Hola Fellow Entrepreneurs!

I guess you are all aware, YourMarbella.com is a relatively new venture, and is just 4 months in to existence. Setting up a business anywhere can be expensive, costly and daunting even if done in your home country in your own first language, so going through the process in another country is certainly going to be a steep learning curve for even the most experieenced entrepreneur.

I am sure we all agree that once your business is established and you dedicate time, money and resource to the cause, the Costa Del Sol is a great place to work and the rewards are there, but I would like to take a step back and discuss the tips, tricks, highs and lows that fellow business owners on the Costa have seen along the way.

Two things that spring to mind immediately from our experience is the relatively high cost of setting up an SL compared to setting up a LTD company in the UK, plus the difficulty in finding dedicated employees who are in the area for the long stay rather than just the summer season.

If there are any members who are at the early stages of setting up a business and have a specific question, please post here as we have many business owners who regularly use YourMarbella.com and I am sure they will be willing to share their wisdom!

I look forward to an interesting thread!

Regards

Christian

Agreed!  It's funny how everyone is looking for work until you offer it to them.    We've spent time and money training various people but they've all moved back to the UK as they didn't have any kind of plan of what they'd do when they arrived here.  We've met many people that would like to move here but, when they do, they think life is just one long holiday..........

As well as the high costs to set up an SL, public liability insurance is more expensive here too but something that we can't afford not to have.

Lastly - advertising your business and getting the word out that you're here can be difficult.  Where's the best place to advertise?  We've had varying success in different publications but by far the best has been H! Society magazine.  Now we've been here for 3 or 4 years we also get recommendations which is great.  However, it takes awhile for people to trust that new businesses are here to stay so, in the beginning, lots of money has to be spent on advertising and, as mentioned, there's a wide choice of publications to choose from.

We do a lot of installations for bars, restaurants, clubs, etc and it would be great to find a trade publication/newsletter/magazine that is specifically aimed at these industries.  Does anyone know of one?  Anyone willing to start one - keep the ad costs competitive and you have your first customer

I've recently joined the BNI and highly recommend that to anyone just starting out here.  I wish I'd joined years ago!

Looking forward to hearing what advertising works for other businesses here.

Lloyd

Hi Matt,

I have PM'd you.

Cheers

Christian