Founding a company takes a lot of patience & paper work. At least in Switzerland, you have to:
(1) decide on the company form (Sole enterprise, General partnership, GmbH: company with limited liability, AG: public limited company, among others)
(2) choose a name/brand name for the company,
(3) fill in the registration form for an entry in the commercial register and have this signed by a public notary before heading to the commercial registry – TIPP: inform yourself of the costs before heading to the commercial registry with your application, as you’ll need to take the money along in CASH (!!!),
(4) register for VAT (only applies to companies that earn above a certain annual income, so make sure to check whether this applies to you), and
(5) sign yourself up for social insurance (SVA), along with any employees.
Plus, I’ve gone ahead and opened a separate bank account for the company, and recommend this to all newbies (even if you are running a sole enterprise and especially for all company forms requiring a certain amount of starting capital) simply because, this way, splitting your personal savings from business income and expenses comes more naturally!
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Life Of An Entrepreneur 101 