“I figure I got enough to go to Miami… Get a car. Get a place, maybe. Maybe start a business. A bar out on the beach. Something like that.” Billy Bob Thornton, Bad Santa

[custom_script adID=149]

The romanticism of retiring at any age to a tropical location and running a bar permeates the consciousness of many a wanderer. The promise of an easy paycheck, wrapped in ocean breezes and surrounded by silver screen hardbodies, overshadows our logic confrontation of reality:

it’s probably for the best that most will never make these dreams come to life. (Otherwise what the heck would there be left to dream about?) It may be easier to start a business of any sort for that matter in Costa Rica than it is in Los Angeles, where my wife and I last lived, and it may even be cheaper, but it is not business-as-usual living here in Paradise; pitfalls are as likely if not more than living in the states, especially if Spanish is a not spoken fluently.

[custom_script adID=155]

Before I get accused of being a Negative-Nelly (Sorry Nelly) let me start by encouraging every dream chaser out there to chase his or her dreams. Dreams may be the undercurrent of nightfall’s other-worldly time, but their execution also fuels the best stories we have to retell. Think: Walt Disney.

That said, to avoid the aforementioned pitfalls, and have the best chance at success, having a good plan, the right people, and asking all the right questions are all key where the tire hits the unpaved road.

Also, lest I should be accused of being the upstart know-it-all, I will freely admit that my experience in business is only as an operator prior to living in Costa Rica. I have no degree or business certificates from any institution to pledge as my expertise on such things, only ten years running fitness facilities, and whole lot of chutzpah.

What I offer here is the path of man who dared to gamble on his learned business acumen, and a dream to find more balance with life and livelihood. I say this because the field of pros here is varied; often full of wide-eyed and inexperienced Gringos who think making it here is as easy as opening doors on a bar and waiting to count all the cash. The reality for us is that this story is yet unfolding, but I am happy to share what we have learned thus far, for better or worse.

My wife and I moved to Costa Rica before our due date, only in our late thirties, in search of that dream beach bar opportunity. We literally hoped we could find a bar in our price range, but were open to other options which was good.

As it turns out the only bars we could afford were the ones we didn’t want. In the end we found a business we could afford, located in a place we would like to live, and in a business we knew somethings about. I will break down for you our process in finding where we wanted to be, what business we wanted to run, and what lessons we have learned thus far.

Today’s business 101 lesson: Ask questions and never assume anything. Ever!

Before our most recent adventure of selling pizzas in Playa Tamarindo, the first business my wife and I started was when we first arrived in Costa Rica. We were living in Heredia, the Sister city to San Jose, and we started up a business brokering produce to various kitchens around town.

[custom_script adID=151]

Produce would be bought at the central market, to be delivered to our clients, and they would pay at bill time: monthly or otherwise. This seemed like an easy thing to get started, as we had a partner, a Costa Rican with a lifetime of experience in the field; someone we had known for years and someone we trusted.

To make things official, a partnership contract was drawn up by an attorney, us as the silent partner, and he as the general partner in charge of daily operations.

The work for us was as easy as a trip to the ATM. Since we were not residents, our job was giving our partner money and then creating and managing the books. Over the course of four months we filtered some $25,000 into the business, the lion’s share during March, our last month paying in.

Since our initial investment the last week of November 2012 to date only $1,800 of that money has ever come back to us.

“How could that happen [insert: you idiot]?” you may be asking. Well that’s you and me both! I blame nobody but myself for every single mistake. I know better and still I screwed up. The only excuse I will afford myself is that this man was someone with whom we shared a home, a man who called me brother, a man who told me he loved me.

I have talked to others who made as many mistakes or more on a handshake, a fact which comforted me as I was gently being screwed.

“Well, at least I know I can trust my partner,” I would tell myself. I really believed we couldn’t lose…

[custom_script adID=150]

As we pushed on the gas in hopes of pumping up our returns, we started to do the math on broken promises and inconsistencies, unfortunately a little too late. We came to, what at the time was an unthinkable conclusion: something wasn’t adding up. Literally, there was money missing in our books.

Our partner was not reporting his purchase costs, had no receipts to boot, despite promises he would have them. By the time I figured out there wouldn’t be any, that he hadn’t just failed to send them to us, the damage was done. If that weren’t enough, the stories and reasons why payments from our clients were delayed varied as much as all the other broken promises.

Complete trust shifted into absolute distrust and an unraveling of the past. My wife and I replayed every conversation and (to this day) wonder what really went on: We knew there were clients, but were the delivery receipts real? Did he just take the money and hide it, or over-state the amounts to pocket the difference? We had no way of knowing.

Once we realized something smelled like fish in our vegetable cart, we cut off our partner and told him to advise our clients to find a new broker, only to then find out our partner had signed lengthy contracts with two of them; contracts we never saw, still haven’t seen to this day, which only our partner had signed binding him to delivering product until the contract dates matured.

This last detail got my wife and I off the hook but didn’t get us back our $25 thousand investment. After all the inconsistencies putting more money at this point was unthinkable. With no new money coming from us our partner started liquidating our profits to keep supplying the contracts, or so I was told.

At the time I advised him I expect to see our money back in the next 60 days, which would be the end of the largest contract term. When that date passed without payment we contacted a lawyer.

[custom_script adID=153]

After consultation our lawyer advised us that we could easily win against our partner in court, but that since he owned nothing of value, not even the truck he drove daily, there was little we could do to actually collect. We have all but lost hope on ever seeing that money again.

Had I dug into the business, as I know well enough to do, and asked tough questions earlier, especially before doling out more cash, I could have lessoned or avoided much of our loss. A hard lesson learned…I never imagined that this would be the outcome.

With the grace of good fortune we have landed on our feet and are on to our new adventure: Pizza&Co pizzeria. This one we did right, albeit there are no guarantees in any business, we are off on a better foot: we hired a very good attorney who held our hand through the entire process.

We now have a cash flow business, and no partner just us, but it didn’t happen without pitfalls and a whole lot of patience. It may not be a bar on the beach but its a life and balanced one at that. [to be continued…]

[custom_script adID=97]



Written by VIP Member Damon Mitchell who spent over 10 years in the fitness industry before he moved to Costa Rica in search of a better work/life balance. Currently he lives in Playa Tamarindo in Guanacaste, where he and his wife Cristina are owner-operators of Pizza&Co pizza express, located in Plaza Conchal 2.

Daily, Damon runs on the beach or works out at Tamarindo Fitness Center, keeping fit by doing a combination of old-school weight lifting, calisthenics, TRX, stability ball work and just about anything he can do to create new and fun exercises. Most recently he is learning to surf.

You can email Damon here if there is anything specific about staying fit and healthy in Costa Rica you would like him to cover in his next article.

Living in Costa Rica: So you want to own a bar on the beach, hmm?

Article/Property ID Number 4308

[custom_script adID=186]

Are you into beautiful Costa Rica?

All interesting things you want to know about Costa Rica are right here in our newsletter! Enter your email and press "subscribe" button.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *