Hello to all,new to the forum,although I have been reading as guest for some time now, decided it was time to jump in

Just wanted some advice really, my wife and I have decided to relocate to Spain to start a new life and settle down really. We are both big pet fan's and would like to try and make a living in this field, nothing big just a modest income to live on and save a bit.

The plan is to run a market stall initially, then eventually a shop selling pet supplies, lead's, food, toy's etc, also probably an internet presence as well.

At the mo we have enough money for 6 mth's, although the plan is to have a year's worth before going over, will be renting a home, hopefully in the N Costa Blanca area.

Have already managed to get info off this forum re autonomo contributions, although would appreciate a few pinters re income tax !

The question is really, do you think the above business will be a goer, or should we be looking into something else ?

Any help or guidance would be really appreciatedthanx to all in advance

Well there are pets in Spain, pet shops in Spain, lots of pet shops in Spain.

One was www.europetz.com but i think its closed down.

These ship to Spain for only £4.90 or free if order over £49.00

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/content/shippingcosts

As with any business, price location,ability,competition, bank security for loan facilities all play a facture.

How long is a piece of string.And in these crisis times, it`ll be a long string for sure.

But in Spain you`ll need to facture into the equation, language, trade laws, suppliers, rules and regs etc.

Its the old saying, if you can`t speak the lingo, you`ll fail.

There is a pet shop in Denia selling animals as well as goods, just off the Plaza Jaime opposite the newsagents Montgomail, if you want to check out the competition. There's also another at the new Ondara Centre. I guess there are others, but the ones that sell the animals stick in my mind.

Thanx for the reply.

Have been learning the language, not too good just yet, as finding it diff with no Spanish speakers around, (best mate can only remember how to say "Where's my cheese ?" !!!), looking for a Spanish club to join, as from looking around this forum, this seem's to be a major factor in ex pat failure.

Have managed to find a wholesaler who is willing to ship to Europe, (why is this so diff in the UK, after all it's only 20 mile's away at it's closest point ? ).

With regard to trade law's etc, admittidley I we need to do more,am planning to contact the Spanish embass to see if they can put me in the right direction

Will have a look at those when on holiday, thank you

Don't really plan on selling actual pet's, as I imagine the beraucracy is a nightmare, and don't have enough experience
with other types of animal's, only cat's and dog's really

Do you know if there's any car boot sales etc in the area, did see an advert for one in the Costa Blanca news, appeared to be a permanent covered site, but the advert seem's to have disappeared now !

Can't find the link to markets/car boots but if you google you will find it.

Denia has a car boot on Fridays and there's a huge one at Jalon on Tuesdays and Saturdays worth a visit; Pedregeur on Sundays.

Brilliant, thank you , if I can get into both of those,that should give me a 4 day week to start with !

Hmmm.

Scope it out REALLY carefully. With the crisis, luxury stuff doesn't feature highly, and pets are a bit of a luxury. At the moment, I wouldn't want to be starting a business, as the start up costs can be significant, which would make me worry that if the business didn't hit the ground running, it would start to slide into the black..

Like the man says, make sure you learn the language first, and reasonably well. Trying to run the gauntlet of beaurocracy in a foreign language would be to me a vision of hell.

Above all, don't ignore advice just because it doesn't agree with what you want to hear.

Totally agree re the language, seem's a bit crazy to me to go to a country with a different language, without learning it !

Was thinking of starting out very small as in selling at car boot sales etc, dont really want to jump right in with a shop, did see on another thread, that Autonomo is about €265 - €290 per month,and have factored this amount a month into our 'setting up cost's' for a year, in order to be as ready as possible

In your shoes I would spend longer learning the language and saving up for a bigger backup fund, and use that time to learn the language better and see how the market is going. If it continues to slump, I don't think setting up right now would look too clever.

there is also Vergel on Saturdays and Sundays...Im sure I have seen pet stalls at vergel and there was definitely 2 at Pedreguer

there is a big pet store in gandia not far from Carrefour..think its called Amazon or something like that plus there are smaller shops in the villages

are you aiming just for the expat market or Spanish too ?

maybe you could offer a delivery service to people out in the campo as generally a lot of expats will have dogs and perhaps if you sell in bulk they might prefer to have it delivered

the 'new' spanish one near me closed down after about a year

Whilst you are still in the UK could one of you try and do a dog grooming course that would be another bow to your string also how about getting an internet business up and running then you could take that with you where ever you decide to settle. Good luck for whatever you decide to do.

there are some website links on here http://www.paginasamarillas.es/resul...adir&site=paol

that may give you more details of the Spanish competition

Carboot sales round here don`t like people selling new stuff, as that is classed as a proper market and comes under a different licence.
I have seen the police fine the stall holders and take all their stock.