willitisthen

Easy guys... I know that thank you but i only posted this a few hours ago and I am running a business at the same time :)

Well i had to buy the property and build the hostel, but legally speaking you have to obtain a hotel license, a liquor license, a work permit and then residency status, deal with the 3 taxes there are here, register for social security payments for my staff. i had to incorporate 2 businesses ( the hostel and the bar & restaurant ). that was all that was required to be able to operate legally, but each of those items requires about 10 documents you have to produce and pay for and go to meetings for and wait in line for. As with every business there is a huge amount of boring work that goes on behind the romantic voile of having a guest house on the Caribbean just to keep this show on the road. Ignorant people think I am raking it in and living the dream, it takes 10K a month just to pay the bills in high season and i work like a dog. We are open from 6 am till midnight everyday, and I have not closed ever, not for 1 day ever since I opened the doors.

Hello Sorry. My internet was down (3rd world problems). Answers coming now.

Prior to moving to Belize I was a building contractor. I worked mainly in the UK and France doing mostly residential conversions and barn and farm house conversions. Well the process of starting the hostel was finding a suitable place and not waste your money travelling the world trying to find that dream spot. a place with all the boring factors nicely lined up. Good property market, secure investment, low competition, a backpackers trail etc etc... and then make sure it has all the fun things that travelers need to do on the road, snorkel, dive ,trek, swim, sail and all that. For the investment part.. well as mentioned above... Oh Sod it... OK i have invested in the region of 170000.00 USD so far :) I speak French, English and Spanish, my staff speak English and some Spanish and Creole and Garifuna of course. I have 5 full time staff in high season + us 2 Business is great thank you :) it was really tough getting started, really tough... broke, no guests, the whole village totally dead, bills I could not pay, power got cut off, people banging on my door for money etc etc... But now I am on the map so to speak, things are great. It is still a new business and I have reinvested everything I have made back in to the property so i dont have any money in the bank to speak of but over 6000 individual guests have slept in my beds :) Advice for someone starting up... I will ahve to make a post about that. i could write a book

He he he... I have been hearing bits and pieces about him, but I must say I don't own a TV and i don't really follow what is going on in the world. I think McAfee is getting much more media coverage in the US than here.