Ellis71

Hi everyone,
My name is Ellis, I am English but married to a Portuguese Woman, my wife's brother has offered us his house for a year to come over and start a new business, this would involve property services, ie cleaning, gardening and stone floor treatments, all I'm asking is if there is a call for a british person to do this type of work?
We will be based in Almancil near Faro, her brother paints the houses in Quinta De Lago and Vale De Lobo, he said he can pass us some work but I need to be more sure it would work, does anyone have an input on this matter?
Kind regards
Ellis

GeniB

Hi Ellis .I don't live in the area of the Algarve that you mention,but it would seem to me that you already have an 'IN' with your BIL. He is perfectly placed to find out if your services would be needed. If you haven't already visited ,Vale de Lobo is the most affluent area of the Algarve . The gardening services I would have thought would already be covered by established firms. However outlying areas may have a need for someone like you. The stone floor cleaning might also be promising.
However it will all be speculation unless you take the plunge and give it a try. Is there no way you can give it a three month trial for instance.?

Ellis71

Hi thanks for your reply Geni, yes I have visited vale De Lobo it's full of rich people lol, my brother in law says he cannot guarantee lots of work but believes within a year we could have a thriving business, I just want to be totally certain before I decide on such a radical move, he is having a talk with the resort manager to see if he will give us work also which would give us a little guarantee I suppose.
I'm also trying to figure out how you move all your belongings from one country to another without breaking the bank, so if anyone can help with that also I would really appreciate the advice.
Kind regards
Ellis

MrBife

I actually do live in this area and I already use Stone Cleaning companies so I feel qualified to at least comment. You need to research the competition (Zacharias for example) and get a feeling for their prices. I suspect they are a lot lower than you imagine. Cleaning earns you €7.50 an hour and gardening if you are lucky about €200 a month per garden for what amounts to 20 hrs work with you providing all the equipment. There are hundreds of gardeners around and its very difficult to break in and get a client base going other than by significantly dropping prices which then makes it impossible to survive. VDL have their own directly employed gardening teams and you can be sure no one there gets paid much above minimum salary per month.

You will need a Portuguese registered commercial vehicle and quite a lot of equipment - safe budget probably at least €20,000 ?

You will get by of course but it won't be fun or financially rewarding - a lot of people doing similar jobs only just manage to feed and clothe their family.

Coming back to stone floor treatments - it's very specialised and a lot of the local stone is porous and rather unpredictable in terms of what chemicals will work on it. If you mess up it becomes your fault and you need to really know what you are doing !

Again a Portuguese commercial vehicle would be essential and some even more expensive specialist power equipment.

Ellis71

Hi thanks for your advice, my wife has a lot of experience in the stone treatment as this is what she used to do before coming to England 12 years ago, I myself used to sell natural stone here in England so I feel we could make this side work, as for vehicles and equipment that's where my brother in law comes into it, all I'm doing is trying to see what is out there as I would want various disaplines rather than trying only one, if I'm to do this I would do everything to succeed as failure is not an option, hence why I am asking originally.
Kind regards
Ellis

Ellis71

Is there a particular newspaper or magazine that expats read in Portugal? as I'm just thinking about advertising options, to be honest I'm thinking about many aspects of this opportunity but trying to take one step at a time.
Kind regards
Ellis

MrBife

Algarve Daily News Local News, World News, Property News, Business Directory, FREE Classifieds in the Algarve.
Algarve Resident Contacts – Algarve Resident newspaper classifieds
The Portugal News The Portugal News : Online Issue

Ellis71

Thank you for that MrBife, my wife has emailed a supplier of the treatments whom she used to use, he used to pass contracts to her when she previously done this work, she has also asked if there is space for another company to thrive, so fingers crossed we het a positive answer.
I thank you for your honest opinion in earlier post, at the moment here in England it's really bad for employment so even a slim chance in Portugal is a positive.
Kind Regards
Ellis

Sunseeker1st

Here in Central Algarve (not rich man's country, just country folk) I pay €10/hour for my gardener (English established here many years, also cleaning pools) always busy. He removes the debris. I pay my cleaner €8/hour also English here for many years.

EMR

Our hourly rate for gardener's is probably less as they are Portuguese. come at least 3 times month at least 2 sometimes 3 workers.
All official and above board, with facturas and receipts..
We have found that English workers expect a higher rate of pay or charge more for services .

Ellis71

Thanks for that information, I don't mean to be rude or intrude however when you searched for people to provide these services was it price or quality of workmanship that was importance to yourselves?
Kind Regards
Ellis

EMR

We use local recommendation.
We have twice been charged way above the " local " rate by British owned companies .
In one case we saved over 150 euros for a simple replacement part and another almost 1000 euros for air conditioning.
Recommendations from Brits who used almost exclusively other Brits, having heard from us switched to Portuguese providers.
Let's put is this way, the owner of one Portuguese company we use drives around in a battered van, the brit in an expensive 4x4 taking nice holidays every year.
Given the chance we prefer to give our money to the locals.

Ellis71

I understand exactly what you are saying, my brother in law is one of those said locals driving around in a battered van, however he does earn a good living paint the houses of very famous people, I'm just looking to move and have a living where I don't have to worry how I'm going to pay the next bill, we both have management experience and I know getting the price right is the most important part also the hardest at times, my brother in law has a very healthy relationship with the resort manager of Quinta do Lago so we are hoping to break into there as a start.
I know it will take time but still unsure if it is an option.
Kind regards
Ellis

Moses2013

Another question. Will you actually be registered self employed and are you aware of those costs. Like Spain, Portugal can be confusing when it comes to taxes.

Ellis71

If we come over we would declare everything as I will also be going for residency, my wife has 2 brothers in Almancil who have had their own company now for many years so they can guide us on the taxation system,<snip - this is against the rules.>

Ellis