As you might noticed, I’ve changed “a bit” on my blog. As I am not travelling around anymore, but now actually living in Lima, Peru, this blog has to change as well. Over the next year I will be starting my business from here, and hopefully I will have a very successful business in a year.
Why start a business in Lima?
You can read more about why and how I made the decision on my About-page. But I am really excited about this, though I have a lot of work to do. I still have to figure out how to structure everything in the future, so I wont be taxed twice (as the Danish tax is 40-60% and the peruvian tax is 15-30%, it could end up being quite expensive). There is ofcourse also the problem with working visa, with should be a pain to get, but proberly is pretty easy compared to going the other way around… If you have any information or experience with these things, feel free to make a comment on the post – I really apreciate any information I can get on this subject!
What will you be writing about now?
As living in Peru makes a good base for exploring more of South America during the next year, I will try to keep writing some posts about travel experiences and travel tips. However it is no longer the main theme for the blog. Mainly I will try to post about my life in Miraflores Peru, and the process of moving to Peru and starting business in Peru. There will also be more posts about private opinions and things i find interesting. It is my goal that writing about my way of moving to Peru and starting business in Peru will help other people searching for information and thinking about starting business in Peru.
If you find this blog interesting, got any questions, feedback or just wanna make your mark, make sure you throw a comment on the blog. And if you just so happend to travel through or visit Lima, make sure to give me a call, and I’ll help you as much as I can in this wonderful city!
Saludos
Christian Jessen
Dear Christian,
I really want to know more about your new project. This is because i read that you are talking about taxes, and in my country Bolivia!!!!! you can find interesting options about it. If you want to know more or if you want to expand your business to Bolivia, in a future, let me know.
Sincerely,
Claudia
Hey Claudia.
Sounds really good, I’ll throw you a mail some point during the week.. Properly gonna go to La Paz in one or two months to renew my VISA for Peru, hope to se you and the girls again! Had an amazing time the last time in La Paz
Entonces nos vemos en La Paz!
What kind of business are you looking to start?
Hey Moya.
In generel my company is “making websites”, and creating web solutions and applications for other companies – anything from small websites for a newly started company, to big web systems for companies who have needs of a speciel website – community, specially designed CMS or whatsoever.
First of all my concept here will be focused on selling cheap and easy-to-make websites online. I’m still currently developing the system, but expect to launch the system ready for sale at May 1st.
If you keep reading on my blog, you will definitely hear more about my business, and the products I am selling.
Thank you for commenting, see you around Lima!
Christian
Christian!…if you want, you can check the websites of the law firm where i work it is: “www.rigobertoparedes.com” and there is another one “www.divorciofacil.com.bo”…..if you see new options let me know, so we can hire you…….
On the other hand, i want to let you know that i am opening a non-profit organizations and it will be really good to have a cheap website……well let me know if you are interest.
bye
Hey Claudia,
Looks awesome. I’m definitely going to expand business to Bolivia aswell, but as I’m living in Lima I’ll first of all need to figure out how to run the business from here, tax problems here etc.
But I’ll send you a mail, as I’d like to know more about selling in Bolivia. I think I will cross the border to Bolivia, to renew my VISA within the next 2 months, will be a good way of making a business-trip to La Paz – lets take a meeting there.
If it is a non-profit organization, I’d glady sponsor a free website to your organization – lets talk more about this during the week.
See you soon! Christian
I was pleasantly surprised by how much there was to see and do in Lina. The people are wonderful, friendly and happy. The city has many different sections to explore, and dollar was actually worth something, which made it even more enjoyable. It’s really attractive city !
Hey Christian!
I just found your blog and I think it’s pretty interesting because I live in Lima and I’ve been thinking about going to Denmark in a short while! I know a few people from Assens and Aarhus, that’s why. Maybe you could tell me more about how it is over there.
See ya.
Mariana.
Hi Mariana.
Thanks for the feedback, it is always nice to get some response. Cool if you go to Denmark, but expect it to be very cold. I think its getting winter back home right now, so its getting very cold. I’m just enjoying being in Lima, and watching the weather getting warmer and warmer.
Going to miss the snow at Christmas thought.
If you have more questions about Denmark, feel free to contact me or send me a mail at [email protected]. If you are still in Lima, we can always meet up for a coffee og beer.
