So you succeed

Coaching voucher (AVGS voucher)

On the way to the approval of your start-up grant, there is a measure funded by the employment office - the so-called "individual start-up coaching", which serves to prepare you perfectly for your self-employment.

The AVGS voucher for business founders in Spe

In addition to the start-up grant, the Federal Employment Agency and the Jobcenter have another important and useful funding instrument at their disposal to support start-ups: 

The so-called AVGS voucher (employment and placement voucher) for the introduction to self-employment (regulated by law under Section 45 (1) sentence 1 no. 4 SGB III – MAT) in ALG 1 receipt

As part of an individual (no group coaching) business start-up coaching session, you then have the opportunity to work with an experienced start-up consultant and coach on all the topics that are important for your business start-up.

Be it questions and knowledge transfer on the subject of taxes, financing, online marketing or others – here you can learn the basics of self-employment and fine-tune your business idea with professional help. You will need the AVGS voucher for this.

Why an AVGS voucher helps you
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    Bruno6

    Bruno Schäfer

    Management consultant | Self-employment COACH | Business graduate

    Do you need support?

    Are you determined to start your own business, but feel overwhelmed by all the processes, details and documents?

    Then let us help you Arrange a free initial consultation now
    Advantages for you

    AVGS voucher and start-up grant

    The start-up grant coupled with the AVGS voucher is a sensible combination for founders.

    Another major advantage of the voucher is that you can dedicate time with your coach to applying for the start-up grant and preparing all the necessary documents.

    Together you could, for example, draw up the business plan and the financial planning required for the start-up grant, which is the core part of the business plan. Getting help in this area in particular from someone who already has a lot of experience with start-up grants and knows what is important can be worth its weight in gold at the end of the day when it comes to getting your application approved.

    Experience also shows that the start-up grant is more likely to be approved if start-up coaching has taken place in advance. The employment agency then has a better feeling that the founder is perfectly trained and prepared to start their own business.

    It is important to think about the right arguments in advance in order to convince the person at the office of your intention to become self-employed.
    Bruno Schäfer
    What you need to bring with you

    Applying for the voucher - requirements

    The formal requirements for applying for the voucher are similar to those for the start-up grant.

    These are:

    • Receipt of ALG 1 (at least 1 day)
    • professional suitability must be present

    Please note: The challenge lies in convincing your case officer that the path to self-employment is more promising than placing you in an employment relationship or having you placed again.

    This is based on the law and thus also on the employment office’s mandate, which ALWAYS gives priority to reintegration into the primary labor market, i.e. taking up an employment relationship subject to social insurance contributions.

    (Edit 01.01.23: The Federal Government has decided to abolish the placement priority for the start-up subsidy in accordance with Section 4 SGB III. This will make it easier for start-ups to apply for a grant to open their own business in future).

    This is mainly due to the fact that we live in a social and welfare state in Germany and this is financed by employer and employee contributions (especially the public pension), which are de facto not (yet) provided by the self-employed in the same amount and breadth. (A law on this will probably be passed in the next few years).

    Accordingly, there is no legal entitlement to an AVGS voucher (but rather an optional benefit) and the enthusiasm of the employment agency is usually limited when you, as a customer of the employment office, come up with the idea of self-employment and funding.

    However, in order to get what you want in the end (the appropriate AVGS voucher), it is important to think about the right arguments in advance to convince the person at the office of your intention to become self-employed.

    Let's take a look at this

    An example of this

    Before the initial meeting with the case officer, you should think about how you can best convince the person of your plans.

    You are a software developer or nurse and therefore very employable on the primary labor market, as workers with these qualifications are currently in demand everywhere.

    That’s why it’s extremely important to come up with a good argument for why it’s better for you to be self-employed than to return to an employment relationship before the first interview with the administrator. You could use arguments such as more flexible working hours, higher pay, a better work-life balance or even more job opportunities as a freelancer to try and convince the other party of your plans.

    You can proceed as follows with regard to the structure of the conversation:

    • First describe your business idea, which you are 100% convinced of.
    • You now know the “what”, but you still need professional help with the “how”, i.e. developing a clear concept, a strategy, a roadmap and other important topics in the area of business start-ups.
    • That’s why you would like to take part in individual coaching for business start-ups. And for this coaching you need the appropriate AVGS voucher (employment and placement voucher).
    • Be polite but persistent and don’t let yourself be brushed off with sayings like: We don’t support that!
    • You have already proactively found a suitable training provider and coach for the coaching, an initial meeting has already taken place where the content and requirements of the coaching were also discussed.
    • After the interview, you can send the written application for an AVGS and other documents (you will receive them from us) to your case officer by email.
    • Then you have to wait and hope that the coaching will be funded and you will receive a voucher.

    Ready to take the first step into self-employment?

    With the right partners at your side, the risk is much lower than it seems at the beginning – all our partners have confirmed this to us so far.

    So don’t hesitate to arrange a free initial consultation, during which we’ll look at both sides to see if it’s a good fit and we can give your project a good push forward. We are ready and looking forward to meeting you!

    Let's talk

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