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The steps involved in setting up a business are diverse and varied. Among them is the publication of a legal announcement. As a business manager, it is important to know in which case you submit to this obligation, but also how to publish a legal announcement.

In this section:

What is a legal announcement?

A legal notice is a notice published by the founder of a company in a medium authorized to receive legal notices (SHAL) such as a newspaper of legal announcements or an online press service. The purpose of the legal announcement is to inform competitors, customers, investors, administrative departments and many others of the legal events that occur in the life of the company.

Whether a SARL, SA or SAS, all companies must publish a notice in a SHAL at the time of their creation and their dissolution. The notice of legal announcement must also be published in the event of a change of manager, change of corporate purpose, transfer of registered office or capital increase. Finally, the publication bya legal announcement in a SHAL does not concern EIGs, craftsmen and traders who operate under the status of sole proprietorship.

Why is it necessary when setting up your business?

At the creation of his company, the entrepreneur must publish a legal announcement, because after its broadcast, the SHAL sends it a certificate of publication. This document is part of the supporting documents that must be sent to the registry of the commercial court in order to proceed with the registration of the company. Consequently, without the publication of the legal announcement of the creation of the company, it is impossible to obtain the SIREN number.

How to publish a legal announcement for a company in Lyon?

Before the publication of the legal announcement, the future partners must validate the characteristics of the company which will be created in Lyon. These are the name, address, type of business that will be carried out, the contribution of each partner, etc. They must then sign the draft articles of association and each partner must respect the procedures provided for making their contribution. When all these steps are validated, the company's final statutes are drawn up and signed. It is only after this that the dissemination of the notice is possible.

In order to publish the legal notice, partners must make a publication request to a SHAL located in the Rhone department. When advertisements are published in an online press medium, they remain displayed for seven days from their publication on the site's home page. Finally, the various announcements published by the authorized media can be consulted in a central digital database, this is the legal advertising portal for companies.

What must appear in a legal announcement?

For your legal announcement to be published, it must mention the following information:

the corporate name,
the company logo,
the legal form of the company,
the amount of capital,
the address of the registered office,
the professional activity of the company,
the duration of the business,
the names and addresses of the managers and partners who have decision-making power within the company,
indication of the register in which the company will be registered.

If the company you are creating is a joint-stock company, you will be asked to provide details on the conditions for admission to meetings and on the procedures for exercising the right to vote.

Finally, regarding the appearance of the ad, you should know that the format is imposed, because it is not a commercial advertisement. In general, the legal announcement adopts the style of the newspaper in which it is published. The only customization that can be made is the use of capital letters or bold in certain parts of the text, especially when writing the name of the company.

Costs related to the publication of your ad

There are two types of pricing when publishing a legal announcement. The first is fixed price and concerns announcements of incorporation, dissolution and liquidation. The second pricing is based on the number of characters. The costs related to the publication of a legal notice are set by the decree of December 27, 2022. It modifies the rates for legal announcements for the year 2023.

Flat rates for a legal announcement

The flat rates for the legal announcement relating to the incorporation of a company vary depending on the legal form of the company and the department in which the advertisement is published. The list of departments appears in the annexes of the decree of November 19, 2021 relating to the pricing and the methods of publication of judicial and legal announcements.

The table below shows the flat rates excluding taxes for the publication of a legal notice.

Departments	SA	S.A.S.	SASU	CNS	SARL	EURL	Civil society	SCI
Departments present in Annex I	387 €	193 €	138 €	214 €	144 €	121 €	216 €	185 €
Departments present in Annexes II to VI	379 €	189 €	135 €	210 €	141 €	118 €	211 €	181 €
Mayotte and Reunion	453 €	226 €	162 €	252 €	168 €	143 €	255 €	217 €

Rates per character for a legal advertisement

If flat rate pricing is not provided for, the cost of the legal announcement depends on its length. To obtain the price to be paid, multiply the total number of characters in the ad (including space) by the price set for one character. Character pricing applies to legal notices relating to the constitution of a partnership limited by shares or limited by shares. This pricing also varies according to the department in which the company's head office is located and can range from €0,179 to €0,232 excluding taxes per character.

Additional tips for getting your business known locally

Apart from publishing a legal announcement, the entrepreneur must promote his company locally. To achieve this, here are some tips that might prove useful.

Contact customers and prospects by email or phone

If you choose to contact your customers and prospects by phone, it is important not to do cold calling. Avoid extolling the qualities of your company by adopting an advertising tone. Since you are a local business, play the authenticity card and take care to personalize your speech. If you plan to contact your customers and prospects by email, do not hesitate to personalize your message. Finally, you have the possibility of going to meet your customers by going door to door.

Distribute flyers

To make yourself known locally, you can distribute flyers, leaflets or goodies. In order for the operation to be a real success, you must define a distribution area and have an idea of the type of people who frequent the premises. When designing your flyer, make sure it features an enticing offer like a voucher, giveaway, or a big enough discount. Also be sure to include your company details.

Reach out to local press or influencers

In general, the French are interested in their immediate environment by consulting newspapers, local television channels or radio stations that are located nearby. They also value influencer recommendations, as they allow the community to discover all kinds of products and services. Don't hesitate to pay a newspaper to advertise for you. Otherwise, you can seek an interview. If, on the other hand, you want to make yourself known through influencers, invite them to the events you organize or contact them to organize a product placement.

Bet on word of mouth

For word-of-mouth to work, you need to make your customers ambassadors for your brand or your products and services. So be sure to take care of your customer relationship so that they recommend you to their loved ones. For your customers to become your ambassadors, you can also set up a sponsorship program. This solution allows you to reward customers who have recommended you, as well as those who have been sponsored.

Build partnerships with companies

Partnerships are very useful when it comes to carrying out an exchange of visibility with companies who operate in a field related to yours. This solution allows you to use the notoriety already acquired by your partner to make you known to its customers. To form a coherent partnership, you must select a company that offers products and services that are complementary to yours. Such collaboration can take the form of dropping off business cards on the counter or exchanging articles on your respective blogs. Finally, it is possible to form a partnership by organizing a joint event.

List your business online

Local SEO is now essential when you want to attract local customers. To list your business online, you must create a website that is responsive design and optimize it for SEO. Also, create a Google Business Profile account for your business and don't forget to list yourself on online directories like the yellow pages.