Gites & campsites - working out "income"?

[Boudicca]

After 13 years in England we plan to return to France. I say return because my husband is French and we lived there for 11 years before coming to the UK.

Now you may wonder why I have come to an ex-pat forum for help. We are both fully bilingual and have “done it before”. The thing is we haven’t. Back in those days – a whole other lifetime ago – my husband was in the French army. He had, all be it low, a regular salary and all the social security “stuff” etc was taken care of. We’ve been in the UK for 13 years where he has worked in various businesses working himself up to a comfortable position of senior manager – but we have never run our own business.

Now, at the risk of sounding naïve, we (like thousands of others) have the dream of leaving the “rat race” and returning to France for a more independent life. We have been lucky with property and even in the present climate anticipate having a very decent lump sum to buy a property/gite business without mortgage, or our ideal would be a small campsite as we are both from caravanning families.

Our difficulty is working out the viability of this project. If we bought a campsite we could only afford something very much of the lower end small rural site with room for expansion, maybe with a gite or two. We are under no illusion about sitting around with a glass of rosé all day and just collecting the money. We want to work, develop and improve to make this the best little campsite within our means.

What we can’t work out is whether the revenue from such a project would be sufficient to live on or whether it would only be suitable as a second income.

It’s a bit like asking someone you have never met before what their salary is. Of course if we are buying a business then we are entitled to see the books and the turnover etc but how does this compare to a salary? For example one opportunity mentions a turnover of 70k Euros but obviously that’s before all the running costs. How do I work out what sort of standard of living this would give us? Another person I spoke to said he made an “income” of 10k from a small campsite, but that they called that “pocket money” as nearly all of their living costs (heating, water, electric, 1 car and even some food) was able to be put through as business costs.

If I was applying for a job with a salary of 20k, 30k, 40k or 50k I’d know exactly what standard of living this would correspond to, but in this situation I’m totally lost. Don’t get me wrong – I know the whole thing is about a change of lifestyle. We are prepared to work and get our hands dirty. I’m not bothered about driving a “posh” car, but I do want to be able to afford to get it repaired if it breaks down. I’m not bothered about designer labels but I do want to be able to afford to jump on the next (budget) flight to the UK if either of my kids (young adults) needs me.

Without being rude and asking your income is there anyone out there who runs a small gite or campsite business that can tell me whether this is sufficient to live on and if not what percentage of your income does it represent. Also would you consider that you are just getting by or you are living relatively comfortably? Whilst we’re at it, can anyone tell me, how long is a piece of string? :o)

Alternatively can anyone direct me to articles or links with example accounts for this type of business?

I do appreciate that, for me, moving from employment with salary to self employment is likely to be the biggest culture change of all!

Best wishes to all,

Lisa

[P-D de Rouffignac]

Dear Lisa - You would surely get an idea of the income and expenditure situation of any campsitte you were considering buying, as with any going concern you will need to look at the figures for the last three to five years as part of the deal. And then work out if you can survive or live well or modestly on the income after expenses. One caution I would offer is to ignore any stories of the 'what you see is only the income officially declared, of course it's much more' type. You can only trust the audited figures, and any plans, bank loans or cash projections can only be based on those.

I live on the Mediterranean where campsites flourish, some of them 4-star and accomodating 5000 people. But this is not everyone's choice and if you can offer something a bit special, combined with an interest - cookery, crafts, painting - you can find niche markets which simplify your advertising.

Bon courage, P-D de R.