Understanding Spain

I've been doing an amount of research on Spain over the past few weeks to try and understand the current economic situation and the impact the global recession has had on the country. It's been mildly grim reading in terms of unemployment with Spain currently having a 18.5% unemployment rate. What is more disturbing is that this figure is set to rise to 20% in 2010. That equates to a 5th of the able bodied population out of work. It's also currently the highest in the Eurozone.

Then I started looking into commercial property. There seems to be a lot of vacant property around at the moment, renting volumes have decreased and there are estates which are virtually empty. Barcelona and Madrid are being shunned for better rates and Malaga, Valencia and Bilbao all seem like better viable options.

Spain has still some pain to bear. The banks although stable have had to consume toxic debt, much like many other countries but their overall conservative outlook has provided some relief.

So as I'm running through all of this I am thinking that maybe Spain is the place to solidify the network. With the market in a small free fall the time could be right to capitalise provided business levels are there.

I'll keep you posted on how I get on, at the moment its a very interesting and valuable exercise which will allow me to fully understand Spain and all its workings.

My latest addtion

Learning a Lesson in Madrid

Sometimes there are benefits to having partners across the world. Especially when the sitting at the desk is interrupted by a trip to see the partners out in Spain. I am always amazed at the respnse when a customer sees the facilities for the first time. I am sure that most are expecting a glorified shed wedged between a Mcdonalds and a Starbucks which just has room for 1 person to sit and no faciities. Also the understanding of price is so important, its not until they have visited that the realisation kicks in.

Madrid in particular is an expensive European City. If the price of a few beers doesn't get you wincing then a trip to one of the many restaurants will. Cab fares are extremlely costly with a 15 min trip often costing just short of 30 EUR. With the EUR vc GBP rates as they are currently it's a little easier to understand why the pricing differs from the UK.

It was a great trip, so much was acheived and I'm proud to be able to take my customers out to these guys as it proves the whole worth of the network. Also if it helps to further the understanding of how a country works or operates then it can only be a good thing.
42 Degrees it was on Tuesday - - - so hot my eyes were sweating!

Be Careful if your calling from the UK....

Recently I've been working on the rates we currently offer across Europe for our customers in order to refine our costing and approach when working out in the Eurozone. Pulling together the amount of information needed for this has been no easy task and I'm still some way off getting to a conclusion. so far I have stats on wages going back to 2005 and he cost of living as well as the mean cost in each region. Now I'm trying to link this up with Agency rates so I can eventually identify the true cost and true margin added by each of the partners we are using. Strangely the exercise started in Germany after I had some costings back which were out of this world. I could have sent a team of guys over from the UK, put them up in the Hilton and given them a hefty expenses allowance and it still would have been cheaper than my German pricing?? - Why is this you may wonder, well its become apparent that if your calling from the UK there is still that feeling that you are a cash cow, and as THEY understand THEIR country better than anyone they ask you to trust that the rates charged are fair. well they bloody ain't! - Through this exercise (and at some stage I will share my findings) we have already identified 300EUR a day overcharges on a typical IT field engineer - the average salary over there for this type of guy is still expensive roughly 45,000 EUR per year but If I took the day rate offered this would have worked out to 186,000 EUR for the same guy - so my advice on this is to check and double check the pricing given. If you ever have any questions or you think something isn't right I'll happily try to provide you with an accurate indication of where the pricing should be. Don't accept the first price, the evidence of cashcowitis is getting clearer by the day!