"I remember talking to my partner about how it all seemed so good to be true, too easy, that we expected something to go wrong… only it didn’t, it just kept going well." - Woolly Wormhead, Xolo customers since 2018

The title above is a question which comes up from customers quite often after they’ve just signed up. Other variations include “Is this legal?”, “What about taxes?”, “Are you legit?” and so on.

Yes, it’s legal, you’ll be paying your taxes properly, and we are too legit to quit. But we understand the concerns, and we wanted to use this blog to address them.

The Estonian Elephant in the Room

Often the first stumbling block is Estonia itself, where we're based. Momentarily speaking in my own voice, I’m a Brit living here in Tallinn, and when I moved here in 2013 the only thing I knew about Estonia was it was homeland to Mart Poom. So you’re not alone if you don’t know too much about the small Baltic nation.

Estonia gained independence in 1991 and has been speeding forwards ever since, particularly in a technological sense. It’s home to established tech companies like Skype, TransferWise and Bolt, and lovingly nurtures the entrepreneurial spirit present in its population.

And in 2014, it went even further, starting the e-Residency program, and welcoming people from all over the world into its digital environment. This meant you could start and run a business in Estonia without ever needing to set foot here. This, in turn, led to the founding of service providers to help these remote entrepreneurs do business easily - including Xolo.

But how do you know Estonia is a good place to do business? Well:

• It’s among the top 20 countries in the world to do business (and the 4th best in Europe)
• It’s been a member of the European Union since 2003, and isn’t looking to leave the stability of the single market anytime soon
• It’s one of the leading countries in the world in creating and implementing e-government solutions and cybersecurity
• It was the first country to adopt an online political voting system
• Company growth is incentivised with 0% corporate tax on reinvested profits

Taavi Rõivas, previously Estonia’s prime minister, even went on to The Daily Show in the U.S. to discuss e-Residency and the ease of bureaucracy in Estonia:

Real reviews from real people

Of course, all of this is lovely, but it’s us telling you about the country we’re based in and our own product. We know that you’d rather hear it from other e-residents, or people using Xolo day-to-day to run their businesses. All of our customer stories are on our blog, but here are a few we'd recommend.

You could start with Woolly Wormhead, who we quoted at the top of this article:

“The progressive digital nature about the whole process is so refreshing, so refined, so smooth.”

Or you could find out about Asad Zulfhari, long-time digital nomad, e-resident and Xolo customer:

“The one crucial fact that convinced me to sign up is how easy it is to create a European company and have access to a global financial service that is reliable, transparent and reputable.”

Or perhaps even Kaitlyn Hanrahan, an entrepreneur looking to help people become more productive with her productivity software:

“When I sought out professional advice, I would get referred to more and more specialised lawyers until I was way out of my budget. It seemed so strange that this wasn’t a solved problem with so many digital nomads.”

And if you want to learn about Xolo Go, read Dr. Walter L Kuehnlein's story:

"Xolo Go is reducing my time spent on admin to less than 5 minutes a day. Just uploading my invoices and expense receipts and it's done."

Xolo make it as easy as possible for you to start and run a company in Estonia, and importantly, it’s entirely legal and trustworthy. Estonia is not a tax haven or a place to bring a dodgy business - they’re not fans of that here.

So why not read more about Xolo, Estonia, and bringing your solopreneur business to Europe?