the Post Office, the documents signed in ink pen, the scans… No more files, cardboard boxes on the shelves that gather dust.

Entrepreneurs can manage their time - Credit: Pixabay

The electronic signature: how it works

The electronic signature is a technical and legal process which makes it possible to provide digital documents with consent and approval. It’s a really reliable, time-saving solution.

Everything is settled in a few clicks. No one is waiting any longer: neither customers, nor service providers, nor subcontractors, nor suppliers!

Operation is simple. L' company equipped with an electronic signature solution takes the first step: it is she who will ask for a document to be signed online. Creating and sending a signature invitation takes three minutes, it's super fast!

Electronic signature: how an invitation is created

To do this, the company sends the predefined number an OTP (One-Time Password) code by SMS. The recipient can then confirm their identity, and agree to sign the document.

In a second step, an electronic certificate guaranteeing the integrity of the document is affixed to the document.

Most of the time, the documents sent are returned signed to the sender in a few minutes. In the end, the electronic signature allows 45% increase in conversion on digital signature paths!

For more security, the traceability of each document is ensured.

If you have not yet had to deal with the electronic signature, it will not be long, because all sectors are adopting it to have documents signed remotely by their customers or their partners, or their future collaborators.

Electronic signature: examples of sectors that use it

If you are looking for use , (whether it is a CDD or a CDI), or an internship, you may sign your next contract or your first promise of employment thanks to the electronic signature. While competition is fierce in some areas, companies that do not want to see their candidate slip away have every interest in getting them to sign without delay, before they find something better elsewhere. You can sign by electronic signature at any time, from anywhere, from a computer, a telephone, as long as you are connected.

More and more real estate agencies are using it for a real estate sales mandate, a rental lease, a sales agreement…. All these documents can be signed by electronic signature. You may have been offered it during your last inventory! Notaries, insurance companies, banks have also adopted it.

The electronic signature is also used internally, for example for attendance sheets, employment contracts and their amendments, accounting and legal documents. In a few seconds, it allows them to be authenticated and signed.

Why the electronic signature is reliable

The electronic signature can be completely trusted for several reasons:

• It complies with the conditions and standards that have been set and controlled by the European and French authorities.
• Before giving consent, the person signing must identify themselves! Thus, the evidence is frozen in time, and we cannot go back on it.
• An additional proof of its perfect reliability is its legal and legal value in Europe via the eIDAS regulation.

The European Yousign, created in 2013, guarantees valid electronic signatures from a legal point of view. It is a certified trusted provider, and its intuitive interface, and immediately deployable. It has developed a subscription-based solution specifically for SMEs, VSEs, and TPIs and ETIs with:

• real-time tracking of order status;
• notifications when a signature is validated;
• automatic reminders;
• easy integration into business software, in order to automate the entire document management process.

Creation of a craft business: the dynamic sectors at the moment

Business creation is booming in France, but you don't really know where it's moving the most to create your small business?

Craftsmanship is on the rise! In 2021, nearly 250,000 craft businesses have emerged in the country. When an entrepreneur creates a business in France, it is in the craft industry one time out of four!

Half of the creations concern the 10 major activities of the building trades and services.

• The strongest increase was in cleaning activities (which are actively recruiting).
• In second place come beauty care activities (freelance home beauticians, for example, are more and more numerous).
• In third place are electrical installation companies.
• In fourth place comes auto repair.
• Businesses around food are also booming. Chocolate shops and artisan pastries have made a big breakthrough.

Short circuits are popular, and more and more French people are looking to consume locally. This represents great opportunities for those who want to create their business in the provinces! The countryside needs to be revitalized, and it is in the rural communes that the creation of craft businesses is the most important! What if it was your turn?