Hello!
I hope you’re enjoying the fall-turning-to-winter season 🍂⛄
Since this is the first time sharing out my business journey here, I’ve got some catching up to do. Today, I’m excited to share with you some updates about how my business is going, things I’ve been struggling with, and what I’ve really enjoyed working on. Over time, the format of this newsletter will evolve, and I’d be happy to hear your feedback. And if you think of any other people who would enjoy hearing about my journey, definitely share the link to my website with them so that they can sign up. Here’s the TLDR for today:
💡 Behind the name - peaches are cute and fuzzy and not intimidating (dance poles are the opposite).
📄 Setting up a business in France is quite a journey – an update on incorporation headaches.
🏠 I’m making tangible progress in the real estate search and learning lots about the market, my business, and my priorities along the way.
Why “The Peach”?
The origin story behind The Peach name comes from a drive into the desert in Dubai with my husband and his sister and brother-in-law. I was explaining to them what I wanted in a business name: when people start taking pole classes, students generally think it’s fun and they’re engaged. However, they quickly get intimidated and think they have to be super athletes. (Many people don’t ever try a first class because they don’t think they have the necessary strength, flexibility, or coordination.) So it was really important to me to have a name that says fun and not intimidating. Get people in the door, make them feel welcomed, and help them overcome the idea that they already have to be athletes.
At some point during the drive, we went down a fruit rabbit hole because fruit is about the least intimidating thing you can picture. Who’s afraid of a banana? But bananas weren’t quite the image I wanted to go for… so we went with peaches! Peaches are fuzzy, sweet, and a little cheeky 🍑
You’ll also notice that there’s no mention of “pole” in the name of the business, which is intentional as well. First of all, that might help overcome the stigma around pole fitness and will hopefully make more people open to taking a class. But it also allows me to possibly expand the business over time into non-pole ventures, whether those are fitness-related or possibly not even.
Now you know!
Let’s talk about incorporation!
(If you want to skip the giant text below, here’s a little diagram of the process thus far and where I’m at!)
Incorporation in the US involves very little. Essentially, if you want to start a business, you register it and it takes a day or two and then you’ve got a business. After that, you can set up a bank account, which again is not a great feat. You can use online services to help you with all of this, but honestly even doing it alone is completely manageable. In France, not so much.
My first hurdle was trying to stake out an expert who would help me. I was leaning between an accountant and an incorporation service, and since I need an accountant anyway and my accountant was willing to help me with incorporation, I figured that was the easiest route. In hindsight, I have no idea if that actually is true or if the incorporation agency would’ve been faster. (By the way, I’m omitting the saga of finding an accountant, but if you want to hear a story about inefficient service, I’ve got one!)
So I paid my accountant a small deposit in September in return for which he wrote so-called “statuts” for me – in English, the articles of incorporation. The first version had me listed as Mr. Tamar Forman-Gejrot, so I had to go back-and-forth with him to change that but that was honestly not really an issue and I’m used to it. Next, my task was to take my articles of incorporation and find a bank because in France, opening a bank account is an official part of opening a business.
My accountant had recommended that I use a “neobank” in order to avoid some of the paperwork that is often demanded by more traditional banks, so after some consideration, I figured I’d give it a shot and I could always open another bank account with a more traditional bank later on. However, as soon as I started the process, things began to look sad. It turned out that while the bank had a nice UI and simple process, they didn’t have an online option for creating a first bank account for a business (because the account creation form required searching for your existing business in the French business database). I emailed the bank to understand how to resolve this issue, and after a few phone calls back and forth, they let me know that it would be possible to open a bank account with them. It seems no one really knew that process though… Did my accountant have to do some setup first? Did they need more information from me? And somewhere along the way, customer service lost track of the actual problem we were trying to solve. After about a month and a half, I was finally able to get on a phone call with someone who said he would be able to open the bank account for me. It was supposed to take another 30 minutes or so and I should have the account. However, 15 minutes into the call, he asked me about my nationality. I told him I am Swedish-American and that is where the conversation ended.
