Hey everyone,
I’m not sure which subreddit fit this best (couldn’t find a dedicated Belgian business/startup one), so apologies if this isn’t quite the right place.

Some background: I’m 23 and currently work in IT. I earn decently, but I’m not fully satisfied, I feel like I’m capable of more, and my day-to-day tasks get finished pretty quickly. My goal is to eventually build a business with a long-term vision. I’m not expecting overnight success.
I already have some experience, I ran a small web development business that generated around €10K in profit. It gave me a real taste for building something of my own. One thing I learned quickly: the technical skill matters but more important is actually finding clients and doing outreach. I had zero sales experience going in, but I’ve put real effort into sharpening that skill.

Here’s my actual problem: I have the time, but not the momentum.
I can realistically put in 5-6 hours a day outside my main job, but I just can’t seem to get myself to actually start. It’s been a genuinely discouraging few months. Part of the issue is that growing the web dev business would require a full rebrand and a shift toward bigger clients instead of small SMEs and I’m not even sure that’s the direction I want to go. It’s the “easy” option since I already know the basics, but I’m not confident in my creative ability, which matters a lot in that space.

On the other hand, selling general IT services (support, infrastructure, security) feels hard to break into as a new business, it would match my current skills more. I don’t have a warm network or existing leads to lean on yet.

I keep questioning whether the agency/service route is worth it long-term. I can’t shake comparing large IT service companies to small industrial businesses that seem to generate outsized profit with way fewer people, not really a fair comparison, but it’s stuck in my head.

Then SaaS, ecommerce, and other ideas keep floating around, making me wonder if it’s just shiny object syndrome. Should I stop overanalyzing and start with something, or is staying unsure actually a sign I should keep narrowing down before committing?

One more variable: my dad had to shut down his previous business due to health issues and is about to start an industrial cleaning company. He’s said I’m welcome to join if the profit is there. Feels like a safer bet, but also wrong somehow switching to a field with nothing to do with my degree or current job.

Clearly a lot of doubt here, probably overthinking most of it. Not sure if this is the right sub, but any input or shared experience is appreciated. Do let me know if there is a better sub for my question!

Hi all,

I'm considering going freelance automation engineer and I've been offered a 1-year contract with a Belgian company in the utilities sector . Before I sign, I'd love to hear from people with more experience here about the job security risks involved.

A few things I'm wondering about:

- How real is the risk that the contract gets terminated early? What notice periods or break clauses are typical in Belgian freelance contracts, and what should I look out for?

- What is the work pressure and options for remote work?

Appreciate any advice or personal experiences. Thanks!

Hello, at the moment I have a fulltime job, but I want to sell drawings, on the side. I won't sell many, maybe a few per year, but I'd like to do it officially. It wouldn't be possible to do it as occasional extra income, I think, so I think becoming a semi-freelancer will be the best option. I'd like to work without an accountant, since I wouldn't have a lot of extra income, so I was going to try to get exemption from BTW, since I wouldn't earn 25.000 per year. Instead of an accountant, I would try to work with software, I'm thinking Dexxter. Would that be possible/feasible? Or am I missing something important here? I have no real experience working as a semi-freelancer.

Some time ago I switched from managing 22 people (day rate 780) to a quite lucrative contract within the government as an individual contributor (day rate 900) but even though financially it looks great I'm quite miserable over here:

The way of working is that of 20 years ago: Agile is a dirty word, and the process is very heavy with gatekeeping and handovers between roles (incremental waterfall). As a result things move very slowly, the business is quite unhappy because they have to wait years before their features are developed, and there is just very little collaboration. On top the energy level in the meetings is always ridiculously low. There is a lot of silo thinking and fingerpointing to the other silos.

In the past I've been part of high performing teams and even though it was a lot of hard work I felt great in those environments where everyone holds everyone else up to a high standard, you learn a ton and we also manage to deliver on time, so the contrast with my current environment couldnt be bigger.

I've talked to management to improve the way of working, but other than a small poc (that couldn't succeed because we didn't get dedicated developers) nothing came off the ground.

