Heading back to the USA for now...

With business plan in hand and funding in place, the Sicilian headed back to Italy two weeks ago to find a location for our Butchershop/Gastronomy/GlutenFree take away business.

I have been speaking with the Sicilian cell phone to cell phone, so communication has been difficult. Vocabulary used on his end accommodates my limited knowledge, so the "proper italian word" is not always used. When it is, I am not always able to spell it properly. When the Sicilian returns, I will correct the items I have jotted down here.

okay, so for now in the 10 days he was traveling all throughout the northern hypotenuse of the Sicilian Island Triangle, this is what has been learned about opening a business in Sicily:

• there are plenty of stores for rent, but once the raggionere takes a look at them, ALL of them are either not properly licensed, not built to code or some other snafu making it impossible to go to contract with them.
  
• 1/10 businesses fail. Explaining why there are so many stores to rent
  
• the stores for rent can come up to code, file their papers properly. This takes a bit of time. If they are motivated to do this properly, they can manage it in about 3 months.
• Never look at a location without an expert raggionere with you, expect to pay a few euro for his/her time.
• Everyone talks about how great a location or space is, but when you want to find the landlord it could take a few days. Then you can finally learn the price. Then you can finally contact the raggionere to make the appointment to see it again. This could take a few days as well.
  
• Supermarkets are growing in Sicily, putting the little guy, the traditional Sicilian butcher out of business.
  
• Celiac-Friendly stores are popping up. They do have a fairly clinical feel/medicinal feel. These stores are not doing so well. The outposts of the factories which produce the products do okay.
  
• People on the street will complain that quality meats are lacking.
  
• Customers are lining up outside a few butchershops in particular.
• Other Butcher shops are going out of business in the same town.
  

I am very lucky because the Sicilian comes from a family whose members have had their own butcher shop, hotel , fruit shop,gas station, ice delivery, farm, latticeria for as long as anyone can remember. Entrepreneurism is in their DNA . I am not opening the shop. The Sicilian is. I am curious though and what to understand what he is doing and what we are likely to do.

Websites that have been helpful:

• http://www.immigrazioneoggi.it/channels/en/archivio/017/index.html
• http://www.101professionisti.it/guide/recup/
• http://www.impresalavoro.eu/consulenza/impresa/come-aprire-una-nuova-impresa.html
• http://www.agenziaentrate.it/ilwwcm/connect/Nsi/
• and event though, the Italians cut the meat differently, I still like a diagram to refer to once in a while: http://www.cliftonm.demon.co.uk/Beef.html
• www.EXPATSINITALY.COM as always my first stop to understand with an Englishspeaking brain, the Italian ways.
  

I hope that you my dear reader, if you have resources that have been helpful to you, you will share them!

So on Monday I will go to JFK airport for what feels like the 10th time in ten weeks (not just the Sicilian-- family, friends-- it's summer afterall....).

I am thrilled to be seeing him, it's not what we expected-- we thought we would have to bite the bullet for now and work like mad to get the business set up within the next few months. It seems that all we can do right now is wait for the professionals to contact us with the prospects as they present themselves.

Since we don't need to be there to wait, we can be together again.

We missed spending my birthday together, but this return trip is just in time for us to celebrate our 2nd Wedding Anniversary.