Building a business...?!

Hi All,

My partner and I are currently exploring the option of moving to Spain from the UK and looking for some great advise from people whom have already made the move!

We are both english speaking and looking for an area in which english is widely spoken...any recommendations?

I am a qualified Personal Trainer and my main focus will be to build up a client base and train people in the local community so im wondering whether there is a demand for PT's at the moment and whether building a business from scratch would be viable?

Look forward to hearing from you guys!

 Well your starting off with a bussiness idea that shows a diminisoning  return of a limited market. 

Personal Training =  High Market End, Local Customer Base., reduces target client numbers available.

Personal training  =  Communication, Only Speaking English and non native reduces client base further.

Area it which there are a lot of English Speaking Clients, leads to expensive property base.and likelyhood 

of established competition again reducing  client base and high operating costs. 

Tough economic climate, luxury services are first hit. reduced demand. .

Spain is currently beefing up its drive against the Black Economy and going legal has monthly costs regardless of turnover.

We are in our 3rd year as a legal registered business in Spain, and are doing OK. We are English also but also  Native Speaking and have a very good Gestor.

Locally our installation range is around 200km from our operating base as our product supply and installation times make this feesable. Yours I suspect would not  !

We sell across Europe via Mail Order, 99% of our clients Speak or type in English. 50% of our turnover is in Exports, 20% is in Installations and 30% is supply across Spain in Mail Order. 

We deal in a product base that everyone needs "Power Supply" Its not a lifestyle choice Yours is ! 

Our spanish client base is low, but we are working on it.

We have virtually zero operating costs apart from monthly emplyment tax,

We also have a regular UK Pension Income

Hope this Helps

Nigel 

Hi,

I'm about to start my second year owning a business and all i can say is to make sure you have very very clear all of the expenses you will have before you start.   you will have to pay a cuota for your social security.  if you rent a place of business, you will have 3 taxes to pay on it (iva, irpf, ibi), you will have the basic bills like phone, light, water, trash removal, etc and then the tax on your profit is 20%.

Also, when you are startng, everyone in the government office will tell you that you will absolutely qualify for subvenciones of at least 3000 and possibly up to 8,000 per person, because they "give them to everyone"  but, despite this advice, neither my partner nor i qualified for any economic help.

I'm not saying it's impossible, just that it's much, much more expensive than i estimated when i started...

Try Camposol in Mazarrón. I'm also starting a business there and there is a arge ex-pat population to work with.

 I came out to Spain 10 years ago, having set up & run small to medium sized business, since I was teenager -  20 years of mainly self employment, developed & sold 7 business.

I am also a qualified fitness instructor & spent 15 further years martial arts / kung fu training, qualified financial services advisor (taken out of boredom) and a few general business studies exams thrown in to boot. All of which you would have thought would give me a good starting edge in a strange land.

When I came to Spain, financially was in a strong position & looking for the lifestyle job - more one in health / fitness, than using my business experience.

As Nigel has stated well below - you have to look very carefully at your local market . Many expatriates are of a certain age & if you believe people come to Spain for a healthy lifestyle, it is not true.  There are gyms in expatriate areas, where there is a job or two for a few hours a week, but little likely to be much else. Private tuition, many simply do not have the money. In better off areas - Costa Blanca North or Marbella, but even those areas there will be much competition.

My partner also worked in the health industry offering a sucessful track record of stopping people smoking -she used a device called a bioresonance machine. As this worked well in the UK, and many people smoke in Spain - it seemed like a good idea to bring this along. Whilst she did do a  few treatments, the cost of the advertising in newspapers locally outweighs the returns in terms of reader ship - many other small businesses have this problem, the numbers simply do not add up.

Overall the highest expatriate population is Costa Blanca South (much more so than Campasol, which is densely populated, but a much smaller area overall). 

I now work for a small telecommunications firm installing TV, Satellite & fibre networks for commnities & individuals - been doing this for in excess of 5 years, through the recession. It is hard work, but we keep our heads above the water.

The fitness option for me now (and being over 40) seems like a distant dream - I know have to keep my business head on at all times, work very hard to keep myself & those around me employed.  

Pick something that is either not 100% reliant on Spain (as other poster mentions, export, internet etc) - as unless you have an absoluted gem of an idea, you will struggle. If you keep your expenses to a minimum & don't expect the world, it goes a long way.

The fact is, if you work hard enough & you are determined you can succeed to a  given extent anywhere - but be prepared to have to work very hard to acheive this.

Don't dream of getting any kind of useful help from the authorities or twon halls as they in the main useless beyond belief. Even working with a Spanish business partner (to assist with licenses & negotiations), proved a tortuous exercise. If considering a smaller business, you should be (mostly) able to avoid this.