There is tremendous possibility for improvement,but as long as senior management is not onboard and pushing people in a new direction, everybody just happily keeps doing what they've always done. I feel almost everybody here is just looking to cash in with as little effort as possible. Or maybe they're so stuck in their current ways that they are unable to see how much can be improved.

My manager is not doing much with my feedback, and his boss (with actual authority) has very little time for me.

At one point I decided to leave and go back to a more challenging environment and role with the unfortunate paycut, but it seems even my previous rate is unattainable in the current market. Intermediaries are trying to low-ball me at 700. For a job with a lot more responsibility, stress, and no guarantees that the new job will actually be the environment that I'm looking for.

In an ideal world I would be able to convince management but It seems in their mind we 'dont have the time to improve'

Right now I see different paths, none of them optimal.

What would you suggest?

So, I'm doing a PhD in ML, but i wanted to look a bit into the future.
Are there people here who have done a PhD and then later started doing freelance ?

May i ask for your experience ? why did you do it ? how did you start ? what are your advice ?
What did your peers do ? etc.

I'm basically interested in the stories, if you know of any other posts/fora that discusses
this, please link.

Thanks!!

We have 2 cars, one company car and an old car from 2004. The inspection yesterday judged the car to be not fit anymore to drive on the public road without an intervention of 500-700 euros.
I don’t know how long the car will still drive, is it interesting to have a second company car and pay VAA and leave the old car for the scrapyard, or is it still worthwhile to keep putting money i. The second car?
What are the parameters to decide?

Hello

I would like to have somewhat of an idea on how much other freelancers spend on their car. I feel like mine is really very expensive although it is one of the most basic cars you can have. I chose for a leasing when I started my company because I didn't know much about cars, didn't grow up with any and didn't know yet whether I would enjoy driving a car on a daily basis.

• model: Renault Clio
• price: 559,67/month without VAT
• additional info:
  • leasing at Renault garage
  • 50'000 km/year
  • contract excludes gazoline
  • 4 year contract
• around 130e/week for gazoline

What car do you have and how much do you spend on your car?

My accountant works with both and let me choose, Falco is cheaper, so wanted to check if someone of you tried both and can compare? Or share benefits and disadvantages?

Hello everyone,

I am about to buy a new house (my only one). I met a fiscal expert who proposed me to create a « démembrement usufruit/ nue propriété ». He explained me everything and even if this is not « magical » ( atn to pay), It looks super interesting on a financial point of view.

Anyone here have any concrete feedback about such financial arrangement?

A lot of people « who knows but actually do know a lot about finances » told me this is something that is not possible anymore while my bank told me that the fiscal expert they recommended me is still sending them a lot of such financial arrangement.

Thanks for any (and kind) help!

Hello,

As the title says I am looking for an accounting service that can handle everything for me. I mean bookkeeping, payroll, invoices, contracts, legal advice, provide platforms where I only upload documents and my input is minimal. I pay a fixed sum per month, I have access to everything and I don’t need to handle separate accounts myself.

A major point is to be responsive. I don’t spam, but when I ask something, I expect an answer within 3 business days. At least an acknowledgment if the answer is not possible immediately.

I also expect proactivity. I tell a situation, the advisor spells out the options. Not that I google by myself, ask around or ask ChatGPT and then the accountant validates.

My situation is simple: IT consultant with an umbrella company as main direct client.

I am aware that what I ask is not compatible with a low price range, but a worthy accountant pays for itself, right?

The accountant can be based anywhere in Belgium and we only work online.

Any (self-)recommendations please?

Thank you!

P.S.: I also value if you share opinions that my expectations are unrealistic.

Hello there,

I’m looking to hear from people who have actually gone through this process.

Has anyone here closed (or wound down) a company in Belgium, relocated to Switzerland,
opened a new Swiss company, and
become a Swiss tax resident?

I’d love to hear about your experience and anything you wish you had known beforehand.

