Business Focus

This is the second of a series of articles focusing on starting a new business maybe in Nerja.
Nerjanow asked a series successful local businesses some questions about their business.
If you would like to have your business considered to be featured drop me an email at admin@nerjanow.com

Many people dream of moving to Spain to start a new business, the Spanish lifestyle and the weather here being two huge attractions, but what is the reality?
The cold hard fact is that here  like anywhere else, staring a new business is fraught with pitfalls and a very high percentage of new businesses fail within their first year of trading.
Your idea for your new business might seem infallible to you but will it really work in the real world.
Ask everyone you know and not just your family and close friends who might just agree with you to be nice.
Look at the number of people that try to win competitions like the x factor and when they fail at the auditions their families all cry foul…”what do the judges know”, “they are so wrong!” He/she is a star etc.
The reality is that they shouldn’t have entered in the first place because they are rubbish, but no doubt were urged on by family and friends who made them think that they were brilliant!

Try and find people who are already in the business you choose and ask some questions.
When Richard Branson first thought about setting up Virgin airlines the very first thing he did was invite Sir Freddie Laker for lunch and ask him the hard question, what  did he do wrong, why did Laker Airlines fail!
You must have a passion and knowledge of what you want to do.
The last thing you should do is try to re-invent the wheel, learning about a new product or service will take you loads of valuable time.
You need to know that people will not flood to your door with work for you. Right now we are in a recession and people are spending less on everything, the new kitchen/car/extension etc will simply have to wait.
There is an upside to a recession, suppliers will negotiate on prices, and landlords will negotiate on rents.
OK so you have a product or a service to sell, then you need to ask yourself some questions:
Who will your customers be and how will you reach them.

Who already offers the same thing in the area you want to reach.
How many people have tried and failed?

Research is the keyword here and that may be difficult if you haven’t moved here yet.
If you already live here you need to grab every free and paid newspaper and magazine and see who is doing what and where.
If the market is already full of people doing the same thing as you, when you start your new business you will be a little fish in a big pond.
Be totally honest, what will make you succeed where others aren’t. is the really big question.

Nerjanow has asked local businesses some questions, the answers may help anyone thinking of starting a new business:

The second company is Cooltec Services,  a Torrox based air conditioning and heating business:

What made you choose the type of buisness that you are in?
As an apprenticed trained refrigeration and airconditioning engineer and after working for several large companies in the uk I decided to startmy own company which became very sucessful. After 10 years I decided to sell the company and come to spain and try and run the same buisness here.

Why did you choose this part of Spain?
After losing our son, we needed to get away somewhere, we wanted somewhere we had never been before. We found a villa to rent which was somewherewe could be on our own and not surrounded by other families. We fell in love with Nerja so we bought a apartment that we had been visiting for 5 years and each time fell in love with the area more. We decided to move here for good and although I still needed to work I thought the area would be good for my business because there are so many expats living here.

How long have you been trading?
I have been trading here for 2 years now, quite a difficult time with the recession but we have kept going and hopefully things are starting to get better.

Where are you based and what is your catchment area?
I run the buisness from our home in Torrox campo, but we work from La Heredurra to Torre del Mar and inland but we mainly concentrate on Nerja and Torrox

What were the most difficult things to set up?
One of the most difficult things for me was finding the right suppliers for my trade and obtaining good discounts for my equipment, another difficult thing was getting the advertising right, it is not like in the uk where you only have to advertise in the yellow pages, there are so many magazines to advertise in, it is trial and error finding the ones that work best for you. Also a difficult part was the legal side: setting up and registering the buisness for autonomo.

What part of your buisness took the longest to get right?
Spending hours on the internet doing reserch and getting the buisness set up which I did with the help of a good Gestoria

What nationality are your customers?
Our main customers are British but we have also worked for Germans, Scandanavians and Spanish

Did you speak spanish before you came to Spain?
I had lessons in the uk for a while but because I was not using the language I found it very difficult. I now have weekly lessons with a Spanish teacher, my Spanish is now improving greatly which is a good thing as i need to communicate with my Spanish suppliers.

Where do you advertise?
We advertise in some of the magazines, on nerjanow website and we have our own website which is proving a great way of advertising we get alot of enquirys through the website, although in the U.K we built our reputation on recommendations, this is definately the best form of advertising.  We also find here in spain it is good to have as many contacts as possible and especially in lots of other trades. Nearly everyone of our customers gives us a testimonial to put on our website which helps alot with new customers being able to read about the quality of our work.

What advertising medium do you find the most successful?
The internet and recommendations are the most successful we also find having a sign written vehcile is a very good form of advertising

What do you find the most frustrating about having your own buisness here in Spain?
One of the most difficult things is the language barrier although that is improving daily. But top of the list is getting deliveries of equipment on time,  like we all know in Spain manana manana rules.

On what part of your buisness do you spend the most time?
A big part of the buisness is taken up with the quoting process especially as most potential clients like you to chit chat over a drink which is very nice and a lot of our clients become good friends but I have to allow alot more time for each survey. I spend 40% of my time on surveying and quoting.

How many full days a week do you spend on work?
I usually spend 5 days working but this depends on the particular job I am doing, a lot of our customers have rental properties and need the work doing quickly before they return to the UK, so I will work long hours and weekends to get the work finished.

Is there one aspect of your buisness that feel you should spend more time on?
I should spend more time on sourcing more suppliers to secure better discounts so that I could pass the savings onto my customers hopefully as my Spanish improves I should find this easier to acheive.

