Splatt

The second anniversary of our move to Spain has just passed and I must admit it feels like much longer. I think it must be the day to day uncertainty and variety of experience that does it, when you are on a treadmill and everything is predictable and comfortable the time seems to fly. The daily battle to put food on the table and keep the bank balance favourable certainly keeps you sharp.

To be honest, I actually kind of enjoy it. But don’t get me wrong; endless dining extravagances, casual shopping for goods you don’t need and the odd convertible or yacht would be preferable. In fact the occasional indulgence like a meal out would be welcome but I’m sure that will come soon.

All the family are well, my daughter seems to be enjoying school although her Valenciano isn’t progressing as quickly as I had imagined. My wife has started teaching Yoga and my mother has settled into her apartment in town.

At the time of last writing the signage and graphics business was only about four months old, and so my whining was a bit premature. The past year has surpassed expectations, given the economic climate, and while there have been flat spots there have also been extremely busy times when I have had to be working into the night to keep up. It does seem strange how the bills can keep up with the income though. To this end I had to increase my prices, if working flat out wasn’t putting a safe distance between me and the breadline I figured that I was too cheap. This doesn’t seem to have affected trade though, I’m still winning custom and the feedback is that the prices are reasonable.

An observation I have made about business in Spain (mostly in expat circles but also in the domestic market) is that if you know someone who’s brother’s mate is a landscape gardener, this is qualification enough to make you a landscape gardener too. Very often if you arrange for something to be done there is a Newton’s Cradle effect where you will pay a deposit to one guy, someone else turns up to do the job and then the original guy returns for the balance. The Lord only knows how many people are in between taking a cut of your cash.

With this in mind for my business I have contacted other people in associated trades and exchanged parts of the cradle with them. So I have other people selling my services (which they get at a discount) and I do likewise, only I’m a terrible actor and tend to just tell the client that I don’t do such a thing myself but I can organise it for them for a small cut. In modern business speak I believe they call this networking. This has saved my bacon. I might not be making as much money with this kind of work, but it’s kept me busy. My only other alternative was to spend heaps on advertising and hope for the best, which hopefully I’ll be able to do when the sight of the breadline drops off the horizon. Richard Branson I am not, but paying the bills and feeding the family I am.

My Spanish progresses too, at a snail’s pace. While I’m streets ahead of when I got off the boat I’ve reached a new plateau. At one time the Spanish would make me stumble through for a while before using English, which to be honest I preferred as it meant I used the lingo more and ultimately learned. Now they hear my slightly-better-than-awful Spanish and go straight to English. I must have reached the point at which I’m someone else’s responsibility. Someone I’ll probably have to pay.

I’m hoping the coming year bears more fruit and I can progress with developing the business and also my Spanish. I must say I do feel really at home here, it’s a tiny village and I think I’m only one degree of separation from knowing everyone who lives here. It has a great atmosphere most of the time and so far I haven’t encountered any nastiness. Of course there’s plenty of gossiping, which I’ll listen to, but resist passing it on unless it’s good news.

I’m told by inland expats that this isn’t the real Spain. To be honest it doesn’t even feel like the real planet Earth sometimes. Moraira is a community of people of all nationalities that makes up a small tourist resort without hotels. Most of it’s visitors own or know someone who owns property here. Neither overly brash nor unduly posh, it’s a great place and I love it.

My advice to anyone considering moving out in 2010 remains the same; bring money, a steady income or a foolproof plan. Preferably all three. Joking aside, I still believe anyone with the right attitude and proper planning can do it.

I raise a glass to everyone for 2010, may those who remain, sustain and to those who had to leave I hope you find happiness wherever you may find yourself.

Cheers!

Steve

Sam Greenfield

Good on ya Splatt - n i hope you enjoy many more

AdrianTO

This is funny. Here you have shown that with a little bit of thinking outside the box, you have made a success of your move to Spain. Yet there is only one reply to your post.

Now, if you had made a post about how you want to move to Spain and start a business, you would have at least 30 replies by now, 29 of them negative.

Actually it is not funny, it is sad. Anyway, congratulations and may your story be an inspiration to those who are contemplating a move.

fionamw

Come on old bean; he only posted at 1053 last night. Anyhow I found it a very good read.

lynnxa

9.53 surely


& well done to Splatt for sticking with it

paintermujer

I was asleep when he posted.

But it was a good read to wake up to.

And well done for making it this far.

lynnxa

I was asleep too

what on earth was AdrianTO doing up at 2.30am

paintermujer

Absolutely no idea.

HBG

Perhaps he posted from Philadelphia.

lynnxa

something like that occurred to me


how to find out?

SueG

That's two of us who have recently posted who are OK

missile

I am doing better than OK

expat2be

Makes a refreshing change from all the negtivity that some people seem to like putting on the forums

missile

Good news is no news. Just read any paper, most people believe all the stories without question. They are useful for wrapping up fish and chips - I do miss that

JnK

Great to hear such a positive story. We'll be a year next month and it's just flown by. Still here though and keeping our heads above water. Good luck everyone in 2010.