Calling all business people , successful or failed or just plodding along.
What is biggest mistake someone could make if setting up business on the island? Also what would be your best tip to someone setting up.

Again , this is for me but I am not setting anything up yet.

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Holiday Rental Apartment in Royal Palm

Tip - surround yourself with great advisors - and be slow to decide on who is best to be on that team.

I am in the process of closing down a business and realise how it could have been better served - the original Gestor was looking for 100 euros per document to be filled in the closing process, whereas I have just employed a much more qualified person who I have great confidence in, and am only being charged 40 euros per doc.

Poor (or no) research when developing a business plan.

or maybe

Kidding yourself. Not being brutally honest when reading business data.

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I have no business experience in Tenerife but have plenty in the UK- the same basic principles apply

Ensure your advisors are great in other peoples opinions not just their own. Do checks, get feedback from previous clients etc

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Lack of complete research into all the regular costs involved.

Putting all the eggs in the same basket ie not taking into account quiet periods.

Lack of realistic turnover expectations.

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www.dapaservices.com Holiday and Private Cleaning. Apartment management

Did anyone mention, Location, Location, Location

i don't know if they publish bankrupts in the local papers in tenerife but they do here (unfortunately, his nibs now has to read them every friday)

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apartment to rent Los Cristianos http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/ren...istianos/55589

As with Signman's post, I have no real experience of business in Tenerife but one of the major contributors to businesses failing in the UK is unrealistic costs. Be that either in wages or in many cases I see, cars and other trappings of apparent success.

How many people have I come across who have a great first 6 - 12 months and who then go out and get flash motors, spend unrealistic amounts on 'corporate' days out etc and who then live to regret it.

Many years ago there was a documentary about how the VAT man was forcing many UK businesses out of business. They featured a plumber who had to lay off 10 staff because the VAT man closed him down when his outstanding VAT became a major problem.

They interviewed him outside his ex-house, it had 6 bedrooms, set in its own grounds with stables and a swimming pool, I couldn't help but think that had his house only had 4 bedrooms, he could still (possibly) have been employing his 10 staff and paid his VAT bill.

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That doesn't apply to ALL business, some operate out of a small office with reps on the street. Not all business in Tenerife are to do with tourists, in fact you have more chance of survival if they are not.

The biggest mistake many people make when coming to Tenerife to set up business is that they let their Heart rule their Head....and usually they leave their brain at the airport and listen to their new found friends

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Viagra, the quicker pecker upper