Starting A Business In Europe

Again, we had it pretty easy from a career point of view when we made our first moves to Europe back in the late 90s. The move to Ireland and then to France were both made with the support of our employer, and we knew we had jobs waiting for us on the other side.

The move from Paris to Panama, however, was entirely our own doing. The year before, we’d left the company that had taken us to Ireland and France. But we found that retirement didn’t suit us. We liked being in business and decided to start one of our own.

Two minutes of discussion led us to agree that, if we wanted to pursue a business agenda, we’d need to leave France, perhaps the least entrepreneur-friendly country in the world. We knew from experience that France is no place to try to be an entrepreneur. This country does not value entrepreneurs, and running a business here is expensive and hassled. Labor law and the French perspective make every employer the enemy, and French taxes can take half of every dollar your business earns.

France, in particular, is a tough place to do business… and, generally speaking, Europe isn’t the most business-friendly part of the world. However, there remain some viable opportunities…

A friend in Poland years ago learned that Burger King was going to open up shop there and needed warehouse space for its supplies. He bought a warehouse. Burger King became his client. In time, he expanded his storage business to include other clients and other products… and he made a nice living for himself in the place where he’d decided he wanted to live.

Another friend noticed how few coffee shops existed in Warsaw. (This was 15 years ago, before Starbucks came to this town.) He found a local roaster to roast the coffee beans and then packaged them himself. He set up a combination of retail and wholesale operation that was bought by another larger one. That company is still going strong.

Some of the best overseas businesses start like these two—organically. You show up, discover a market niche, and find a way to fill it.

Other business start-ups can be more pre-planned.

We’ve talked about laptop-based professions (consulting, copywriting, travel writing, photography, programming, even bookkeeping, for example) that can be practiced anywhere in the world you can get an internet connection.

These portable professions constitute one approach to earning an income to support your new life overseas. Going this route is a chance to go into business for yourself, as it were, to be your own boss and to make your own money… without incurring the hassle and the overheads of a full-fledged business.

Some of us, though, are up for taking on the liabilities, headaches, and hassles that come along with running your own business. Perhaps you are interested not only in generating revenue and income, but also in the adventure of building something. We’re not going to attempt to provide you with everything you need to know to build a business in another country here. That’d be ambitious in this context. We would, though, like to prompt your thinking regarding ideas and locales for businesses that could make sense for you…

International Business Idea #1: A Franchise

A franchise can be an easy way to hit the ground running with a business model, strategy, branding, marketing, and support already in place. An already proven successful business can give you a leg up.

One franchise business opportunity in Panama crossed my desk recently. The regional manager for the Mail Boxes Etc. franchise was looking to expand.

Mail Boxes Etc. was already well established in Panama (with 18 stores at the time—today there are 40 or so), and, based on the success to date, was interested last year in growing the group to include a new store to service the Playa Blanca area near Rio Hato. This is the heart of the popular beach area about an hour-and-a-half outside Panama City, where many expats are settling.

Put aside the specifics of the place and the type of business for a second… we’d like to just walk you through some numbers here, for your general reference.

The total start-up cost for a Mail Boxes Etc. is US$60,000 to US$70,000. You don’t have to speak Spanish to open one of these operations, as most of your customers will be expats like you. Several non-Spanish-speaking franchisees already run stores in Panama and Costa Rica.

Another plus is that a Mail Boxes Etc. does not require much staff. A typical store can be run with three local employees. Your staff overheads are controlled, therefore, both because you don’t need much and also because salaries in this country are very reasonable. The quality and the cost of labor are two of the biggest doing-business appeals for would-be entrepreneurs in Panama.

Mail Boxes Etc., like any franchise, provides training and operational support leading up to and during the opening of a new store and then, as well, ongoing support as long as you need it.

What kind of return could you expect? The franchise manager explained that stores in that part of the world typically reach a point of monthly profitability after six to eight months of operation. Earnings are typically US$3,500 to US$5,000 per month the second year and US$6,000 per month thereafter (“assuming achieving normal sales goals, which depends in large part on the store owner’s level of enthusiasm”).

International Business Idea #2: A Tourism-Based Business

A tourism-based business (a B&B, dive shop, bar, restaurant, souvenir shop, ice cream parlor, coffee house, wine store, etc.) can be a good choice depending on your interests (do you like to interact with people day-to-day?) and your location (are you interested in living in an active tourist destination?).