Heey,
Yep, I’m up for a coffee or something, it’d be really cool because I’ve got so many questions about Denmark! I was thinking about exchange because the university I will go to, here in Lima, has got an agreement with Aarhus Uni, so it’d be pretty cool! And I also was thinking about doing a short trip to Denmark with my friends but I don’t know how hard it is to get the visa because most of us are 17.
It’d be nice if you could tell us! Let me know, thank you.
Hi Mariana,
Aarhus is a nice city, and Aarhus Uni should be a very nice uni – if you go there, I’m sure you will have a very nice time. I don’t know how hard it would be to get a turist visa to Denmark, but I could probably find out.
If you would like to arrange a meeting, send me an e-mail to [email protected] and we can figure something out.
Hi Christian
Interesting story you have to tell, I guess you could say we are a bit in the same boat.
I am also Danish, I moved to Croatia 5 years ago, to start Greenfield operation, reason for doing so, similar to yours, I just saw a bunch of opportunities and little competition compared to other places.
Anyway, I hope it works out well for you over there and wish you all the best of luck with your project.
Brgds, Morten
Hi Morten,
Thanks for your comment. Yes it is funny how you can be travelling around, and somehow you just “stumble across” a place where you feel like home. I still dont know for how long I will be living in Lima (or South America in general), but I am sure that this will be my home for the next couple of years.
Good luck to you too, best of luck with your business projects!
- Christian
I keep my planning horizon on a year or so, it is always hard to look further, and as long as you enjoy life and can make a living where you are, I see no reason why not to stay!
Morten
Hey,
Stumbled across this blog somehow doing searches about Lima. How is your business going? I’m thinking about making a move down to Peru as well. I know a few people there from a previous visit and have no good prospects right now so I’m thinking about trying to make a go of it too. Good luck to both of us!
Hi Christian
I just got across your blog. Nice to know you are doing fine in our country. Good luck in your business! If you are interested my daughter owns a nice one bedroom apartment in Miraflores (one block from Larcomar) which will be available for rent next month, and I am renting a beautiful 2 bedroom apartment in San Isidro ( spectacular golf and ocean view). Just let me know
[email protected]
i came to Peru,Lima in 31 dec. 2009 and i am from Estonia. In my country i have small business for 5 years – accommodate individual tourists who are coming to country without previous bookings to different kind of places like apartments,hostels,bed&breakfast,hotels without them paying any extra booking fee and also ofcoulse with best available rates which they can find in any online reservation systems.I bring that same idea here and with my peruvian partner we opened business very quickly.Now we are just waiting for getting lisence and our office is located in Miraflores near the Kennedy park and tourism information centre. I know for sure that any person who wants to start business here without knowing spanish or not having any knolidged people here will find it extreemly hard. I think i am very lucky to have such a person near me here who basicly made everything. We are about to open also company which will going to help people to open businesses here in Peru and helping them with any important information in Peru. My previous business before booking office in my country was selling and renting real estate for 16 y so i am thinking to do same thing here. And i would like to contact with you about webpages.But better by email.
Best regards,
Thanks for your comments everybody.
@Mike: Business is going well, but still starting up, so there is lots of work to do. You are welcome to give me a call or write me an email, if you come back to Lima. Best of luck with your projects.
@Luz Maria: Thank you. I just rented an apartment in Surquillo/San Borja, but thank you for your offer.
@Renate: That sounds very cool. Lets meet and have a coffee (or beer) one day soon. You can send me an email to [email protected] or give me a call at 989 330 747.
Good luck with your business!
Hi my name is José and I have a house which has 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 3 car garage, big dinning room and kitchen. This is a really big house and I am interested in start a bussines there. The thing is is not in Miraflores, it´s in La Molina, still a nice place, it´s a quite suburb, a lot of parks around, comerce, cinemas, etc … I also have a couple of new vans so anyone interested get in touch [email protected]
Just returned from Peru as I have visited Lima and Arequipa. I have been thinking of moving to Peru for a while now but havn,t make the leap yet. I like Lima a lot but I do not like the fog that blocks the sunshine.The weather is very important to me as I am an outdoor person. I welcome any recommendations for other livable with cities in Peru with a good weather and the beach would be an added bonus .
