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Hello Everyone. My name is Gary and I live in the Central California Valley. I am a Finish Carpenter Sub contractor in very large homes south of San Francisco for 28 years.
I plan on moving to Northern Baja with in two years and make Donuts.Yes, DONUTS. I have a kind of a large fishing boat there as well and will be offering a Dive boat for Scuba Diving and offer fishing trips.
So far I have read the "Gun permit" info and I know all about what it takes to marry a Mexican National. I spent all the money and did everything I was supposed to do but she took the money and left i will just say that much. It sure has not stopped me from moving down there and keeping my faith/ trusting people. I have traveled a great deal year ago and I have always came home and have always wanted to move to Baja.I would say that I am here mostly for Info , to read and gain knowlege from the people that have gone before me. " The Old Guys" Ha Ha Ha.
PS The boat is located in San Quintin if you are ever interested.

Wow, interesting!
Sometimes you just gotta change the tactics to get to the objective....

airgar, you DO know that to have a business, work in Mexico or earn money in Mexico that you are legally required to have an FM3 or FM2 lucrativo to be legal....don't you? Not a good idea to take $$/work away from the locals, especially in the construction or fishing industries!

You might want to read the following before you get too gung ho with the idea of taking work away from the local population:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthre...6351#pid671631

This has been a sensitive topic for a long time & locals are finally bringing it to the boiling point & demanding legal resolutions. So if your retirement plans would be dependent on making money locally, you might want to consider adjusting your plans accordingly.

From what I have seen, it isn't that difficult to set up a business legally in Mexico, foreign investment seems welcome. Orders of magnitude less onerous than in California, regardless of citizenship. My only issue with what airgar is planning is his location. Only decent donut I have had in the last 6 years was a smuggled Krispy Kreme.

Let's keep our eye on the ball, folks. If this cat can make a great , cumulus nimbus of a donut, the only problem he's gonna have is making sure he chooses a market big enough that won't put a hole in his ambitions.....
My advice, airgar, is to rethink SQ... they are close enough to the border to get a sweet fix when desperate. Y'all come on down to BCS!!!!!!!! We need great donuts!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by dusty

From what I have seen, it isn't that difficult to set up a business legally in Mexico, foreign investment seems welcome. Orders of magnitude less onerous than in California, regardless of citizenship. My only issue with what airgar is planning is his location. Only decent donut I have had in the last 6 years was a smuggled Krispy Kreme.

Let's keep our eye on the ball, folks. If this cat can make a great , cumulus nimbus of a donut, the only problem he's gonna have is making sure he chooses a market big enough that won't put a hole in his ambitions.....
My advice, airgar, is to rethink SQ... they are close enough to the border to get a sweet fix when desperate. Y'all come on down to BCS!!!!!!!! We need great donuts!!!!!!!!!!

Judging from most of the bellies retired gringos carry around, I wonder how much we NEED great donuts.

Poor choice of words, I guess. "Want" works. Where I live there are enough "gringos" for a statistically valid sample and it takes little effort to observe the obesity/bellly fat index for the total group is below the numbers being published for people in the US. Maybe as much as 4 or 5 deviations.

Furthermore, we do have at least one decent bakery (by my admittedly fussy standards), and a "gringo" who makes wonderful bread. Neither of these carbohydrate purveyors seem to have a delitrious effect and are well patronized.

I'd conjecture that cerveza is possibly more a culprit, were I not frightened of the consequences of such heresy.

Bread and Beer my achiles heel for sure... don't think I've ever met a "bread" I didn't like.. or "Beer" ... just saying ... 240 and holding ... barely

OMG .. that's right today is December .. Christmas... or what ever... that means "cholate" and a few other things coming this way ... all MONTH LONG !!

And by the way ...

Welcome aboard Gary! Met the wife in SQ. How about those California Hot Dogs? A must have for every trip through town. When they are open.

