Grazy

Hi I’m Grazy,

I’ve lived on the Costa del Sol since 1986, during which time I have opened and taken over several shops and businesses. I have come across many pit falls in my time and would like to warn first time buyers of businesses to do a lot of research before signing on the dotted line.

Without a good lawyer there is a high risk of being ripped-off.

The first business I bought was a bar/ restaurant or pub. It was a great business, but it took me 2 years to get an opening license. I could have been forced to close at any point during those first 2 years.

I have also had swimwear shops.

If members have any questions regarding getting a business started in Spain; I’ll try my best to answer them.

Also please let us hear your nightmarish experiences with escrituras and opening licences!

sunnydee

Hi, What is an opening licence? And do bars that are already established have one you can take over or does each new leaseholder need to get their own?

davidinspain

I think anybody who is planning to open a bar needs all the (mental) help they can get.

jdr

Lol

Grazy

Hi,

You cannot open a business unless you have the opening license appropriate to all areas of your intended commerce. If you don't have that then you can be closed down on the spot.

You can transfer an opening license from the previous owner, but it must be up to date and compliant with all the business activities of the business as you wish to operate it. (Very often people will sell a business on with a completely illegal opening license.) If it is not legal, you can be closed down on the spot.

I have personal experience in this area.

Don't buy anything without a GOOD lawyer!

At the moment town halls have been briefed to hold back opening licenses until owners have brought every aspect of their premises up to latest EU spec.

I had to do this on my bar/restaurant recently. I was closed for months and had to fit all new electrics, plumbing, invalid toilet, foot operated taps, sound insulation etc, etc, etc.(Everything had to be signed off by an engineer and he had to be paid for his work. Also the plumber, the electrician, extraction man all had to be paid to provide Certification of Spec. or “Boletin”) It could easily send you bust!

On one of my businesses, it took me 2 years to get an out of date (not fit for purpose) opening license reissued and at any point I could have been closed down.

skippernicky

I can understand why someone looking to purchase a bar would need all the help they can get but why the 'mental' help?

lynnxa

if you have ever run a bar...........anywhere.........then you would know what hard work, long hours, physically & mentally exhausting & soul-destroying it can be.............

yes I admit it can also be great fun (in your 20's)

multiply that many times then add in the hot weather, major seasonal fluctuations, spanish bureaucracy...and even longer hours.............and you might understand why


too many people come over here in their 40's, decide to open a bar with no previous experience.....wreck their relationship & lose all their life savings


in my 20's I ran bars & restaurants, and eventually was a F&B manager in a big London hotel......if I had carried on I am absolutely positive that I would be divorced by now....if I had married in the first place

poollounger

Chicken and egg springs to mind....perhaps you would have been married but for the bars ?? I remember being a waiter in my youth.. hardest work I have done. And having to wear a bright green boiler suit. Now when I am in a restaurant late I remember that it doesn't end for them when I leave.. there is usually a lot more to be done after the last punter is out. Time I most remember of my stint as a waiter.....the night we all lined up and sang So Long Farewell to get rid of the last ones.. well this was in the middle of Covent Garden.

lynnxa

I am married......17 years married, together 22, 2 gorgeous daughters - & I'm pretty sure we'd never have got down the aisle if I was still in the 'trade'.....the hours were just crazy - I think in all the years I was in the hotel business I had just one xmas day off!


I remember working with a general manager in a small hotel in sussex who used to put on a 'scrooge' nightshirt & cap as a 'hint' to customers who had overstayed their welcome

silverchick

I remember working with a general manager in a small hotel in sussex who used to put on a 'scrooge' nightshirt & cap as a 'hint' to customers who had overstayed their welcome

Oh Is that why you wore that when we came !!! lolol

skippernicky

I agree that to enter into this kind of venture unprepaired and with unrealistice expectations and ambitions can be (to most people) a recipe for disaster. But I personally know people with no experience at all who have failed, and also people who have sucseeded. I also know people with experience who have failed abroad. The key issue is peoples expectations. This type of venture is not a job or a means to an end, it's a way of life. We are fortunate in the fact that we have experienced this way of life. So the long hours, little reward, pain in the arse issues are no stranger to us. What we do lack is experience of running something like this in a foriegn country. Hopefully with the help of people on this forum, Friends and relatives in the CDS, and sheer determination and hard graft will see us through.
We can all recall people who have bought bars and failed. We can also recall a similar number of people who have bought bars and haven't looked back.
Who's right? Simon who has run a bar for 5 years and can't wait to get back to the Uk, Or Eddie? On his second bar in 7 years and wishes he had done it sooner.

lynnxa

lynnxa

both right!

and I reckon with your attitude you probably have more chance of success than most, but having been there, done that, in the UK......there is no way I'd want to do it here!


(though I might have done in my 20's)

rugbymatt

you keep out of my county do you hear!?

lynnxa

I was in Midhurst.....lovely place.....handy for Polo