# Would these small business ideas work?



## locovida

Hello everyone,

We are planning our move to portugal soon, My hubby is portuguese, We would appreciate your thoughts if any of these ideas might work for a small income for us...
1)Hes thinking of buying motorbikes in uk and bringing them over to portugal to sell as the bikes seem a lot cheaper here.

2)Some kind of delivery service transporting goods from uk to portugal.

3) Im considering childminding/setting up small daycare centre.

4) last of all renting out a property.

We are planning to live somewhere rural but not too far from towns, we live in the countryside at the moment and dont earn much,we are used to just getting by...hubby has said how hard it is for work there,so we are prepared to try different things! Any comments would be great!


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## andyp65

*Small businesses*



locovida said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> We are planning our move to portugal soon, My hubby is portuguese, We would appreciate your thoughts if any of these ideas might work for a small income for us...
> 1)Hes thinking of buying motorbikes in uk and bringing them over to portugal to sell as the bikes seem a lot cheaper here.
> 
> 2)Some kind of delivery service transporting goods from uk to portugal.
> 
> 3) Im considering childminding/setting up small daycare centre.
> 
> 4) last of all renting out a property.
> 
> We are planning to live somewhere rural but not too far from towns, we live in the countryside at the moment and dont earn much,we are used to just getting by...hubby has said how hard it is for work there,so we are prepared to try different things! Any comments would be great!




Firstly the positives, i think people have more chance of making it work in Portugal if they have ideas and work for themselves, the majority of jobs that are available over here are low paid and require Portuguese (not neccessarily a problem for your husband). If you are used to just getting by then you have a chance because it is possible, depending where you are to pick up part time jobs, pocket money jobs here and there. Now as far as your ideas are concerned, these are just my thoughts without looking into it more closely, just my feelings from being here 3 years.

1. Bringing in bikes and selling on, there is a whole raft of paperwork and fees for matriculating bikes, whether the price difference is worth it at the end i dont know, there are a couple of companies doing this with cars, but they are importing these from Germany and Spain i believe to try and get round the cost of Portuguese cars, whether there is a market for bikes i dont know. The cost of matriculation into Portugal plus taxes could offset any real profit you might make.

2. Quite a few white van man adverts flying around so there must be some money to be made but a fair bit of competition and costs keep going up with fuel etc

3. Not sure if this would work, my own feeling is that Portuguese children are looked after by family until school age and the caost would be off putting for most especially when they have grand parents only too keen to look after them. For expats, most i have come across have come to Portugal to get away from the high speed of life in the UK and actually want to spend the time helping their children grow.

4. Renting out a property, there are many properties for rent over here, both holiday and longer term renting, money you would make would depend on location, size and utlities etc whether this would earn you enough income would depend on your own situation, if you were able to buy outright 2 properties so you had no large outgoings might work but the figures need to be looked at closely and of course you need to take into consideration that the property might not be let all of the time, consequently your income would drop, you would need a plan b as well

I hope this helps, like i say i do not want to be negative, these are the things i would be looking at with each of your ideas to see if there is any mileage in them for making money

Andy


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## locovida

Thanks Andy,

That all makes sense, we will look more into the bike thing... if you can think of anything that might work better out there let us know! we are willing to give it a try.


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## andyp65

You have the added advantage of having a Portuguese speaker in the family, what type of work are you doing at present? what have you done in the past? maybe some of these experiences could be used over here, people still have needs, if you live within range of a decent sized expat group it is surprising what these people need or miss from home, i am not saying you can make a fortune but services or skills that suit the expat needs could offer the income you are looking for.


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## locovida

andyp65 said:


> You have the added advantage of having a Portuguese speaker in the family, what type of work are you doing at present? what have you done in the past? maybe some of these experiences could be used over here, people still have needs, if you live within range of a decent sized expat group it is surprising what these people need or miss from home, i am not saying you can make a fortune but services or skills that suit the expat needs could offer the income you are looking for.


My husband does manual work,painting,building,etc...my mum is a childminder, stepdad builder/landscaper...but plans to spend his time fishing! 
and myself a nanny/childminder/teaching assistant/home care worker/bouncy castle hire business. We need to know how to spend the money from the sale of my mums house wisely,if you know what i mean,so business plans must come first if that means looking for another property to renovate and rent out or whatever we need to do. :confused2:


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## canoeman

If you want to work out cost of importing bikes, try the simulator, your other costs are MOT, plates and a few other bits.
Portal das Finanças and if you want to check sale prices check here, but to make a profit you've got to sell them Motos Usadas, Venda de Motos e Classificados de Motos no Standvirtual

There's always someone who wants things taken from A to B but enough for an income, I seriously doubt it, the bikes might tip the scales.

Childminding or daycare would reguire a massive amount of paperwork, probably already taken care of as Andy says, as well as the existing competition.

