Just had a look, youve dont a bloody good job there

Its OK, they love it, and it was literally just a paddock when I started.

I don't sell hardware as such Darren....I get systems through from my suppliers for my customers and just act as a go between. There's no money in hardware these days (I can remember selling systems for £3500 back in 1995).....so all I do is the software installation and configuration, then deliver and install.
As an indication of prices here, I'm now supplying dual core Pentium base units for €299, and laptops for €399. All with 2 years warranty. Can't fault it!

But that's just one area of the business.....the other side is the website design and webhosting for British businesses in Spain. And I'm on call for them seven days a week.

Hard going......but it's still a great life here!

Do you get much competition, how do you do on the laptops ?

There is money in anything, just have to buy at the right price. I guess you must travel a lot, I just bought a pallet of laptops from Madrid to export back to the Spanish, just to water the market tried it before and it went ok, just didnt have the Time to push it more

In someways its similar to what I want to do as you but I want to try and keep my UK side of it somehow. I turned over 14k this week, for one guy on his own that is pretty hot.

I dont really want to go round calling and trying to get work, my eyes are not shut for sure.

I guess thats why I keep putting off the move until I can find that guaranteed source of income.

I worked out to be happy to live there from here would need to have a profit margin of about 140 Euro a day over 7 days a week. Im working now as I type this, so that does not bother me putting hours in

The problem I have with hardware is the guarantee side of things Andy!
There's no money in building systems now, and even if I bought stuff in at the right price from the UK, it would be a logistical nightmare dealing with returns.
So I opt out of that totally by getting the customer to buy direct from my supplier......and in the event of a warranty issue it's all done without any involvement by me other than reporting it. And they have a 2 year warranty throughout Spain with no quibbles whatsoever.
I'm actually more interested in pushing the web side of the business, but as recommendations get spread by existing hardware customers I end up having to go further afield to do jobs.
But the good side of that is that unlike Britain I'm not stuck in traffic and visiting grim industrial estates, I'm seeing lots of the Granada and Almeria provinces and visiting some amazing properties in some very unusual locations.

yes mate, getting harder with laptops now aswell, Dell start laptops widescreen from £180+vat, as it happens on the Dell.es site cheaper than that.

Ok, Web design I did that some time back 2001-2003 era before all this flash malarkey, I think where you are - there is potential from spanish Car hire companies to have a English site, getting them convinced is the problem maybe

I took a realtively small company based in Chelmsford compared to the big boys, they had a small presence at Stansted for English speaking clients, but I got them a better site redesigned in German French and Spanish after a short while there web business in the Summer took over at the Airport, then I left and it fell apart, still there going strong.

if you are multi lingual ( I dont know if you are ) but even if you know more than most, you are one step ahead. More and more younger spanish are learning English so they are able to web design on both scores, but when I was in the Cadiz Province last year, Sevilla and Jerez I saw many opportunity to push multi ling websites, getting the people to pay though is another matter.

Everything is time consuming though, I have loads of ideas rattling round in my head but when your busy with one thing its hard to give time and money to something else - sounds like your hardware side is taking over which is good, so long as your busy thats good.

Sometimes I wish my whole business would collapse just so I can have a go at something else, but while its strong I should carry on, but I am in no wat getting the Life I want.

Every morning this week gone I have woke up depressed, but Im so busy I dont get time to be depressed well not til bed time anyway when everything plays on my mind.

Another month and it will be a year from when I made a 100% decision to jack it and move

So do you think you will manage at least 2 or 3 beers with us? I am sure a can speak for everyone when I say "we would be gutted if it was just a flying visit"!!

This was the site I designed, astonished to see they are still using it, (SNIP) thing was I done that one on there wages, the euro ones I hosted myself so they got pulled.

must be 4/5 yrs back now

Andy,
Yes there is a market for English versions of websites. We have also thought about doing updated websites, we are multi lingual. As we see it there are several obstacles.

• The Spanish do not seem to appreciate the power of advertising online. Just look at how many small businesses have a presence here in Spain compared to other European countries.
• If there is a web page, then they do not always respond to an email. That is just down to their way of doing business.
• The Spanish seem to think that advertising is money not well spent.
• We have noticed that some websites have never been updated since conception. This could be that the designers want too much money to do this or the owner of the business simply does not want recognize the potential power of being online. We know one web page that has prices dating back to 2002.
• Web designers here love their Flash presentations. For us it simply puts us off as it takes time to load. Besides search engines have a harder time finding your website.
• Even websites for government departments and larger companies are not so user friendly.

Yes I think its not understanding the potential a website brings from Tourists from the UK and America. The UK and the States are predominantly web based clients.

The email problem you suggest is also true. I considered thinking about offering a email answer service for the company you do the web site for, until it gets off the ground so they can afford a english speaking junior or whatever.

I know exactly what its like, something simple like just creating a English Tapa menu for a bar in Cadiz was a difficult situation to prove, (not on the internet - just a plain menu for them to had to a customer) however I persisted and showed them they dont have to speak it, just number the menu simple enough so they knew which was which.

It was more of a confidence boost for me really but it showed they are so tight its unreal.

Many business located near a Airport / Major tourist destination is missng out if no Internet pages, the old yellow pages is more relied on in Spain, but even they have noticed that its not for much longer and going the way of the UK in major cities.

Andy
Have you seen the prices Páginas Amarillascharge!
Lost touch with U.K. prices but on a percentage of what we earn the advert rate is horrendous. Plus there are a lot of PA versions around which cover a more local area. They all want money.

Xtreme speaks Welsh and Gitano, not sure about English and Spanish though

Hopefully we've now seen the end of the long running ADSL saga!

Telefonica were here on Friday.....and had problems.

They were here again Saturday.....and had more problems.

Then they were back and fore here all day today.....and fingers crossed, everythings OK now! Certainly seems to be at the moment!

They told me because of my location I can only have 1 meg......but in true Telefonica style I'm not sure they got it quite right.

All I'm going to say is......Telefonica Rocks!

When they read this post it will go above 1mg like mine does. ;-))

Started at 512.

I'm crossing my fingers jdr!