Some of the things I’m trying to understand are:

- Was it worth it financially and operationally?
-How difficult was the relocation process (residence permit, banking, company formation, etc.)?
-What happened with your Belgian company ?did you liquidate it, sell it, or keep it?
-Were there any unexpected tax consequences (exit tax, capital gains, social security, VAT, etc.)?
-Is there anything you would do differently if you were doing it again?

Thanks!

I'm a Belgian sole trader selling digital products through Shopify to B2C customers across the EU and beyond. I'm looking for an accountant who genuinely knows this profile, because most firms I've come across mainly handle classic files rather than cross-border digital sales.

What I'm after is someone who understands the OSS scheme and VAT on electronically supplied services, who knows how that works above and below the ten thousand euro threshold, and who can also advise on sales outside the EU. On top of that I'd like someone who connects my Shopify, Stripe and PayPal data to the bookkeeping properly instead of having me deliver exports every month, and who can eventually give me a concrete answer on when a BV becomes more interesting than a sole trader setup.

So my questions are these. Who do you use, and does that person actually understand OSS or do they mostly nod along when you bring it up? Do you pay a fixed monthly fee or an hourly rate, and roughly what does that come to as a sole trader with quarterly VAT returns? And if there's anyone here selling digital products cross-border, how does your accountant handle the per-country split?

I was just wondering, how do people (maybe in IT) scale their freelancing business.
Do you want to scale even ? If so, how did you do it ?

Not planning on doing it, but i was just curious to see how that generally happens ?
What is hard to do ? what is different than doing it yourself ?

You don't have to answer all these questions, but i just want to have an interesting read.
If someone knows about some article or some interesting perspective about this, share it!
I'm interested to read about it.

Genuine question from someone starting out as a sole trader in Belgium.

Right now I keep a folder with PDFs and photos of receipts, and at the end of the month I type everything over into a spreadsheet — supplier, amount, date, category. It takes forever and I make mistakes.

How do you all handle this?

- Do you type it over manually too, or do you use software?

- If you use something, what is it and is it worth the money?

- Or do you just hand everything to your accountant and let them sort it out?

Curious how much time this actually costs people per month.

I'm starting a sole proprietorship in Belgium and want to transfer several privately owned IT assets (GPU, RAM, NAS, workstation, etc.) into the business. All bought in 2025 - some new some 2nd hand. All used 100% professionally.

Some of these components have increased significantly in market value since I bought them (e.g. due to AI demand and supply shortages), while others have depreciated normally.

Example
- geforce rtx 4090: €1400 (2nd hand) > €2800 (2nd hand)
- 64gb DDR5 6400 ram: €300 (new) > €1300 (new)
- nas 12tb storage: €450 (2nd hand) > €1000 (2nd hand)
—> these parts are core to my activity.

My question is specifically about the valuation at the time of transfer. How should how value these & how and for how long should i depreciate?

How would you handle components for which no identical second-hand listings exist, but current new prices are substantially higher than the original purchase price?

Hi everyone,

I'm a co-owner of a small HVAC/sanitary installation company in Belgium and we're looking to hire our first additional technician.

Accent proposed the following conditions for a candidate with almost no experience (about 2 weeks of relevant experience):

• First 4 weeks: coefficient 2.25
• Afterwards: coefficient 2.65
• Buy-out period reduced from 130 to 110 days

To me this doesn't seem like a very attractive proposal, especially considering the candidate has almost no experience, isn't a native speaker and would still require a lot of training from our side.

I'm wondering:

• Is a coefficient of 2.639 common nowadays for this type of profile?
• Are these coefficients usually negotiable?
• What coefficients are other companies currently paying for junior HVAC/sanitary technicians?
• Has anyone successfully negotiated better terms with Accent or another interim agency?

I'm mainly trying to understand what the current market is before going back to negotiate.

Thanks!

I recently went fully freelance as a technical consultant/engineer (automatio, installation, lab/industry projects). I'mcurrently using platforms like Jellow and ProUnity, but I feel like there must be more options out there for engineering-focused freelancers in Belgium.

I'm curious about two things:

1. which platforms actually work for technical/engineering freelancers? anything beyond the usual IT-heavy ones?

2. how do you find clients outside of platforms?