WOW!!! What a diverse comeback by so many. COOL.
I had a Contracting company in the San Francisco bay area for over 22 years of my 28 years in the trade. I employed 35 High End carpenters, two secreterys, A HUGE over head . My payroll weekly was around $64,000.00 a WEEK. YES, A WEEK.Most of the men made $35 to $42.00 a hour. I payed there insurance too. In reality in the real world of construction almost no one pays the employees medical Insurance anymore. I was only a small hand full of companys that did.I still beleive that you have got to take care of the people that make the company money in the first place.Every Christmas I gave at least $500.00 bonus as a gift and the top people and my GM I gave around $5,000.00 as a yearly bonus. I gave a huge amount back. No one gives that much on Bonuses then on what I did.Not even close.
SO... Take jobs away. I plan on employing three people just to start my donut shop. It will be open 24/7. It will have 3 or 4 people per shift. Lets see. That is 3 x3 .That should come out to 9. Yep. Thats 9 people that I will employ full time. Thats the Donut shop.
The boat I will employ two peole there. And at least one part time person.
So Lets see. Yes... Thats 12 people employed by ME. I most likely pay them way off the grid on what they normally would make locally.
Thank you for taking the time out to give me information on the locals jobs FM3's and all of that info. Thank You.
I did not run a very succesful company for 22 years by being a moran. I did my home work. I have LOCAL Attourney as well for your info. OH YA!!!! I will be flying in peole from all over the world, mainly western states to Scuba Dive off of my boat. They will stay in Jardines Hotel and eat locally as well.I plan on pushing them to in town and spend money at the local stores.
So, Lets see. I will be employing 12 local people and bringing in a few money spending tourists to the local shope every month in the fishing season.
Let's see, Now how many people do you employ ?

Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

airgar, you DO know that to have a business, work in Mexico or earn money in Mexico that you are legally required to have an FM3 or FM2 lucrativo to be legal....don't you? Not a good idea to take $$/work away from the locals, especially in the construction or fishing industries!

You might want to read the following before you get too gung ho with the idea of taking work away from the local population:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthre...6351#pid671631

This has been a sensitive topic for a long time & locals are finally bringing it to the boiling point & demanding legal resolutions. So if your retirement plans would be dependent on making money locally, you might want to consider adjusting your plans accordingly.

After getting through my emails and reading through this Intro I put out there to you locals down there now I will have to disagree with you on taking work away from the locals. I plan on hiring a total of 12 employees just to start.
But what kind of rubs me the wrong way. The bleeding hearts here think its ok to hire illegals from Mexico to do what I do in Construction and drive the money down. That is OK by you? I plan on being legal and if you dont like it because I am taking work from the locals. Buddy as soon as i get there. I am legalIts called open competion. Go help some local school kids with the basics of life if you feel like helping out.Dont put onto me what the Mexican worker has been doing to me for over 28 years in construction in California. Like I said I will be employing 12 fulltime workers and be pushing the tourists into town to spend money there.NOW, If you or who ever dont like that, well thats tough then isnt it. No Donuts for you.!!!

I may be naive, but I didn't take longlegz advise to you as hostile. I thought she was just trying to be helpful. California & Mexico can be two vastly different places when it comes to bussiness, no? Good fortune in your endeavors amigo.

As long as you do things the right way you get no argument from me...

I think that the main point LongLegz was making is to:

A: be legal in whatever venue you will be operating (same as we would expect where we live NOB)

B. Unless you're legal, don't make your SOB budget dependent on the income from your unpermitted enterprise, because it could be taken away from you in a blink.

I've offered similar advice to people planning on making their home mortgage payment with the proceeds from an unpermitted rental unit. One visit from the land use folks, and you loose your home.

It sounds like you plan on going by the book, and hiring locals to work for you. Sounds like you'll be a welcome addition to the community you choose to settle in, so, good luck in your new business!

WOW!!! I was hoping that the bleeding hearts would have stopped at the border but I was wrong. If starting a businees in Baja and working at least 9 local men or woman for a great wage and wanting to take care of them is wrong to you. WELL, Thats just to bad isn't it. I have spent alot of money in the last three years on this. I am in complete legal statis is all that you need to be concerned with. It is wrong for anyone to go to Baja and stay long term or work Illegaly. PERIOD. You can dance around it all you want but its wrong. AND, It's wrong for Illegals to work here in the US and to give them a drivers license. To have babys here for free, All of that crap.
I am not going to loose sleep over people crying over that I took someones job away. it's called What comes around goes around. Attitude you might say. Hell yes. I have paid Millions yes Alot of Millions of Dollars in Taxes over the many years that I was in business.I did thinges for the US Army in Nicaragua and Columbia in the Name of Freedom. Man you dont want me president thats for sure. There is so much wrong being done in the US for many years now with no end in sight. Its all politics too. I'm done with this country that I killed for. Now I try to give then take. I need to make a living myself in baja. Why is that wrong when the local Goverment gave me half off to get everything legal and tell me that they welcome me to Baja California. It sounds to me that you have a problem with Americans going to Baja and working. Well, Like i said, No Donuts for you

13 people making donuts!

aaaaahhhhhhhhh

airgar, in case you missed the "Working Illegally in Mexico" thread which got broken off from this thread "Out of consideration for our new member, moved to it's own thread", I've cut 'n pasted the pertinent portion of a subsequent message I made to your original thread....my second post going into a little more detail, got moved to the new thread, thus separating the two posts.

Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

IMO, INM is far too lenient in the work authorizations that they do grant to foreigners. How INM can justify that "skills not found in country" could possibly extend to construction, boating & fishing jobs, real estate & even pool cleaning skills, to name a few....is ludicrous! That those skills cannot be found in country is totally beyond how my brain functions. It's one thing if these endeavors are creating jobs for the local population, it's totally different when gringos hire other gringos to do the work & those other gringos are granted FM3 or FM2 lucrativos as well!

Many, but by no means all, foreign residents & tourists are in the country legally, but there are strings attached to their presence either way. The bottom line is that we're all guests in a foreign country. I guess everyone can make their own personal decision of whether they choose to be on their best guest behavior or run the risk of being asked to leave & not be invited back.

I personally choose to be a good guest. But then I chose to obey the laws in my birth country as well....well, maybe except for that pesky one about speed limits occasionally!

Because of the way airgar publicly posted his intentions, I assumed he wasn't aware that there are currently laws, rules & regulations in place governing what he intends to do, so he now knows he can either apply for a waiver on those specific activities (and be prepared to form a corporation, register with Hacienda & hire an accountant to prepare & submit his taxes on a monthly basis << only the tip of the iceberg)....or choose to accept the very real possibility of having his boat confiscated & himself being made persona non grata in the country.

Besides, I took offense at his lumping us all under "The Old Guys"" umbrella!

I'm a longtime advocate that the #1 rule for everyone heading SOB is to leave their USA expectations, standards & experiences at the border. Comparing the USA & Mexico is like comparing apples & oranges....two totally different cultures. There is no viable comparison to how things are done, what the laws are, how or if they're enforced....we definitely ain't in Kansas anymore.

I'm sorry that you apparently read my initial response as a personal attack; thank you Doc Rey & Islander for understanding the points I was making.

Originally Posted by airgar

Let's see, Now how many people do you employ ?

airgar, I'm retired, so I don't employ people in the business sense that you're referring to, but having lived here full-time for 12 years, virtually 100% of my expenditures do support the local economy. I figure between my total living expenses, medical, dental & what I've spent in land, notario fees, permits, labor, materials, Environmental Impact Studies, Seguro Social, taxes & fees (having built 3 homes here), I've personally pumped in excess of $750K into the local economy.

Truce?

It's wonderful to hear that you plan on creating jobs for the SQ community!

I only have 1 question....BajaGringo, does SQ have the population to support a 24-hour operated donut shop? What time do you guys roll the sidewalks up there for the night?

Dusty, SQ is a helluva long way to go for a donut run!!

Originally Posted by longlegsinlapaz

airgar, in case you missed the "Working Illegally in Mexico" thread which got broken off from this thread "Out of consideration for our new member, moved to it's own thread", I've cut 'n pasted the pertinent portion of a subsequent message I made to your original thread....my second post going into a little more detail, got moved to the new thread, thus separating the two posts.



I'm a longtime advocate that the #1 rule for everyone heading SOB is to leave their USA expectations, standards & experiences at the border. Comparing the USA & Mexico is like comparing apples & oranges....two totally different cultures. There is no viable comparison to how things are done, what the laws are, how or if they're enforced....we definitely ain't in Kansas anymore.

I'm sorry that you apparently read my initial response as a personal attack; thank you Doc Rey & Islander for understanding the points I was making.



airgar, I'm retired, so I don't employ people in the business sense that you're referring to, but having lived here full-time for 12 years, virtually 100% of my expenditures do support the local economy. I figure between my total living expenses, medical, dental & what I've spent in land, notario fees, permits, labor, materials, Environmental Impact Studies, Seguro Social, taxes & fees (having built 3 homes here), I've personally pumped in excess of $750K into the local economy.

Truce?

It's wonderful to hear that you plan on creating jobs for the SQ community!

I only have 1 question....BajaGringo, does SQ have the population to support a 24-hour operated donut shop? What time do you guys roll the sidewalks up there for the night?

Dusty, SQ is a helluva long way to go for a donut run!!

Spot on Legs.. "we're all guests in a foreign country."

and good donuts and/or fresh bread is hard to find.. early in the morning ... always liked that part in the movie "As good as it gets"...

plus improved legal understanding of the locals on contract law.. just one of many I would venture...

Originally Posted by wessongroup

Spot on Legs.. "we're all guests in a foreign country."

Really??? I was taught that guests are invited. When did that happen here?