“We offer a completely new kind of trading experience”

adminonJanuary 30, 2023February 19, 2023Leave a Comment

Charles-Henri Sabet. The industry pioneer wants to do it again with FlowBank, the youngest Swiss online bank

Flowbank, the youngest online bank in Switzerland, has started operations. Founder and industry pioneer Charles-Henri Sabet talks about the new trading platform Flowone in an interview and tells us what differentiates Flowbank from its competitors and what we can expect to see new in the coming months.

Flowbank launches Flowone with the aim of providing a new and uniquely simple banking and trading experience: via a multi-currency account, both private and professional investors have secure, convenient and low-cost access to all conceivable product and asset classes. In addition to stocks and bonds, you can invest in currencies, commodities, ETFs, futures, warrants and CFDs, among other things. Soon it will also be possible to trade investment funds and structured products. investrends.ch met the founder Charles-Henri Sabet for an interview.

Competition among online banks and brokers is fierce. How is Flowbank different from the competition??

Charles-Henri Sabet: We offer our clients a modern and avant-garde trading platform. With Flowone, a wide variety of currencies and asset classes can be traded through a single account at attractive costs. In contrast to our competitors, the user interface is designed extremely intuitively. We offer a completely new trading experience. Flowbank combines the best of both worlds – the look-and-feel we are used to from social media and the apps of the big tech companies combined with the high quality and security standards of a Finma-regulated Swiss bank.

Speaking of Switzerland – how far does the commitment to the location go??
Our DNA is Swiss. This goes so far that the entire customer service is affiliated here on site. This is not a matter of course in a high-price country like Switzerland. The quality in this country has an excellent reputation and we are convinced that this is exactly what our customers want – not only the Swiss, but also the international customers.

Which clientele does Flowbank want to address?
Mainly we want to address clients who want to invest about 10'000 francs in the financial markets. Thanks to innovations such as fractional shares, our offer is also very interesting for rookies. They will be able to invest small amounts in stocks that are otherwise only available to wealthy investors, such as Apple or Tesla. Professionals profit with us particularly from the large variety of financial products and asset classes, in which also with leverage can be invested.

What else does Flowbank offer customers?
Our total package includes in-house research, which provides traders with information on the latest trends, assistance and analysis. Knowledge is power – especially in the financial markets. We offer this added value to our clients as an integral part of our offering.

What to expect next from Flowbank?
We will continuously expand the range of new financial products, soon open a branch in Zurich and offer customers a credit card and a bank account solution that can be used for all daily money transactions in Switzerland and around the world. This will make it even easier for our customers to manage their money.

Economics of owning a restaurant

Many different costs and factors contribute to making a restaurant successful. Nearly 60% of hospitality establishments close within three years of opening. The biggest financial risk to your restaurant business underestimates the capital you need to start operations and continue to generate positive cash flow.

Initial costs

The initial cost of buying or starting a new restaurant is your most important consideration before making the commitment. When planning for these costs, it is important that you have sufficient cash on hand beyond the projected initial costs. You have three options: Franchise, buy an existing restaurant or start from scratch.

Opening a franchise

Franchising with a successful national chain can bring immediate brand recognition and often several weeks of coaching and support with new employees and the grand opening. With these value-added services comes a franchise fee that can average between $20, 000 and $65, 000 per restaurant. In addition, some well-known national chains are likely to have liquid assets of more than 500.000 U.S. dollars required. This can put franchising out of reach for the average mid-sized business owner.

Buying a restaurant

The purchase price of a restaurant depends on the quality, location and profitability of the property. The quality of the building can save you thousands in potential remodeling costs and repairs. The location should be ideal for your concept, unless you are buying the restaurant just for its equipment and furniture. If the restaurant is more profitable, the upfront costs of buying the restaurant are likely to be higher.

Starting at Scratch

Whether the cost of franchising is too high or you want to start with your own ideas, starting from scratch has many fixed and potentially unexpected costs. Common costs include equipment, furniture, fixtures, initial equipment and inventory, signage, insurance, build-out, security deposits, and the first month's rent and utilities. The advantage of starting your restaurant from scratch is a clean slate for your own ideas and no royalties or upfront costs from franchising.