What would you do differently if you could  start your buisness all over again?
I certainly should have moved to Spain a lot sooner LOL, and I really should have been more fluent in Spanish before coming here.

What is the best peice of advice you have ever received?
To treat my customers the way i want to be treated, and to leave their property the way it was before I arrived.  Also try and keep some money by for any quiet periods you might have.

What 3 things would you reccomend to anyone starting there own buisness in Spain?
Do a lot of research in the area you want to live and work in, check out the competition in the buisness you are in.  Learn the language, this is a massive advantage.

The first company is Blue Sky, a Nerja based estate agent:

What made you choose the type of  business that you are in?
When we first moved to Spain 6 years ago I worked for one of the estate agents in town. In England I had worked as a commercial manager for one of the Banks and therefore spent most of my time out of the branches meeting people in their own businesses. A lot of the skills learnt there are easily transferred into estate agency, dealing with people, knowledge of finance, negotiation skills etc, the difference is you are selling them their dream instead of a loan/insurance. So in some ways a lot easier and more pleasant for all !!

Why did you choose this part of Spain
When we first purchased a property in Nerja some 11 years ago our intention was to buy a place for retirement, we had only been to the Spanish Islands but thought it best to be on the mainland in the south. Someone told us Nerja was a nice area and sounded our kind of place. We visited, found it was a great place and in 4 days had bought a property (the best investment we ever made), all this time later we still love the town and could not imagine living in any other part of Spain.

How long have you been trading?
We started our business 2 and half years ago. Not the best time to start an estate agency but we had obviously made a lot of contacts over the years in Nerja and have been very happy with the way things have progressed over the last few years.

Where are you based  and what is the catchment area for your business?
We actually work from home which is in the urbanisation of Algarrobo behind Capistrano Village in Nerja. When we set up we decided that we really wanted to concentrate on a specific area, as so many agents try to sell propertiess all over the place even other countries and probably half the time do not know the properties on their books. We therefore cover the Nerja area, which we see really as between Caleta and Almuñecar on the coast and inland to Torrox /Frigiliana area

What were the most difficult things to set up?
I think one of the difficult things is getting the advertising right as it is expensive and sometimes a lot of money can be spent with little result. Working from home it was important to us to get the website correct, so many websites are difficult to use, we spent a fair amount of time and money to get a good site which I think is one of the best sites for finding your way around.

We were lucky to have a good accountant who set everything up for us with the business as I guess that side could have been difficult.
What part of your business took the longest to get right?
Again I think the advertising, we have done various things over the two years, local ads , ads in the uk, internet advertising, flyers , newsletters etc. After a while you find the best things to attract the buyers and for the sellers to put their properties for sale with you. It is a bit of a balancing act and you can waste a bit of money along the way.

What nationality are your customers and which is your main one?
In the main we have English clients mainly because some of our advertising is aimed at that market but we also have had a good number of other nationalities Spanish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Canadians we like anyone that has money to spend.

Did you speak Spanish before you came to Spain and how good is it now?
I did many years at night school in the Uk and when we first moved here we had a Spanish girl came to the house. My Spanish was basic when I arrived and it has improved over the years, although Nerja is a town where you can get by with small amounts of Spanish which probably makes you lazy. Probably the best thing is to move in with a Spanish family for a few months but I haven’t found one that will have me !

Where do you advertise?
After a few years of trying different things we now advertise through pay per click on the internet for our website (so that we are on the first page !) , we have a monthly e mail newsletter in association with a company in the uk which goes out worldwide to over 100,000 clients who have shown interest in purchasing in Spain and specifically this area, we advertise in a couple of local mags and like all others have sale boards, flyers business cards. Of course Nerjanow website, but our best advertising is the people who recommend us to their friends and neighbours.

What advertising medium do you find most successful?
The internet and personal recommendation are the most successful.

What do you find the most frustrating about having your own business here in Spain?
A difficult question. I suppose when it gets very hot in the summer months and you leave the car for 5 minutes and get back to an oven and the person who wants to view has wandered up from the beach for a quick look at what’s available for sale on the last day of a two week holiday !

On what part of your business do you spend most of your time?
Viewing properties and showing people around the area would take up the biggest part of my time, fortunately this is the enjoyable part. I would spend about 50% of my working time viewing houses and seeing the local area I would say.

How many full days a week do spend on work?
Well again this is difficult as if for example we have people here for 4 days viewing I would spend as much time as possible with them even if it’s a weekend / bank holiday. But then if it is not busy then there will be time taken off during the week. One of the advantages of working from home, I guess overall we work 5 days a week even if they are different days.

Is there one aspect of your business that you feel you should spend more time on?
Improving our Spanish to levels where we are fairly fluent, in order to increase our share of the Spanish market. This is definitely one aspect that we should spend more time on.

What would you do differently if you could start your business all over again?
I would have started a few years earlier. Working for other people in Spain is not very well paid as a lot of people will know, although the knowledge and contacts have certainly been useful.

What was the best piece of advice you ever received?
Someone once told me that the best way to make a million in Nerja was to start with 2 million. An exaggeration but I think not to be greedy and treat people as you would want to be treated is probably the best advice.

What 3 things would you recommend to anyone starting their own business here in Spain?
I would always recommend that you did something that you know and do your homework of the market and the competition before you start. I think the danger when people come to Spain is they think it is easy to do something that they have no experience of and that they probably would not do in their home country. If buying an existing business have things checked by a good solicitor and employ a decent accountant.