You are right, the paperwork to set up a business in Spain is just stupid. This is a big drawback for entrepreneurs. However language schools pay less taxes than other businesses, which is a good thing.

It's true, language schools can be a stepping stone, but it means (especially in somewhere like Madrid) you can be earning 25-40 Euros per hour doing private and business lessons, once you have a couple of years' experience. Of course you have to factor in time travelling between locations (block bookings are a dream but not so common). Additionally many company bookings require you to be set up as autonomo. I wonder if MadridMan (if what theLostPhotographer has told us is correct) is actually earning a lot more than this.

As for the paperwork setting up language schools - the owners I met in Madrid tended to use gestors & accountants to deal with all the difficult stuff. It can't be impossible, there are 100s of language schools and related companies in Madrid. I imagine the difficult task is hanging onto teachers once they jump to doing private and company classes directly.

http://11870.com/k/language-schools/...drid-provincia

it seems that "oppositions" have been cancelled for the forseeable future, except for the some categories and teaching isnt one of them.

http://www.fe.ccoo.es/ensenanza/menu.do?Inicio:292470

It doesn´t have to look cheap. Don´t want to buy second hand chairs? Just go to Ikea and get new ones for peanuts. They will break appart in a year, but by then you will already know if it is worth to keep the business running and buy new good quality ones. White paint goes for almost nothing, and U.K maps or pictures to put on the walls for about the same. You can buy a few blackboards and lots of didactic materials for a few hundred euros. It´s probably the cheapest business to set up, believe me.

I took my opposition exam in Castilla y León. I had to work a lot, but I got a 9,04 out of 10 in the first try. Even so this didn´t give me a permanent job, as my contract is renewed every year.

Non-native speakers have been passing these exams for years, it´s not as difficult as it seems.

In Spain everybody thinks being a state teacher is great. It´s true we´ve got 3 months of paid holidays and that we only work around 30 hours a week. However a primary school teacher (as me) makes 1500 euros per month (almost the same than a factory worker). I spent 6 years at university (I have 2 degrees) and 1 year studying for the opposition exam to get 1500 euros per month? Well...that really shows something is very wrong around here.

Actually teaching is considered a "basic service" and there will be oppositions for teachers, as the article say:

En cuanto a la tasa de reposición en el sector público, el Ejecutivo ha confirmado que será "cero", salvo para las Fuerzas y Cuerpos de Seguridad del Estado y los servicios básicos que afectan a algunos puestos docentes y sanitarios y otros que tienen que ver con la lucha contra el fraude, para los que se situará en el 10%

However, and as that article say, there will be only one teacher for every retired ones. I don´t really know they think they are going to manage (when you work in a school you know this is not possible). The only thing that comes to my mind is that our fantastic politicians decide to knock down a few school walls and double the size of the classrooms, so up to 50 pupils can be taught at the same time. This will be total a total disaster for the educative system...but who cares about that? Only bankers are the apple of our politicians´ eyes...

A lot of those language schools are always advertising because not many people can afford to take the work on offer. 15 to 20 euro per hour for maybe 4 or 5 hours a day and probably split into morning and evening. Only suitable for a gap year.

Who said anything about sticks, I was born in London, but London is not the same London that I was born into, all somewhat claustrophobic these days, maybe it is an age thing or maybe Spain has spoiled me, having said that home can be where your family and contacts are.

15 euros times five hours times 220 working days =16,500 euros per year

Which is pretty much a starting wage for a graduate in Spain so not so bad especially if living outside of Madrid/Barcelona

The key would be to make the most of the time you are not teaching, either studying or starting a new business etc

I bet factory workers wished they could earn the same as you and work just 30 hours a week, nine months of the year to achieve it!

That was just a personal observation, everyone to their own. Cheers

The people who I know of that are/have taught in academies dont do anywhere near 4-5 housrs a day.

They have been lucky if the do 2-3 and sometimes not everyday......Maybe it is different in Madrid Barceleona, but in smaller towns and cities, there seems to be certain hours that everyone wants to attend class.

Hence the large number of teachers with few hours each.

I knew somone who worked for a private academy that had a contract in on of the biggest shipyards in Spain, she started at 7.am for one hour, then did another hour at 11am, then an hour from 7 to 8 in the academy teaching teenagers.

Between the shipyard classes, she just hung around, with no pay obviously.

She was classed as a lucky one.

Ok I accept not at the moment but I guess most others will get my meaning

You've run businesses have you?

You seem to have left out such things as the public liability and insurance costs, books & associated paperwork, autonomo costs & accountant ... advertising to get the clients in .... and lets not forget the legal and compensation costs when your cheap furniture falls apart as you predict with a client sitting on it

I used to work in an academy -I was the busiest teacher there (apart from the owner) simply beacuse I was the most flexible & the most hours I did a week was 15. My earliest class started at 8:30am iirc & my latest finished at 10:30pm

I was lucky in that I lived a 5 min bike ride from the academy, and the woman who did the admin was happy to have my private class timetable & fit the school around that if new individual students wanted to enrol after the beginning of term - I worked my private timetable around their groups in return

I don't work there now because it closed down - it simply didn't have enough students

two other language academies in our town have since closed down, too

The fact that it has coincided with a Tory government must be a coincidence surely?[/QUOTE]

May coincide with a change of government but I was of the believe that one big factor in the high inflation rate was QE most of that put in place by ? oh yes labour. Lets face it somebody has to try and sort out the mess not all of it down to Gordon Brown as we know it is a world wide problem, but labour had ran the country financially into the deck. Oh finally coalition not Tory government.