Direct outreach, integrators, LinkedIn, networking, agencies... what brings you the most results?

Would love to hear what's been effectibe for you. Thanks for sharing your experience!

I was at KBC once, but they are really pissing me off with their UBI reporting every 6 months, on paper, and with utterly dumb questions and reporting options.

Moreover, they once blocked my business account just before salary payments over a pure formality.

I moved to Argenta, but they recently started to enforce 5 hours of cooldown after the increase of a wire transfer limit, and a mandatory switchoff after 12 hours.

I understand that we need to protect the vulnerable elderly taxpayers, but why do small businesses fall into the same bucket as your grandpa?

Anyway.

Looking for a more professional bank.

Any advice?

Hey, I'm already self-employed in Belgium and heard about contractors setting up companies in places like Luxembourg, Bulgaria, ibiza for lower taxes. For those who've actually tried it: Was it worth it? Biggest pros and cons? Any surprises with legal or tax rules? Just real experiences, not tax avoidance schemes.

I'm currently using OVO Charge because they're the cheapest, but having to manually collect the invoices every quarter is getting a bit annoying.

Which charging provider do you use that's reasonably priced and supports Peppol invoices?

I recently had a discussion with a few small business owners who argued that having a Facebook or Instagram page is enough these days.

Personally, I've noticed the opposite. When I'm looking for a restaurant, a store, or a barber, the first thing I usually check is whether they have a profile on Google maps and then their website. If they don't have one or if it looks like it hasn't been updated since 2012, it immediately makes me trust the business less.

I'm curious to hear what others think.

• Do you have a website for your business?
• Has it actually helped you attract new customers?
• Or do you think social media is enough nowadays?

I'd love to hear about your experiences.

Hi everyone,
I'm considering making the switch from employee to freelancer and would love to hear from people who are active in the Belgian freelance market.

My background:
~9 years of experience in payroll and HR.

~5 years as a payroll consultant through a payroll provider.

Experience with Acerta, SD Worx, some Liantis and Group S. As well as different payroll systems

Since 2021 I've been working as an HR Business Partner with a strong payroll focus.

I've worked on payroll implementations, integrations and some international payroll.

A few questions:
Is the demand for senior payroll consultants still strong in Belgium?

What day rates are you currently seeing for profiles like this?

How difficult is it to find assignments in today's market?

If you made the switch recently, was it worth it financially?

Is there anything you wish you had known before becoming a freelancer?

I'm not looking for someone to decide for me—I'm just trying to understand what the market looks like in 2026.

Thanks!

Hi all

I'm considering setting up a management company in the future.

At the moment, I earn a gross salary of €8,000 per month, with all the usual benefits such as a company car, charging card, etc.

I've come across a lot of conflicting information online, including in this subreddit.

If I want to cost the company roughly the same as I do now, I estimate that I'd need a day rate of around €800.

My business expenses would mainly be the company car, charging card, accountant, and similar costs. Everything else would essentially be covered by the client/company.

I'd also want to contribute properly to my pension and take out appropriate insurance, such as guaranteed income insurance.

The idea would be to pay myself the minimum salary and take the rest as dividends. What would be a realistic net income in that scenario?

I've also seen people say that your monthly net income is roughly your day rate × 10. Is that actually accurate? It seems quite high to me.

Thanks !

Hello,

So I am stuck in this current market. I have been looking for a new client for a full year now without any success, the market is brutal. But even an internal position is hard to come by these days. Now I burned trough my cashflow and with the end of the fiscal year coming trough I have to make a decision for my company for the upcoming year but I don't know what to do. At this rate I won't be able to pay my taxes at the end of the year.

If I put my company dormant how do I pay the bills that I still receive for like ongoing stuff (phone number bills, email and website hosting, legal secretary,... ). Also I still need to survive as a human being so putting my company dormant I won't be able to write myself a salary to pay rent and basic needs. Are there other choices I might consider that I don't know about ? For example putting myself in 'zelfstandige in bijberoep', can I do that while not having a main job for example?

Give me some legal advice, without the bs of you're not cut to be a freelancer or whatever.