The IRS requires that foreign banks file additional forms for US citizens, which creates more paperwork for the foreign bank and I believe also costs some money. Many banks are understandably hesitant to do that, especially the smaller, newer banks. (*Note: apparently there’s a French legal body that can theoretically force the bank to open an account for you because technically anyone opening a business in France is entitled to a bank account, but I figured that was more pain than gain.) So following the first bank debacle, I figured I should try a traditional bank because they’d be more likely to accept American citizens. I made an appointment with BNP and met with a very nice man who indeed was able to help me. Within an hour, he had me set up with a temporary bank account to wire my initial deposit to (this deposit amounts to €1000 for most banks). Later that day, I tried to actually wire the money and I kept getting errors in the online banking system. Eventually, I called their customer service and learned that there was a technical known issue, but that I had to contact their technical support despite this being a “known issue.” After almost a week, I received an email from tech support that I my bank agent would be in touch with me to resolve the issue 😑. Unfortunately, I missed his first call (and naturally, returning the phone call just took me to the automated customer service line). The first agent I was able to speak to let me know that again, the issue was that I was American and someone needed to manually unblock the transaction. The second agent told me that was wrong and the problem had to do with the setup of the capital account. To resolve this, he graciously offered to call thee third (professional accounts) agent, who didn’t answer his phone. Eventually I did receive an email from agent #3 saying (again) this was a technical issue and I needed to come to the bank to complete the transaction in person. Yesterday, that is what I did. Le voilà – that’s the status of my incorporation! It’s not over but progress is being made…
Real estate!
I’ll be honest. This was the part of the business that I was most scared of. First off, it requires negotiation. Second, it makes up the bulk of my fixed cost. Being who I am, I wanted to approach this very theoretically, have a conversation with a few real estate agents, understand the process, and only then tackling the “doing” side of this endeavor. But after contacting a few agencies and receiving no response, I realized that was not the right approach. Instead, I had to jump in headfirst and feel my way there.
I actually looked at a first space back in September. A cute storefront in Montmartre that had been vacant for quite some time. Jacob and I quickly realized that the space was oddly shaped, in terrible condition, and it had a huge basement that I had absolutely no use for but would pay for. Nonetheless, it was a very useful experience because it helped me start to narrow down my priorities. And that’s pretty much what the entire journey has been. I’ve visited space after space, and after each visit, I feel like I have a better sense of what The Peach needs.
I’m realizing where I’m willing and able to make trade-offs and that has helped me more clearly define a target. For instance, a number of the spaces I have visited have been in rough shape needing significant renovations, and I realized that having a four month construction project on my hands while I’m trying to learn to negotiate with French contractors (possibly over Christmas) and investing a huge amount of money into repairs and restructuring is simply not on the table. That insight allowed me to cut out a huge amount of real estate options.
Then there’s the question of how I want to divide up and use the space (an ongoing back and forth in my head). Of course in my dream world, I would love a space with a large studio, a small co-working area, a coffee corner, two showers, changing rooms, bathrooms, an office, storage space… 💭 In reality, I have to figure out what makes most sense. We’ve had a long discussion about non-monetizable space (i.e. space that doesn’t directly generate any revenue) and I’ve realized that some of it is essential to me (such as a small changing area, a dedicated welcome spot, and at least some space that serves community and branding), and other things are slightly less important and can be evaluated over time. For instance, I may not install showers for the first six months while I ask my first clients how they would feel about showers, whether they would make them come more frequently or at different times of day. So I’m ultimately seeing this as an iterative process much like I would approach a technical problem in my previous role as a product manager.
Below are some pictures and descriptions of locations I’ve visited:
If you’ve actually made it this far, congratulations! I really enjoy sharing my business journey with you and would love feedback. What did you enjoy? Are there specific topics you’d like me to cover in the future? Too much string-of-consciousness writing? Anything you think of is helpful!
Love,
Tamar
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