Poland Business Help - I'm interested in investing in this country

Dear all,
I moved to Poland recently and I have some money (around 20000 PLN) which I'm interested in investing it in this country, my spouse is Polish and I believe that should make any kind of business easier with the paperwork. I'm really kinda lost and I don't know from where I should start. I would appreciate your quick responses. Thanks in advance.

It is to little for the first instalment for a flat. You may buy a van and become cargo taxi.
Not many possibilities with that amount of money.

Thanks for your response, could you tell me a little more about the cargo taxi procedures? and would it make a big difference if my budget is 40000 PLN or I'd still be far to be close to something way better with the profits?

That's not enough for anything serious, unless you want to buy a guitar and become a street entertainer.

You may start działalność transport and thats all. Nothing solid.


with 40000 you may buy a flat, try to take mortgage and rent it. No money but you have property at all.

With 40,000 zł, you can start your own business. dont listen to some lazy people in this forum,by Internet (olx.pl, sprzedajemy.pl....)Find ready shops or workshop like hand car wash for sale. or start something like pomoc drogowa or even shop of second hand clothes ... etc. There are many other ideas

Good luck

Realistic and reasonable people more likely and if I'm lazy why is my bank account dwarfing yours?

You better buy gold shares.

Now business in Poland is very complicated.
First, you have to pay "ZUS" taxes - over 1000 PLN monthly. So if your business needs 2 years of evolving all your money vanish on taxes.

Investing in second hand shops is out- there are too many of them. In Krakow, they have for years sold things by weight. This business was good 20 years ago, not now. I have never seen a hand car wash business - chances are Poles would rather do the car themselves than pay for it.

Before you invest in any business, you have to consider the nature of the Poles and what services they are likely to pay for. There are still untapped niches in the market. The best way is to ASK Poles on any street in Poland what businesses they feel that are missing. Do your research first.

40K pln - would not even last a year. You have to rent premises, staff and deal with bureaucracy.

Best way - buy a flat in a GOOD location and rent it out. You cannot lose if you have property - this is 'your pension'. Business is always risky.

There's one where I live. It's right next to a used car sales place and a Statoil, so ideally situated, but every time I pass, the guys are just standing around. There are several DIY carwashes in town where you can powerwash your car for 6 or 7 PLN.

As for second hand shops, they are closing more often than opening up. There will always be a market for them, but Poles have more money nowadays.

I always thought a salad bar next to or in a university would be a good idea. Young people are eating more healthily, especially girls, and they don't want schabowy and mashed potato anymore.

Thoughts come to my mind:
1. Childminding services. Opening up a child nursery and being available 24/7. Childminding services in people's homes.
2. Shopping services for the elderly. They give you a list, you go shopping for them. Cooking for the elderly - you come into their house and cook a meal.

3. Having a mobile van (Mobi) and offering/delivering household items to the very busy or elderly/housebound.
4. Fresh sandwiches delivered to places of work. I have seen those in American films. Someone comes with a basket full of fresh sandwiches.
5. Window cleaning services - inside and outside of houses.
6. Centres for meetings where relaxation classes or exercise classes can be held.
7. Dog walking services for anyone who has limited time.

I think that the future of any business must either be connected with the very young or the elderly. The number of elderly people are increasing, so offering services to them would also be on the increase.

In bad winters I'd happily pay someone to shovel snow. Someone with a small sit-on snowplough would make a killing. In summer ice-cream places make plenty of money. Maybe seasonal is the way to go.


The personal trainer thing is definitely a goer, especially in the cities. I've recently taken up Zen meditation. I needed a hobby, and it's better than sitting around doing nothing.

@Roger5
You can't wash a car with 6-7 zł, that's a quick wash to remove dirt and mud, car needs to be sponged, waxed....beside inside cleaning like vacuuming, Windows, dashboard and plastic.... Rims cleaning,upholstery wash, engine wash, polishing headlight..... And many other things like having a machine of air-conditioning filling.... The list is too long. I saw in Internet

many time ready business for sale with a price even less than 40000.

Thanks, Ali. I had no idea how to wash a car.

@Wulkan
That doesn't sound like a help, but thanks for participating anyways :)

thanks for all helping and suggesting guys.

@elektrotomala
that what I was thinking about actually, buying silver assets specifically. My money is too short for GOLD shares.

@Yahia
To invest in gold shares on stock you don't need more than 100 PLN. Of course profit will be low.

I don't recommend advanced stock trading, just buying gold stocks.

I invested small amount (much less than 20 000) on silver and gold shares (factor 3 - means rise or fall of price 3 times more than normal gold price).

Now I'm waiting...

Waiting to lose your money because that is nuts - sounds like binary options. You would be as well off going to the casino and sticking it on black

Don't say that, the op has already said that he doesn't like to hear the harsh truth, it triggers his anxiety or something.

I invest on the stock market for about 4 years and I see that I don't know nothing. It's my fear of truth... Internet experts who never buy any share are much wiser.

I hope you are sarcastic. Take a look at Sasha Evdakov or ClayTrader on Youtube. They do good introduction to the stock trading, very helpful for beginners.

@OP if you are looking to find a job with your money then you can franchise Zabka/Fresh market/Carrfour express with that money but only if you good at managing inventory theft.You can make approx 5k pln to 15k pln a month only if the franchisee is a citizen or a permanent resident.

Again the main catch is how good you are in managing your employee theft that leads to thousands in that business in months or if you are working by your very close related help.

With 20000 PLN? Are you kidding? That wouldn't even come close to covering his living expenses until the store starts turning a profit.

Most of those franchises charge you for inventory and train you with 20k pln inventory you can easily get into Zabka and with 30k into fresh market.Why dont you call then and verify yourself?

Forgot to add usually the store starts turning profits in about 3 to 6 months BTW

20000 won't even cover basic living expenses for six months, leaving less than zero with which to purchase the franchise or inventory, much less pay rent on the location and pay employees.

And a retail grocery outlet turning a profit in only three to six months is a pipe dream. Most never turn a profit at all, ever.

Re Zabka, you really need to run 3 or 4 locations to make it work as the monthly payments to you are pretty much fixed, while you can run up some large costs if you aren't on the ball. Still I do know of people that have made a success of it but they worked very long hours (20h days) to begin with. Far better to rent them a shop in a bigger city where you can get 7-9% yield maybe 10%, but of course bigger money than the OP talking about.

Stock trading isn't for most people as they won't have enough time to invest to do the job properly. They may think they do and then come the problems. Most people such pick a portfolio of blue chip shares and reassess them once a quarter or half year, or buy a tracker on market dips. Approach with a 10 year plus time horizon and reinvest divs.

As for car washing, yes there are plenty of them and in poorer cities people will do it themselves. But bigger cities where there and more cars and cash, you won't find a woman in high heels or a bloke in a suit using a a handheld car wash too often. They will pay someone to do it to avoid getting dirty. But the better money comes from migrating such clients to paint protection and correction services along with valeting. People will pay upwards of 300zl for a full works, sometimes as high as a grand or more for a top end car and detailing job. Not everyone can do perfect detailing, but I find you can train most people to clean properly, do minor corrections and wax properly.