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Lots of ideas for jobs - any comments


Dormouse
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We're off to France (Dept 42) shortly (hurrah!) with loads of ideas for stuff to earn a living. I'd be interested in people's comments on suggested ideas - whether you've tried it and succeeded/otherwise.

I am a newly certified (!) TEFL teacher, with 18 years experience teaching primary. I have a contact in the Roanne Chambre de Commerce for possible teaching jobs. ADVICE REQUEST 1 - should I phone him before getting to France (date as yet unknown, but in the next couple of months) or wait until we arrive.

I am hoping that I might also be able to try to set up a night school type class in the town, or offer services to the Universite de la troisieme Age, (who are apparently v. keen to learn English). Also I wondered about approaching the 4 schools in the town (2 private, 2 public) to see if they were interested in After School type clubs. ADVICE REQUEST 2/3 - has anyone done anything like this? Do I need to approach the Mairie re taxes etc?

There is a market outside our front door every Thursday. I wondered about a small stall selling "English style" cakes - Victoria sponges, loaf cakes, banana bread etc. I am sure the Mairie needs approaching on this front for a market licence or something. ADVICE REQUEST 4/5/6 - are there the same stringent regulations re selling home made stuff? You see little old ladies selling home made jam from a table: is this legal? Do kitchens have to be checked out by H&S? Has anyone done similar? Did it work? 

I dabble in calligraphy & card making. Although there isn't the manic card buying culture in France that there is in England, I am guessing weddings/anniversaries might be the time that hand made cards would be bought. I also wondered whether quotable quotes/Lords Prayers etc might be a possibility - but there aren't the plethora of Craft Fairs that there are in England so I'm not sure how to get this started. ADVICE REQUEST 7 - Do you think this might work?

Mr Dormouse is being employed by his company on a three day a week basis until March next year. He'll be commuting till then (three cheers for St Etienne airport). After that, he's thinking computers. Our friendly contact in the town has had several people approach him asking if they could use his internet access to download a form or whatever. He suggests Mr D might investigate a mobile internet cafe type thing, turning up in various towns at various cafes to hook up so people could come & use. Also possibly offering services to schools, again as an After School Club perhaps. ADVICE REQUEST 8/9 I've heard differing reports of the computer savviness of the general populace of France, from totally techno-phobe to everyone has their own computer. In the mainly agricultural area that we'll be living in would anyone care to guess the general IT outlook in the area? And in general what thoughts on the plan?

Your opinions, supportive or otherwise, would be appreciated. Sorry it's such a long post.

Dormouse

                                                                  

 

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Congratualtions, glad you've made it! Can't give definite answers to your postings but most of them lead to the mayor, it's a very good idea to pop in to see him/her just to introduce yourself (actually it's essential) and put your questions. He will give advice and you will begin to be part of the community. We save up questions for our mayor and pop in every so often (I don't know what others do), he seems to be very happy to give advice and it keeps us in his good books.

Regarding the cakes, I can't imagine the French will go a bundle on English cakes, but that's just my opinion. Anyway there are quite strict rules on markets stalls.

Internet cafes are springing up here and there but the market is most definitely not filled so that could be a good money-maker, however, the French are still not very Internet literate.

Good luck in all your ventures

Sue
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Sorry to put a bit of a downer on your enthusiasm but I think you will need to concentrate on researching the ins and outs of setting up as self employed or a business in France as self employment here is an absolute nightmare!! There are ways and means of earning a tiny income (less than 4000 euros?) with out having to pay the huge cotisations (social security/health charges) which small businesses/self employment incur but I don't know who you see. We are registered with the Chambre de Commerce as we provide a service but artisans register with the Chambre de Metiers and writers/artists/designers register with.....er, sorry, haven't a clue!

Do a search on this site, I know TEFL and selling at markets were covered fairly recently.

Good luck, and welcome to France!!
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A brit friend of ours found English teaching work. It started as a few hours and built up over a period of time. It took less than a year for him to find it but his French is pretty good. I'd stick to that idea. Apart from France being a self enterprise free zone it's my experience that the french don't have such a thing as disposable income. Nothing here is disposable. You have some great ideas which will work in the UK but not sure they will be as succesfull here. You could use your skills to produce things you can barter, with the neighbours. Cakes for chickens etc... Our neighbours loved my missuses chocky butter cream sponge. Forget computers it's just not happening here. Our wealthy French neighbours have the same PC as us (The cheapest we could find) for internet mainly but our friends are not interested in getting it connected. The kids play games on it and thats about it! I sell a few bits I've bought from the UK on Ebay but the customer base here is tiny compared to the UK.

This is not meant to get you down. We have no qualifications and very little money but we are hanging in and getting by. If you don't set your sights too high and are fairly resilient I'm sure you'll do fine.

Good luck and enjoy.

 

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