@RENATE / Jose: thanks for the notice, but this blog might not be the best place to post advertising for your house. I would recommend you to submit your listing for free on CasaPeru.pe.
@Michael: I would recommend you to look to the north. While I have not been there myself yet, they have some beaches and towns close to the sea, where it should be sunny pretty much all year long. I’d suggest you to take a visit to Mancora, Piura and cities like that in the north, to get a feeling if that is a place where you would like to stay.
Saludos, Christian
Hey Christian, I was just poking around to get more info on the move to Peru that my husband and I are considering. Your blog has been great so far in touching on some basic questions. I look forward to getting new posts!
I stumbled onto this blog by accident, and glad I did
Your choice for a place to stay was good. San Miguel would also have been a good choice. Business is good in Miraflores but touristy and rent is high compared to the other locations nearby.
Glad to see you have the tax thing worked out too, lord knows that’s a biggie for all of us! Clearly Lima or just outside of Lima is the place to start. For me the biggest obstacle has always been setting up banking and payroll… but glad to see you got it under control.
I operate in Bogota and Natal in the S.A. region. I know it’s a struggle and the language and culture takes some time… but if you are a “hippy” like me – even at heart … you will enjoy it alot!
By the way… don’t know if this relates to your business at all… but don’t forget the heap of tourists on the cruise lines coming and going out from down e and 99% of people complete miss this one
Maybe I’ll check out your business sometime – I generally hang out in Miraflores when I am in Peru. “Son de Cuba” rocks! jejejeje buena suerta
Hi and thanks for your comments.
@Kim:
I’m glad to hear you like my blog; however I don’t know how much I will be blogging about “living in Peru” in the future, as I recently moved to Santiago de Chile.
@F. Cullin:
Thank you; during my time I lived twice in Miraflores, and for about 6 months in Surquillo (the “good” part bordering with Surco/San Borja).
As you can read on the blog, I now live in Santiago de Chile – but your always welcome to write if you stop by Chile sometime. Though I still go back to Lima once in a while, since we still have our office and operations there.
Good luck with your adventures in South America.
- Christian
Christian,
I was excited to get your reply. So you moved to Santiago…hope your getting settled in. Why the switch? We were also thinking of Santiago Chile but keep coming back to the Peru option. We are coming with our two young daughters (1 & 2) to do missions. I work for a non-for-profit here in the states that has relationship with an agency working in Peru. Can you suggest any areas right outside of Lima that would be good for a family? My husband and I are professionals (him business/marketing, myself social work / program development) but want to branch out and serve and raise kids internationally. We have launched a website if you ever had a chance to give us feedback (I seen that you are in the website biz
We have a long learning curve in front of us but are loving it! The basic structure is there but we are just getting started with items (50/50). We want to sell resale and t-shirts to help raise support for our causes and personal mission expences (although will keep job and work from abroad). Anyway, sorry for all the blabbing. Thanks again for any info on suggested areas and would love to hear about causes you support or are interested in.
kim
http://www.sbeautiful.org
don’t laugh at my site
Hi Kim,
You are very welcome, it is always nice to see people commenting and getting inspired by my random ramblings on this blog.
The switch to Santiago was for several different reason, the killer for me was the rising Startup community that is forming in Santiago right now. You can read more about the switch in my post here: Adios Peru – Hola Chile!.
I cannot say what would be best for you, in your situation. At the moment it is worth watching the politics in Peru, as it can go all wrong with the upcoming election. (Both candidates are terrible, and looking at the history of both of them, it is not looking good for Peru)
I honestly can´t suggest you anything outside of Lima. As a city, I would not want to live too far from the good districts (Miraflores, San Isidro, San Borja, Surco, etc) as you get much higher crime rates. Ofcourse if your mission is to help the poor people, it might be to your advantage; however I would suggest you to be careful. A word of advise is to never trust a 100% in anyone, doesnt matter if they are poor or rich. It counts in most of the world, but especially in Peru; I have seen many things in that country, and (again, no offense) most of the Peruvians are in general dishonest. (They even say so them selves, and always advise you never to trust anyone)
I’m not going to say much about your site – but keep working on it, practice makes expert. Read around on the internet and if you are not too technical, get someone to set you up with a WordPress – it can also be used as a CMS, and you can find many awesome themes (designs) for free.
Best of luck!
- Christian