Your experience as a foreigner running a small business in Poland

Eh?
Good advice but for the negative ending .
Am no stranger to business planning.Could do with a rent a buddy who speaks polish to get set up.So I don't say yes ar the wrong point and get shafted. Well...A life without adventure is no life at all.

success is not impossible but it is much, much, much harder than in the uk and the financial rewards often fractional

but anyway, way forward for you might be lower overheads going thru an incubator, google inkubatory gdansk for more info

Thanks for that I will have a good look at what they do.I just skimmed it for now after thinking you were taking the mick.

Cheers eh?

Hi ,
Following on from this post.After many adventures and making friends at all the government offices in Wejherowo and Gdansk I have now set up, stereotypically ,as an english tutor.Didn't want to do it but there's a demand.I came with grand ideas of my own which were blown out of the water by the reality on the ground. However, that same reality has lead me to other projects I can get involved with later after learning more and more and more Polish.This is what I found.

Generally they don't speak English.Though they will drag anyone who does, out of the warehouse/reception/toilet to help.
People are helpful, sometimes a little frosty initially.
I have landed like a language bomb in government depts ,sometimes the wrong ones and still managed to come out with the right result.
If someone couldn't or didn't want to help they usually passed me on to someone they knew genuinely could.This wouldn't happen in the UK.

Get all your documents then doing anything is easy.Not pompous,not expensive.
Learn Polish as quick as you can,there are loads of jobs I could do if I could speak Polish.Day to day life can be a comedy everytime you step out of your front door.

TAKE ADVICE from local sources as well as the internet.The internet does not always correspond to the real world.Don't be afraid to dive in and thrash about.

I don't expect to get rich,wages are very low but the quality of life if you like the outdoors I thank the gods I landed in Poland everyday.I live in an area that I would never be able to afford in the UK. (my brother lives in Cumbria) .Endless biking forests,rivers and lakes,sea and sand, the city ,town,or rural life all in one area.

If you have your own business then you stand a better financial chance of being comfortable depending on what you're doing.Local knowledge says being employed is not good.Also that Poles hear that your foreign and the price goes up.Not in my experience.

Russians invaded our airspace yesterday so I wouldn't say COME TO POLAND just yet.Otherwise I can recommend it 100% if you are after fresh air and exercise but no if you're obsessed by money.

How did you get on with the REGON? When I did it that was the easy bit but others had problems.


They won't invade just yet :-)

Reg on was fine..same story very helpful even when I came back in a panic because after following internet advice I would've been paying the wrong tax. Accountant picked it up straight away and off I went.

Last time I saw a Russian helicopter overhead was just after they invaded crimea and days before donbass. Let's hope he runs out of money soon.

I (uk citizen) am moving to Poland towards the summer with my wife (polish) and our 2 children.

We run our own online company here in the UK and we have employed a polish tax advisor to suggest the best route for us. Poland is very different for paying taxes than the UK. Polish taxes are considerably higher however if you have a clever tax advisor it can be avoided legally! :-)

I can't wait to get over there now. I'm heading over in May for meetings with our advisor and bank. Exciting.

You will of course be aware of the recent decision by the government to impose financial punishments on those avoiding tax?

Key word here was legally.

It's a country where if you come prepared as someone said it's a total breeze. Come with the opposite and prepare for the opposite to be handed to you!

totally disagree - I am usually prepared and have a lot of experience here but still confront regulations and paperwork that has no sense and generates no value on a daily basis. Jurisdiction is often unclear, contradictions very common and most legislation is poorly worded and implemented without consideration of the end user.

I concur with both of the last two posts, despite them being different. It's very much a lottery concerning where you are, what you do and how lucky or unlucky you are.

This is why you get 10% yield in poland as opposed to half at best or more likely low singles in the developed west. Cos za cos as they say. So if you are not getting close to 10% a year return walk away as you would be taking on higher risk for the same lower return as a lower risk region in Europe. Risk must go hand in hand with reward, thats the yardstick everyone uses because it works in the long run.

Are thou refereing to the Baltic incident with the US warship? If so, this took place on international waters if I'm not mistaken...


But not healthy - especially in the south of the country, cities like Kraków are some of the worst in EU...