Hi all, maybe some of you can help me out. Ill tell you my story, have been working and living in Switz for over 2 years (admin work), however my partner (who is Swiss) would like to spread his wings and move out of Switz (for a while anyway) Since i am from Ireland, we thought, lets give Ireland a try. I decided that perhaps i could set up a small business giving exercise classes (am in the process of training) since there is not much happening in Ireland with jobs at the moment. My partner is thinking....event organising (he has a small record label here)......sooooo....i have come to Ireland to check out things (specifically Galway city) and to be honest...i am **** scared with what i have seen since ive come home....Ireland has really gone into a depression, recession has hit her so badly, and it is sad to see so many small shops ive known all my life closed down. Coupled with the rain, i am having second thoughts! I am anxious now, as my partner thinks i will return to Switz next week, with ideas on rental spaces for my classes and so on...and in fact i am considering whther it would actually be better to set up in Zurich instead altogether!!!
Can anybody offer me any advice. Would we be crazy to come to Ireland during this difficult time to set up something, or would i do better staying in Switzerland (bearing in mind neither my french or german is terribly good, therefore i would really rely on english clients)
help me guys...im lost!!!!
cheers
caro

................Hi all,
So heres the latest..... some of you know my situation. I am currently weighing up the pros and cons of starting my new (small) business here in Switzerland, or in my home country (Ireland) It seems like staying here in Switz is a better option. My business is....conducting group and private exercise classes in a technique called callanetics.(which is amazing...honest!!!) Callanetics is a way of toning your entire body using tiny movements, and works amazingly fast. If anybody out there is interested, would you mind taking this short survey to give me some idea of the market in Switz

Thankyou all for your help!!!
Cheers
Caroline

Heres the link...appreciate it guys
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB229XH8JHA4V

I wouldn't change things right now...if both of you are employed. Esp not to set up in Ireland!!

I had two non-Irish friends move back to Switzerland becuase life was too expensive, and that was with both employed and before the crash.


You could think about taking some time off (6 months?) and travelling. This would satisfy your partners itchy feet for a while and give you a chance to explore possible places to live later, if the economy picks up.

Now is not the time. Ireland is not the place.

Hi Caroline, think you're better off staying where you are for the moment. I was home there last week and you're right, things are pretty bad. Maybe wait for 12 months and look to go back then.

hi all, im beginning to feel this way...not sure how i am gonna break it to my fella when i return next weekend.....

I'm from Ireland too, and have been living here for almost 1yr now. And I have to say that "it will be a long time before I will return". Really stay where you are and keep your full-time job, maybe a career break like "gypsyspears" suggested. but forget Ireland for now, and Def!!! Galway!! Also I would have advised your Swiss partner to live a few weeks in Ireland and experienced it himself that life style, culture difference and lack of Infrastructure. It is not easy to work in Ireland, never mind setup a business!! (Believe me I tried, I didn't fail, just got sick biz there) All the hype around the boom and celtic tiger is just fallen away. Ireland lived well above it's means for too long and even during the boom I wanted out!!
However If you want to dig further into this, post a thread on this forum
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=475
Would be interesting to see the comments from the Galway local's them selves

btw.. Setup in Zurich?, Bite the bullet, learn the Language and you'll open up so many more doors

I am from Ireland as well, I haven't been back there for years, other than for a quick visit here and there. Although, every time I go back I do notice that it seems to be getting worse in terms of financial opportunities, as you said, it is really easily visible!
I am also learning German now and it may be difficult but my problem is I have been in a military type environment for the majority of my working life, the skills acquired over those years are really not helping me much in civilian life.
My partner is Swiss and I love her with all my heart but there remains the possiblity that I may loss her because I do not have a list of civilian qualifications that will help me here in Zuerich/Switzerland.
Regardless of how much of an attribute I know I would be to any organisation and how confident I am that I would be very good at whatever I put my mind to, that does not help me find work here.

What I am trying to say is you guys are very lucky to have both jobs here in Switzerland. I would give anything to be in that situation now, it would lift such a heavy load off my shoulders and I could sleep at night and not feel sick during the day. I think you should be very careful not to take that for granted.
Switzerland is a beautiful place and I travel a lot, it really does not seem to be hitting here as much as other places.

I hope you make the right decision for both of you. Good luck and hope everything works out as you would wish.

Russell

I've just had a friend over from Ireland who lived and worked here for many years. She said exactly the same thing about Ireland and wishes she was back here.

Even after she found a job it's badly paid and she's struggling to keep up with the cost of living. Her husband is still out of work after a year!

As you can probably guess I am Irish too. I went home for a couple of weeks last year and decided I could never live there full time again.

All I hear from my family at home is about the recession and this and that going down the tubes. I'm sure its bad over there, but I think that the Irish attitude of moaning and begrudging is certainly not doing us any favours at the moment.

My background is sports and fitness too, and I personally wouldn't be going home to do any type of personal training business at the moment.


But that's just me. Seeing how run down the place had become when I was home last year took a lot of the wind out of Irelands sails for me. Its hard to beat the quality of life that can be had here.

