Freelancer Road · Steps
Step by step into self-employment.
Für immer sanft.
These are the steps every self-employed activity in Germany requires, wherever you work. Pick your profession, tick off what you already have, and note down what you learned at every step.
In short
These steps are not specific to FareWell. They apply to every self-employed activity in Germany, whether you start with us, in another studio or on your own. Five stages, in the order that makes sense.
Every step tells you whether it is required, whom to call and what I learned along the way. Where FareWell takes something off your plate, it sits in its own green box, so you can see what would need doing even without us.
The why, the deal and what you take with you at the end are on the Freelancer Road overview page.
Your profession
The offices differ by profession. Pick yours and the steps that do not apply to you disappear. Without a choice you see everything, with a note on whom it applies to.
Decide and prepare
The steps that save money and nerves when they happen before the first registration. Most of them are a phone call.
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We get to know each other, you show your work, and we put the deal in writing before anything gets registered.
The answer shapes health insurance, funding and tax. If you are still employed, you can start small and switch later.
Two phone calls settle whether you register a trade or go straight to the tax office, and which chamber is yours.
Needed as soon as you want funding or a loan. Even without: one page of numbers shows you when you can live off it.
Many grants must be applied for before registration or before the first expense. Afterwards the money is gone.
Only if you come from employment. But then early, because this path has deadlines.
Register
The paperwork. In this order, so every office already has the number from the previous one.
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Online or in person at the trade office. Afterwards the tax office, chamber and accident insurer are notified automatically, you still get mail from each of them.
Within one month of starting, electronically via ELSTER only. It produces your tax number, without which you cannot write an invoice.
Needed as soon as you buy software or supplies abroad, for example an AI subscription from the US or devices from Switzerland.
Membership comes with the trade registration. One call confirms everything arrived and opens the services you are paying for anyway.
Within one week of starting, also as a solo freelancer. Whether you must insure yourself or may do so voluntarily, the insurer tells you on the phone.
The most expensive item in year one, and the one everyone postpones longest. One call to your health insurer and one to the pension insurance.
In Bavaria cosmetics needs no permit from the health office. You should still have a hygiene plan, and FareWell already has one.
Anyone operating laser or IPL needs the NiSV certificate and must notify the authority two weeks before starting. Without the certificate no device runs here.
Secure yourself: insurance, account, contracts
None of this brings clients. All of it decides whether one bad day costs you the business.
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Before the first client, not after. For treatments on people this is the one insurance that is not up for debate.
A separate account from day one. Not because it is mandatory, but because otherwise your bookkeeping consists of bank statements with grocery shopping.
Every invoice needs the same mandatory details, every receipt belongs as a PDF in a folder with a system. Bookkeeping software takes care of both.
For solo freelancers often cheaper than expected. At least one appointment at the start where you ask all the first-year questions at once.
Cooperation agreement with FareWell, your clients' consent form, terms and conditions, and how you handle health data. Set it up cleanly once, then have peace for years.
The reason everything at FareWell belongs to you: your own prices, clients, tools and calendar. That keeps your status clean, for you and for us.
Become visible
The part where FareWell contributes most. Everything created here runs under your name and belongs to you.
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One list: treatment name, duration, price, two sentences of description. From it Joé builds your page and your Salonkee calendar.
In your name, at the FareWell address. The reviews on it are yours, and they go with you wherever you go.
Your own page on farewell.salon or your own website under your own domain, Joé builds either with you: bilingual, search-engine optimised, plus your calendar in Salonkee. Texts and images are yours.
A logo in every format in one safe place, an email signature with phone number, a hundred business cards. Small, but it separates professional from hobby.
Instagram and a Meta Business account first, TikTok and LinkedIn depending on your audience. All with the same name, all linked in your Google profile.
One afternoon where you learn how Google Ads, Meta and platforms like Groupon work, what they deliver in our case and what they do not.
They do not come from ads. They come from your circle, from the studio and from people you invite personally.
Keep it running and grow
What comes back every month, and what you take with you if you ever move on.
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One fixed hour at the end of the month: receipts, invoice to FareWell, VAT advance return, reserve, a look at the numbers.
The room works because everyone leaves it the way they want to find it. A few rules we go through before you start.
When the calendar is full. Partnerships with physicians, a second qualification, or someone to help you. Each of these paths has its own offices.
Everything in this road that was created under your name. This list is part of the agreement so there is no debate at the end.
FareWell · Freelancer Road · as of 2026