Work

If you move here without an immediate source of income, there is work but it may not fall into your lap on the first day you arrive or start to look for work. So much of the work that might be available can still come from networking or from people you know.

Setting up a business takes time and once more the work may not arrive on the day you open the doors of your new business. Potential clients need to know that the business exists. If you take a job working for someone else you need to be careful and ensure that you have a contract of employment or you need to accept that you might have a job today and none tomorrow. If you set up your own business you need to be prepared for the fact that social security payments on a self-employment basis are a lot higher than you might expect. If you can afford to look after yourself and your family without recourse to any potential need for benefits or Spanish state healthcare you do not really have a problem but if you do, be careful.

If your business involves a lot of travelling to parts of Europe other than the UK you also need to take note. Travel from Malaga to the rest of Europe can be very expensive and it is the clients who will indirectly have to pay for your travel. This could make the difference between being able to offer a very good service at a daily rate based on the lower cost of living here compared to the very large charges you would have to make for attendance at meetings in any other country apart from the UK. On one occasion one of my clients was faced with the possibility of having to pay more for my travel to a meeting than I would actually charge for my time. Needless to say we held the meeting through electronic means.