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Setting UpWhen you buy land, we will need to create for you a corporate vehicle to handle the purchase to comply with local law. You could use the same entity to conduct business as setting up a company is much more expensive in Bulgaria than it is in the UK (approximately £500-700 when done through a local law firm or £300 if you did it yourself). But this course of action may be inadvisable - you will expose your property to liability to any of your other business' creditors. The alternatives are to establish a separate entity to trade or to do business as a sole trader - the registration requirements and sunk cost fees are much lower then. Registering a company or another corporate form or setting out as a sole trader is more
cumbersome than in the UK, but compares to the process in Germany. It requires a number of approvals
- notably by the local courts - and (unusually) a
higher registration cost in fees than in the UK, for example. We can advise on the details.
Once your business is registered (and has obtained a separate unique "legal person"'s ID), you will be able to trade. You will (in most cases) not be liable for registration for VAT and so will not need to calculate it in the prices of your services or goods. There will be other considerations about regulation, licensing, zoning and tax which we will be happy to advise you on in detail when you get in touch with us. The real dealBut what about the practicalities? How viable is it for you to set up in Bulgaria? Can that be an enjoyable and profitable experience for anyone, and especially a foreigner? The short and simple answer is "yes", and that can be an unqualified "yes", provided that you consider carefully your options. As with setting up anywhere, you will need a well-thought through business plan and a dose of grit in order to succeed. These will not be necessarily oodles more in Bulgaria than they will be in any other place. You may want to focus on an activity which is orientated towards a community of people from your own country. Bulgaria's potential and desire to encourage tourism as a sector of the economy and to become increasingly open can only help you in this. You may wish to establish a hotel or other accommodation, a tour company or otherwise cater for visitors. This way you deal mostly with people who you know what to expect from and you offer something they are more familiar with. Sharon McGonigle has done just such a thing. Her business is a chalet in Borovets, Bulgaria's prime skiing resort. Skiing in Bulgaria is increasingly popular, with a growth in the number of overseas skiers of 25 % year-on-year in the 2004 season. She sells bookings to the chalet through a well-designed presentation website: www.chaletborovets.com. She has taken care in designing and appointing the purpose-built chalet which is unassuming but very comfortable and stylish. As a result of her investment, bookings are filling up well and there will be a growing interest in her activity this year and next. Other competitive advantages that foreigners may have in Bulgaria are connected with the methods of doing business and the technologies that they may be able to bring in. This will make them superior competitors to Bulgarian businesses of a similar nature or may simply allow them to open up markets that have been latent prior to such businesses' arrival. Most of the time, such ventures are helped by the low cost base that Bulgaria offers. A typical case is farming: Bulgaria's climate and soils offer good natural conditions for a variety of crops, the cost of farming land is very low; farming hands and equipment maintenance are much cheaper than elsewhere. As a result, like in other countries of Eastern and Central Europe, farming businesses from the West have set up shop. For more information on the specifics of buying farmland, see our farming pages. You will be interested to know what the obstacles may be. The level of red tape is doubtlessly higher, although it may in fact compare well to that in Italy and Spain. We are able to offer you post-purchase services and advice in this regard as well. Contact us for more information or with specific questions about ideas that you may have and we will try to explain to you the degree of difficulty that may be involved.Top © 2003 New Balkans Ltd.
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Setting up your own business in Bulgaria
