OLD WORLD…NEW WORLD

Nothing prepares you for the rude awakening when you start a business in Portugal and especially if you are living and working in a small village or town. Portugal is renowned for its coffee culture as well as its bar and restaurant culture. Its culture is focused on meeting and greeting your friends & colleagues taking time to understand each other and enjoying time together. So starting a business means ensuring you comply with the law but also developing healthy relationships that are founded on strong ties and local connections. To achieve success requires not just hard work but a desire to learn Portuguese and embrace the Portuguese way. Not easy and not without some challenges along the way. More about this in next month’s issue.

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY MONEY?

The very real issue now of the pound / euro devaluation and it’s affect on millions of businesses and people living & working in Portugal is on everybody’s mind. Not to mention the devaluation of stocks impacting savings and pensions. Many businesses with local and international sides to their businesses are affected by the real decline in the value of the pound and as Portugal has relied heavily on British buyers this change has had a massive impact on property, tourism, exports, holiday revenues and investment in these sectors. Tourism revenue alone has in the last year seen a 6% decline in real terms. So the message here is diversify your business rapidly in the next 6 months.

Increasingly residents need to supplement their incomes to maintain their lifestyle and this is hard at present. There are however some real positive opportunities to build a second income and this is demonstrated by English speaking people developing new small enterprises successfully. Examples of these are the environmental business Raiz Verde based near Braga, Food4brits in Penela & a Bedspread factory in the Algarve and many more. It's not all bad news.

MONEY MAKING OPPORTUNITIES

The key point is to identify an area that is vacant or unexplored and do your homework. For those who have a compelling and relevant opportunity backed by evidence of a real market and consumer need the sky could be your only limit. But don’t bank on the usual business suspects e.g. Bed & Breakfast, as you can be sure that others are already there unless you have something truly unique to offer e.g. spa attached to your B&B.

To capitalise on new opportunities here is a quick list of essential items to pack when setting out on developing your new enterprise:

• Unique and compelling idea
• Capital to finance your venture – you need at least 2 years of capital.
• Creativity and inspiration – lots of it
• Sound business and legal advice – the bank manager does not have the answers.
• Excellent sales & marketing expertise – the difference between success & failure
• Well designed and dynamic web site
• Business is not for the faint hearted – courage and belief – lots of it
• WORK, WORK, WORK.
• Have fun and enjoy what you do.

Next we’ll talk about business relationships and how they can make or break your business.