International Business Idea #3: An Expat-Based Business

If the place where you want to launch your new life overseas is home to a decent-sized expat community, the best way to identify an idea for a business to launch can be to think about all the things that you yourself miss from home. What products and services do you wish were available? Chances are good that your fellow expats long for these same things.

Good Tex-Mex? Dog kenneling? Fitness center? Dance studio? Storage facilities? Once you’re on the ground in your new home, you’ll start to notice these things.

International Business Idea #4: Real Estate

Real estate is an industry that many expat entrepreneurs gravitate toward. In fact, we’ve known more gringo real estate agents in more developing countries than you could shake a stick at (and, often, that’s just what we’ve wanted to do to these guys).

Gringo real estate types in sunny climes tend to get a bum rap, because, often, they approach emerging-market real estate as a get-rich-quick plan. If you’re up for taking a longer-term view of things, this could be a good business to consider. You bring an understanding of the efficient real estate market to places where the real estate markets are typically anything but.

International Business Idea #5: Import/Export

Almost everywhere we travel, we notice something that we think might have a market someplace else. Garden urns and antique furniture from Ireland, for example… hand-woven lace from Italy… sweaters from Peru… hand-carved wooden statues from Spain… leather jackets from Argentina… hand-painted ceramics from Portugal… wood furniture from Indonesia… silk from Hangzhou…

These are all opportunities for the would-be importer-exporter.

A great deal of research and planning is required to pull this off on anything grander than a suitcase-by-suitcase scale, but buying something cheap in one part of the world and selling it for multiples of that price in another is a real and viable opportunity to make money to fund a life of adventure.

International Business Idea #6: A Business Geared Toward The Locals

That friend who started the coffee business in Warsaw really was on to something. He saw an opening in that city’s local market and went for it.

Making a success of a business geared for the local market requires that you first understand the local market—what do they like, what are they already buying, and, critically, what might they buy if it were available?

The best case is when you can import or transplant a business idea you’ve known to be successful somewhere else but that doesn’t yet exist in your new place of residence. This is what our friend did in Warsaw. He didn’t invent the coffee shop business… but he recognized that, while people in Warsaw like and pay for coffee, at the time, no Starbuck’s-like coffee venue existed. He identified a market niche and, as well, a successful business model he could transplant to fill it.

Peta and Ian have lived in Italy since 2009 running two business targeting local clients: helping Italians move to and work in Australia or of learning to speak or improving their English.

As an independent consultant, Peta provides services to Italian individuals, students, travelers, and businesses, as well as to Australians coming to Italy.

“I love what I do because it is so diverse and I am helping people to reinvent their lives and find a better way.

“My first clients, an Italian family that I helped to move to Australia in 2010, have just gotten their Australian citizenship. The whole family—the grandparents, son, daughter, their partners, and their children—all relocated to Perth, where they now are running two successful businesses.”

So far, Peta has helped 60 clients relocate to Australia.

After a while, Australians started contacting Peta asking if she could help them move to Italy for longer periods than the typical three-month stay.

“I work with local authorities to see what quotas are open and how to get a visa. My pricing is case by case, as everyone has different requirements.”

On the back of the consultancy business, Peta and Ian set up English services centers. People began coming to them to practice their English or to have something translated.

“From that,” Peta explains, “grew our second business offering more structured English study, translation of documents and emails, etc.”

Ian is in charge of the five centers in the nearby small towns where 100 students are enrolled.

The businesses have not only provided Peta and her family with a steady income, but they have also allowed her to qualify for an autonomous worker visa (lavoro autonomo).

“I was the first Australian to get a lavoro autonomo visa here,” Peta explains.

“It hasn’t been easy. We had to start from nothing. But now we are at the point where we are getting a lot of requests. It is all word of mouth. Our happy clients recommend us.”

International Business Idea #7: Farming Or Wining

No new business venture should be undertaken lightly, but investing in a vineyard, a plantation, or a cattle ranch might be more ambitious than other ideas on this list. They could also be profitable and a lot of fun… for the right would-be entrepreneur.

Friends relocated from the United States to Italy years ago to develop a vineyard. The grapes were planted and harvests have come in.

Over a decade into it with our own overseas start-up, we can tell you that it’s not easy. But we don’t regret a single day of it. In fact, our only regret is that we didn’t start sooner.

We’ve had the time of our lives building what today is a well-established, fast-growing operation with an eclectic international staff and a big upside.

There is absolutely no reason you couldn’t do the same thing.