jimenato

The autonomo rate is flat - it doesn't matter how much you earn.

You can de-register from autonomo with ease.

There are rules about car washing although I'm not sure what they are. I have heard that you are not allowed to wash your car at home - it's a water usage/disposal of pollutants thing I believe.

IamStu

Shows how much I go shopping. I completely forgot about the one at El Cort Ingles. Always looked quiet each time I´ve been.
Didnt know about Miramar as I tend to avoid the place.

Albir, FYI, these places Cricketman has mentioned are approx 10 mins drive from La Cala.

Fredbargate

There are two different La Cala's on this thread about 550 kms apart

Albir_Tom

Interesting. See things like this help out a lot. Cheers.

Creates questions for me to ask.

stuboy

Tea and biscuits probably wouldn't sway it for me. I don't use my car a great deal so the inside never gets too bad plus I never eat or drink anything in the car.

My cleaner does the inside if I ask her.

Albir_Tom

Can I ask what would sway you sir ?

stuboy

If it takes a couple of hours for one car then I doubt you will make any money. If I can get it done in Sainsbury's car park for £5 in approx. 40mins and the standard is very reasonable then it shows it can be done.

As to what would sway me is easy. I want my car cleaned whilst I'm busy doing something else. I don't want to wait around for it to be cleaned because quite frankly if I had the time to wait around for someone else to clean it I might as well do it myself.

So either whilst I'm shopping or at the doctors/hospital or maybe the finance/tax office or at the beach or at another leisure place or at a nice place to have lunch.

I certainly wouldn't trundle up to the N332 or whatever just to have my car cleaned.

At the end of the day you are selling a convenience product which means that for the customer it has to be convenient and easy.

Albir_Tom

Mate a complete professional valet on a car takes all day and it's normally a call out to do that sort of job because nobody is going to want to wait around for that, if you had ever paid for one you would know about that. As for trundling up the n332 to get your car cleaned.... What are you on about ??? Who goes out of there way to a pull in car wash ? It's the busiest road in and out of benidorm hundreds if not thousands of cars pass through that part of the 332 in and out of benidorm each day either coming of the ap7 or from albir, altea etc into benidorm or on the way out vice versa. so you if you use that road often see the signs etc get to know where it is, people will start using it but going out there way to come will be a bonus.

Also why are you talking about sainsburys and in pounds ? This is a Spanish expats forum lad.

Albir_Tom

Haha if you can get a proppa valet for £5 in 40 minutes you are definitely the main man!!

jimenato

You can get your car washed pretty well in many supermarket car parks in the UK for £5 to £8 and I suppose they might vac the seats and foot-wells as well but that ain't a valet - nowhere near.

stuboy does make a good point though - I get my car washed while I'm shopping or doing something else. I wouldn't waste time just watching someone do it and the same with a valet. I would consider a valet if it were done at my home, or taken away and brought back to me when it's finished, or while I was doing something else like shopping or watching a film, or eating at a restaurant or something like that.

I can amuse myself with sudoku or something for a few minutes, any longer and I wouldn't bother.

Fredbargate

I don't know what all the fuss is about?

Run the car through an automatic car wash for around €5 then let your partner do the inside, simples

After all it's only something to get you from A to B not the crown jewels

Albir_Tom

Hopefully bigger and longer jobs will be call outs. A mini valet will take literally 10,12, 15mins max on site I personally wouldn't mind waiting that long and like i pointed out earlier there is a big flea market 30 seconds up the road which is on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays which is always packed, I'm hoping those days will make our week up and I will be working on the car park of a cafe, if it was me I wouldn't mind having a coffee in the and reading the paper whilst I wait for my car. Like any business I'm not expecting it to be making good money straight away it's about building it up, customer relations, hard work, advertising etc. iv already said that this isn't something I'm relying on but my friend is and I'm going to try and make it work for him.

The spot I have is potentially great so we'll just see what happens.

quiltman

When I was in the UK I used to take my car to a local hand wash run by Poles and Iranians. did brilliant job for £5 in about 25 min. Wash, dry, vacuum . windows, etc.If I didn't want to wait, i could walk to B&Q, Sainsburys or Comet in 2/3 mins and come back when I was ready. They did a full valet for £40 which took 3 hours but would run you home, if you were local, and bring back the car when done. When travelling, if the car needed washing I searched out a local handwash - never put it through a mechanical wash in its life.

As others say, not going to go out of way for a wash, and not going to hang around for more than 25/30 minutes.
Here in Cebu it's easy - driver washes and vacuums at least twice a week. If it needed a full valet - maybe once a year, he takes it down to the local Detailing depot, as they call them here, hangs around a couple of hours whilst they do the job - and checks they do it properly! all for the equivalent of £4.00!

So yes, if i was passing a place, such as you propose setting up, I would likely call in if passing, but would not go on a special journey - unless you were so good and super value that my local guys could not match it!

If you go ahead, I wish you well.

Albir_Tom

I personally wouldn't allow my mrs to get on her hands and knees in the car hoovering, cleaning all the plastics and glass etc I didn't bring her to Spain for that.

Some people's cars are there Crown Jewels, if I can delve into the prestige car valeting that would be an even bigger bonus.

In the OP I said I would be having a big billboard erected in different languages and also I will have other means if advertisement.

I can assure you one of those languages will be Russian, altea is up the road which has a huge Russian community and some of the cars that come up and down the n332 in and out of benidorm are amazing.

I speak more or less fluent Spanish and part Dutch too which is going to help me interact with customers more.

whitelinen

The harsh reality of self employment in Spain is that you have to pay a minimum of Euros 260 a month autonomos (you can pay more if you want a bigger pension). IVA (VAT) is chargeable on all sales.

To make things even worse, Autonomos has to be paid in advance.

So assuming 2 of you with 2 lots of autonomos, rent to landlord and IVA on 1000 euros you would have to clean and knowing how little people pay for this service you will have to clean 150 cars a month or more just to cover those costs.

From my experience of living in Spain for many years I know that many many people have help at home and it is those people who are usually entrusted to clean the owners cars.

IMO the self employed monthly rate of Euros 260 and IVA from the first cent of sales is crippling and one of the reasons why Spain will not recover until it is addressed.