Operating costs

Building a new franchise location or a new restaurant building has similar construction and expansion costs as hiring and training employees. If you buy an existing restaurant, it can be a turnkey operation with positive cash flow from day one, but it may not be an exact fit for your needs and desires. Operating costs such as salaries, marketing, inventory and maintenance are often underestimated, especially for new restaurants. These costs typically account for about 80% to 90% of total sales in high-yield operations.Significant declines in sales or increases in costs can quickly lead to negative cash flow.

Tips for cutting expenses

When shopping for equipment and utensils, look at secondhand options. Many of the restaurants that fail liquidate their inventory and equipment to restaurants that sell them for less than you would pay if you bought new.

Use all of your available word of mouth tools to promote your restaurant. This includes using social media, which is often free of charge. Use energy-efficient lights, appliances and fixtures. It may cost a little more up front, but it will pay off over time.

Secondly, food is the biggest expense for restaurants. For high-volume locations, it pays to hire a qualified manager to ensure proper inventory management and employee scheduling. Standing employees and bad food will already thin profit margins of an average of 10 to 12% for the industry erase.

Vacations

Prudent tax planning is also essential when buying property abroad.

Swiss people have always shown a great interest in real estate abroad. Especially the sunny south like Tuscany, Southern France or Spain are popular places for buying condominiums and vacation homes. Favorable purchase opportunities are nowadays in abundance in view of the oversupply. But be careful: Real estate can also become a tax trap abroad. Careful planning in advance is therefore worthwhile in any case also in this respect.
Acquisition taxes: Similar to Switzerland, the state usually takes a big bite out of the purchase price. Notary fees, land registry costs and purchase taxes similar to the Swiss real estate transfer tax easily add up to 5 percent or more of the purchase price. These costs are in addition to the brokerage fees of around 3 to 5 percent. Occasionally, sales tax must also be paid. In Spain, for example, the tax rate is 6 percent for residential properties and 15 percent for undeveloped land and newly constructed buildings.

Note that in many countries the property is jointly liable for the seller's property gains taxes. In order not to take risks, the payment of these taxes should be ensured. In Spain, in addition to the regular property gains tax, a local tax of up to 30 percent of the increase in the value of the property since the last change of hands is levied on a municipality-by-municipality basis. The real estate gains tax must be paid by the seller in the event of a resale.
Current taxes: Most countries levy annual local property taxes. In Spain, these amount to 0.4 to 1.7 percent of the cadastral value. In addition, the property income must be taxed. Many countries also levy a property tax of up to 1 percent of the market value. The property tax in the USA is particularly well known and is used to finance schools. There are major differences in the taxation of imputed rental value. Some countries do not have such a tax, but do not allow debt deduction for it. Spain, for example, levies an imputed rental value tax of 25 percent on 2 percent of the cadastral value.

As the owner of a foreign property, you are obliged to declare it in the Swiss tax return. In principle, you must pay tax on the income from the foreign property in the country where the property is located. As a rule, the tax value of the property is also taxable as an asset in these countries. On the other hand, the income from the foreign property as well as the assets are taken into account for the calculation of the tax progression in Switzerland. If you finance the foreign property by increasing the mortgage on your Swiss home, the additional mortgage interest is distributed between Switzerland and abroad according to the situation of the assets.

Inheritance taxes: Particularly annoying is the very high inheritance tax in most surrounding countries for direct ownership of the property; in Spain the rate goes up to 81 percent. Generally, however, much lower rates apply to transfers to descendants, or tax allowances exist. The following maximum rates apply to inheritance tax: France 60 percent, Florida 55 percent, Greece 60 percent, Ireland 30 percent, Italy 33 percent, Portugal 50 percent and Spain, as previously stated, 81 percent.

The question of who should own a foreign property must be carefully considered in each case. Buying property outright in children's names prevents inheritance tax from being levied when parents die. If you hold the property through a real estate company (for example offshore in Gibraltar or Jersey), the shares are subject to any inheritance tax in Switzerland, as movable assets are taxed at the last residence.

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