What you must allow for currently, mid term and the near future is Portugal's Financial situation (and the rest of EU) which will get worse before it gets better, so child minding & holiday lets aren't going to be on top of anyone's agenda.

Holiday lets & B&B reguire Licencing if you want to be legal, currently emphasis is on the Algarve, but other Regions and Camaras are starting to target owners.


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## locovida

Thanks for the links not sure what we will do now? Hhmmm, still making the move though!


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## moggy666

locovida said:


> Thanks for the links not sure what we will do now? Hhmmm, still making the move though!


I have a holiday/retirement property in Central Portugal, near Tomar, which i travel to every 8 weeks for 10 days holiday and one service i could not find in the area, when i purchased the house, was a Maintenance/Management company to "keep an eye" on it.

We found some companies over on the Silver coast that provided several levels of service, such as "holding a set of keys" and "going to the house once a month" to check if all is OK up to cleaning and maintaining the house every Saturday for rental visitors however, none of the available companies would travel into Central Portugal.

I know there is a growing number of people, British/Dutch etc buying property in Central Portugal and i for one would happily pay a small fee to someone to keep an eye on my house whilst i am not there.

My parents live in France and started to "look after" a few of their friends houses and now they have 34 houses on their books.

It is something i may look at doing when i finally move to Portugal permanently. 

Just an idea.


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## locovida

Moggy666,

Thankyou! That sounds like an excellent idea, we would definately be interested in doing this.


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## leonix00

Hello Locovida,

I'm portuguese and new here 
I was reading the forum and after reading your post I would recomend you bicycles business or parts, instead motorbikes.
MTB and road bicycles are growing a lot in Portugal as hobby and thousands of Portuguese people are adhering to this sport. 
As Portuguese I can tell you Portuguese would spend more money on their bicycle to keep a good "image/status" to his friend than is car  they are becaming addicted! you can see each weekend MTB (mountain bike) events across the country and bicycle values around 3000-5000€ each. 
The important thing If you will think better in this business is where to do it or even E-business and if you or your husband have knowledge in this area. It's very important that people know they are buying from people who understands the business. 

Wish you all the best luck in Portugal!


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## locovida

Thankyou, for another good idea we can look into! all the help is appreciated.


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## jerryceltner

Hi Locovida,
I do know of a person that looks after properties including maintenance and meet and greet in the Tomar region. He lives 5 miles from Tomar. He cleans houses with his wife, does a pool cleaning service, gardening, landscaping, etc. etc.

He does our gardening and pool cleaning at a very reasonable cost. To add to this he also does a monthly trip to the UK as a white van man taking stuff over or bringing it back. 

He and his wife work as a team and do a really good job. He has been doing this for the last 4 years and is well established.

He also does a UK shop for people to get items from Tesco, Sainbury's, Asda where not in your particular circumstances at the moment are ideal from getting items that are not readily available here in Portugal. The savings you get on a shop online can even save you the cost of transportation but still be much cheaper.

I can't give you his contact info as this could be construed as an advert even though it's not so if you want to PM me then I will pass on his details.


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## Verinia

I have thought that a sort of " Rent a surrogate daughter" would go down well in Portugal to support more elderly expats who may live alone and would appreciate support with shopping , sorting out the house etc. I know it's the sort of thing most people would do for nothing as part of being a good neighbour, but I know if it was me, there are some things I would prefer to pay someone to do. Don't know what others think?


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## canoeman

Is it an income though?


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## Liesbetje

moggy666 said:


> I have a holiday/retirement property in Central Portugal, near Tomar, which i travel to every 8 weeks for 10 days holiday and one service i could not find in the area, when i purchased the house, was a Maintenance/Management company to "keep an eye" on it.


Along the lines of this post... What I would find helpful at this stage, is somebody who is not a real estate agent, so who has no interest in selling a specific house, to just go and have a look at a property. Kind of like a pre-inspection before you travel to Portugal on your house hunting trip. To see if it's worth it. So you'd have like a consultancy job, helping people that are looking for a house from abroad. Maybe you could combine with other services, as pointed out by moggy666. I'm quite sure you could make a business out of this... even if it might be more something for the future, with a better economic climate... (and making a business out of it, does of course not making a LIVING out of it...)


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## MrBife

Liesbetje said:


> Along the lines of this post... What I would find helpful at this stage, is somebody who is not a real estate agent, so who has no interest in selling a specific house, to just go and have a look at a property. Kind of like a pre-inspection before you travel to Portugal on your house hunting trip. To see if it's worth it. So you'd have like a consultancy job, helping people that are looking for a house from abroad. Maybe you could combine with other services, as pointed out by moggy666. I'm quite sure you could make a business out of this... even if it might be more something for the future, with a better economic climate... (and making a business out of it, does of course not making a LIVING out of it...)



They exist already and they are called Chartered Surveyors, to be able to offer any kind of useful info they need to do many years of training to gain their professional qualification.


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