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Author: Subject: A Friend Wants to Buy a Pizza Parlor in Cabo
wilderone
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[*] posted on 9-14-2010 at 08:42 AM


Of course we would all wish him good luck. And there are risks in every business, but this situation would call for careful calculation, analysis, study and some experience in the field of endeavor would certainly help. Does he speak Spanish? He would need to hire some employees, deal with municipal entities, etc. He must speak with many business owners in Cabo and see what is happening now. Why now, with tourism down? Why Cabo, when, as a poster pointed out, many of the Big Money hotels also have interests in restaurants. He'll need lots of advertising, as do many, many tourist oriented establishments. He might do better driving an ice cream truck, opening a laundramat, setting up some fish taco stands on the beach, selling bakery goods out of a truck, tamales out of a truck. Those LB folks have a grocery delivery service now. He should have a nice truck with fruit, vegetables, bakery items and drive through LB - all those Canadians with no cars and expensive taxi service - give them what they need. And isn't that really what succeeds - providing something that is needed? Cabo don't need pizza.
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gnukid
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[*] posted on 9-14-2010 at 09:15 AM


For foreigners running a business, one requires a local business license and valid RFC from a notaria which can run just about about any cost, generally about $1000+ to setup, if any errors are made stating the exact activity to be done there (and there will be misstated activities), you would need to amend the association which can run about $400. The Foreign owned association must be registered with the office of economic investment, if they decide the business infringes on native businesses or they make up some rule they can require further amendments, the costs to register with the office may vary, each year the RFC must check in with the office of economic investment once within a specific window of time based on the name of the business if you miss that date for any reason you will be fined about $100.

Each business must be registered with the hacienda, this requires an appointment which must be made weeks in advance, you must have all documents proper to be registered to get your cedula or current registration. Then you must file monthly for taxes through an official accountant who charge flat fees of about $50-200/month plus taxes which may run about 15-30% of income. Each employee must be paid and have paid social services etc... generally this allows the employee to quit at anytime after an initial period and demand a payout of their benefits and bonus.

The owner would generally be the administer unico of the RFC, of course this presents a chicken before the egg scenario since one must have a legal business to sponsor a legal visa, which one comes before the other no-one knows, ones needs an RFC to sponsor a foreigner for work. Let's say you get through that $$$, then you would require a visa annually for the owner and all foreign employees and their spouses under the RFC, these visa lucrativos run about $200/yr minimum plus the hassle. They must be reregistered annually in person on a specific date with 3 weeks lead time, if you miss that window you be fined and/or lose everything. Each foreigner is generally limited to one activity, so they try to say if you are the owner you can't actually make pizza or run the cash register or do anything except be owner, though you might ignore that for awhile.

Once you have a business you would be expected to contribute to police, garbage and other service workers who will stop by to ask for their annual tip. This can be aggressive, this last week police were arrested in La Paz for threatening and arresting people during the tipping process, they demanded $3000/yr twice!

All of these things are difficult to understand especially if you do not speak spanish and worse if you speak it well. Once you are known and are successful then you will be targeted for more payouts for crazy made up stories that are too impossible to comprehend, you can ignore many demands but it isn't fun and makes no sense to a foreigner who wasn't raised there. Worse if you do not have family and friends en masse then its hard to protect yourself since you have no one to pull the strings. Of course it this wouldn't happen to a local therefore no one will understand or be able to help you.

Generally the more successful or the better pizza you make the more likely you will be targeted for idiotic demands and criminal threats since you are clearly displacing locals who are currently desperate and hungry for pizza.

You can see that being a foreign owner in Cabo is not for the faint at heart, you might be targeted, you might receive fines and might have legal issues regardless of how clean and upstanding you are, generally the more upstanding you are the worse it will be.

The best suggestion would be take the money you would invest and go directly to mexico city and get your citizenship first and spend a few months learning spanish and donating money to the political party in power.

Let's say you do succeed and have a business running, soon someone in power might want that location and be jealous, some tactics that might be used are to send you a electricity bill for $10,000 and have it keep doubling. Soon the power might be cut off and although its crazy and you attempt reasonable negotiation the people in power might have you out on the street in a short time.

Perhaps this is why the pizza in cabo generally isn't very good?

This is all hypothetical, there are great pizza restaurants in Baja run by foreigners.





[Edited on 9-14-2010 by gnukid]
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mtgoat666
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[*] posted on 9-14-2010 at 10:34 AM


Quote:
Originally posted by gnukid
Generally the more successful or the better pizza you make the more likely you will be targeted for idiotic demands and criminal threats.


perhaps that is why the worst pizzas make for the best franchise businesses. if you sell crappy Dominos pizza, the mafia will leave you alone
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Heather
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[*] posted on 9-14-2010 at 11:14 AM


Pazzo's Pizza in Cabo was a really neat hang-out...great art work on the walls, surf videos from all the TV's, Ladies Night (free drinks till 11pm), and great pizza. I always wondered what happened to the place...looked like it was a winner!

We get our pizza at Baja Cantina on the marina when we're in Cabo these days...
Although when we took my blind father-in-law from La Paz there for pizza, he was wondering what the "pedazo de cuero (leather)" was that we'd fed him!!! (OK, maybe the crust was a little chewy!)
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Bajahowodd
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[*] posted on 9-14-2010 at 02:31 PM


And...for those who've been around Cabo for a while, recall that Pizza Hut failed there.
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805gregg
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[*] posted on 9-15-2010 at 07:34 PM


If he can deal drugs too, he will do allright, time to face the facts.
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DianaT
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[*] posted on 9-15-2010 at 07:43 PM


I agree a lot with dtbushpilot---

Just what I would suggest to them

People have a dream, do your homework, look at what could be the worst possiblilty, and then ignore everyone and go for it.

There will always be those who say it won't work, and they may be correct, but they may be wrong.

If we had listened to the naysayers, we would have never spent two of the best years of our lives in Honduras and Guatemala.

JMHO




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