I would totally agree.
Southern Ireland is in a terrible mess and 2010 will be worse.
I am hearing that Ireland will be bankrupt next year and is actually in a worse mess than Iceland.

I am also very curious about going home to Carlow in a few weeks. Most of my family are still based there and hanging on somehow. What is different is that the normal feelers that go out to emigrants to tempt 'em to return just aren't there.

How much does your partner like a gamble?

All Swiss understand figures....show him outlay and risk of no inlay for some time.....you might then spot a shift. If it ain't sustainable it ain't a goer.

Maybe later, or somewhere else not so badly affected, unless you're in one of the boom sectors.

he just doesnt like the swissness of switzerland!!! are there any cities a little more laid back in switz than lausanne / geneva?

Probably not. Zurich is at least for my taste far worse, but that could simply be because I understand the locals here (while being clueless when listening to French).

While I am not Irish, I have similar discussions with my wife and to be honest: Even when you not only consider one country, but have a look at the entire globe: Switzerland was comparatively very little affected by the recession. Wherever you look, you hear "now is not the right time"... but for Ireland this might be even more the case individually and especially as you are looking to get a business started... and event management does not really boom either in a recession...

Hi Caroline,

I've been back in Ireland for one week having spent about two months in Luzern learning German.

As many others have said, it is not only the financial situation but the attitudes that are being reported in the media, the general atmosphere and what is being seen as gross incompetence by the government that is causing such a negative outlook.

Considering you both have work and are surviving where you are perhaps now is just not the right time for a move. It does depend on which you 'value' more. A much lower standard of living in Ireland (with some awful social structures) but with greater opportunity for socialisation and less rigid strutures or what you have in Switzerland.

I miss Luzern- the people, the beauty, the cleanliness and my friends from my course. Hopefully I will someday find work in Switzerland once I have my German at a level better than it is now.

May you both be happy and content, whatever your decision.

Music industry and teaching exercise clasees....mmm well luckily they both are not 9-5 office jobs, so why not put the feelers out and do 50/50 or 80/20 of your time initially moving between Switzerland and Ireland?.

Why not go over to Ireland 3 days a week and keep your base here (if you have somewhere to temporarily stay perhaps family or something over there), that way you can get a feel whether you would like to return or not.

A friend of mine wishes to do physiotherapy in the UK and is still working in Geneva, what she does is book up with Easyjet in advance a whole bunch of tickets of the days she knows she will travel and some tickets have ended up being only 50sfr return!!. She is seeing how she feels and how it will work out and has set a deadline by next June 2010 to see if she will go back for good and make a definite decision.

She has been here 12 years so not easy but she found this was the best way. It seems like a lot of travelling but she has got used to it and with the prices in the UK said that in some ways it is cheaper than staying here all the time!!.

We are all different though and it may not be your thing.

If you are flexible enough with your careers try it out. The only other problem is the tax but surely it would only be a short term solution until you decide

Good luck.

Loads of jobs in the Buttercrane - move back and work there!

I can see where he is coming from. He wants a dynamic place not this quality of life stuff. Where to go ? NYC is the answer...

Hi Caroline,
I was in the same dilemma as you a few months ago, about setting up my own business at home and in a similiar industry too, I spent a month torturing myself about giving up life here. Even though there are things I really miss from home, the social culture, the warmth of people...the situation there right now is not the healthiest and unless your husband could get a great job offering you enough money and security to set up your own business without too much pressure...then my advice would be to stay put!


However, if you can go to Ireland with that securtity and be willing to give it a go...by all means!

Thats just my tuppence worth! Oh and...listen to your instinct, Ireland isnt going anywhere so take your time in the decision making : )

thankyou so much everyone for your kind messages....will keep you all posted!!!

Hi everyone!
I just stumbled on this board and am so happy to have found it. At the moment I am in dublin (i'm irish) but we are moving to lugano in july with our 2 kids to set up home there. My husband is swiss from zurich originally.
I run a small business in ireland, from home, which i set up 3 years ago and am in the middle of the mess of figuring out how to keep it going and move it to Switzerland.
check it out www.BibsAndKids.ie
Basically I sell kids aprons and bibs mostly to schools and creches here in Ireland, and I also sell a little online to parents. I am just a sole trader. (its me and me alone!)
Can anyone offer advice on import/ exporting of goods etc? I am just a small fish and all the info I seem to be finding pertains to big coroporations! Is there something similar to the Dublin City Enterprise board here?
I really dont want to give up the business now that its just starting to take off, but most of my customers are in ireland and i just dont know about the sense of importing good wholesale from the EU (my manufactures are in ireland, uk and italy) and then posting them back (and I can imagine postal costs are high) back to dublin (EU) but sending them through switzerland first and paying duty?
Does anyone run a similar type of online business who can advise me on this?
thanks
Miriam

Probably Ticino is the one of the most laid back areas of Switzerland so it would have to be Lugano, Locarno or Bellinzona (I would say in that order).