Starting a business in Spain

After a very busy morning and a couple of paracetamol, I have some way forward to finding out what help is available.

There are several grants available for women and businesses.

Being a women I am entitled to a subvencion (grant) of up to 6000 euros.

The steps so far that I have had to take are

Visit the local Seguridad social office and ask for a carton de paro (No clue if I have spelt that correctly) but they understood me! This is basically a card that you can prove that you are not employed.

With this I was given a number to call where a lovely girl asked me what I wanted and very patiently listened to my warble and told me to come and see her! When I arrived she asked me lots of questions about the business, how I hope to achieve my goals and what my long term plans were. 

After this she explained that I am entitled to apply for a grant of up to 6000 euros, and also that the Junta de Andalucia will pay my gestor costs for one year.

I am also entitled to Apply for help towards marketing/legalities of the business such as ensuring that the company name is registered legally etc.

The application for the grant is open three times a year (I think!) the next date is in September! However there are still people waiting to receive their grant from last year as this is a new programme.

I do not know if you have to be resident in Spain and also if you have had to pay into the social system? 

There are also several courses available (although they are all in Spanish) I am contemplating taking an accountancy course so that I can make sense of my paperwork! There are all sorts of courses available although the majority are full time courses there are part time ones as well. If anybody would like the web page link let me know.

If you need to improve your Spanish I have been to our local 'casa de cultura' I am not sure if every town has one, but in our local one you can register for all sorts of courses although these are mainly things like Yoga, potterey etc but in ours they have also added Spanish for foreigners. Our casa de la cultura is offering a course of 20 hours to get you started!


In order to find all of this out you do need to have some understanding of Spanish as I havent been able to find anyone yet who speaks English but this is a fantastic opportunity to improve your vocabulary.

This week I have learnt

Subvencion - Grant
Menos mal - Just as well
Estoy arta - I am fed up.


There are also other sorts of benefits available to new businesses. I think I need to try and decpiher the leaflets before I put my foot in it and give you all the wrong information.

Anyway I feel I have earned a large glass of wine as even though you can seem to take one step forward and two back when you do make progress the satisfaction is great!