Going Home…

We recently left Aruba to take a quick trip to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  The trip was actually dual purpose – first of all, shopping!  Secondly, this way our DIMAS permits will now be dated upon our return from this trip instead of our arrival in Aruba nearly eight months ago.  So when our residency consultant told us it would be a good idea to leave and come back, we enthusiastically agreed!  Even better, we scored JetBlue flights for $156 round trip – woo hoo!

After living in Aruba for nearly eight months, I was more than willing to go to Walmart, Target, a mall, and also eat at our favorite American restaurants.  It was a super easy flight to Fort Lauderdale and the first place we drove to was Chili’s.  This was our go-to restaurant in Arizona.  It did not disappoint – the chips and queso and the fajitas were super yummy!

After checking into the hotel, we headed straight to Walmart.  I seriously felt like some kind of an addict as I practically ran through the aisles grabbing two of everything that cost so much more to purchase in Aruba!  It was “necessities” like hair products, deodrant, and contact solution.  Our cart was quickly filling up!  We ended up spending nearly TWO HOURS in Walmart that evening.  Whew.  It was crazy seeing just how much food there was – the milk aisle alone is bigger than the entire refrigerator case at Ling & Sons!  And a gallon of milk was CHEAP!  There was SO.MUCH.SODA!  And there was REDBOX movies!!!!

The next day we did another marathon shopping day of Target, Old Navy, a regular mall, and an outlet mall.  We had lunch at the mall – Panda Express!  Panda was seriously so good AND when we flew out of Aruba, there is a “Coming Soon” sign at the airport that a Panda Express will be opening there.  Could this possibly mean more locations on the island?  Any inside information would be much appreciated:)  I would really prefer not to have to purchase a plane ticket in order to get my Kung Pao chicken!

The third day in Florida, we did a little road trip to visit the boat dealer where we will be purchasing our Ribcraft vessel for our business, Full Throttle Tours Aruba.  It was a great meeting with the sales guy and the finance guy in person who we previously only talked to on the phone or by e-mail.  There was one Ribcraft on display, smaller than what we need, but still able to see the quality in person and just make us even more goal-driven to get that boat to Aruba!

On the way back to the hotel from the boat dealer, we were able to visit our all-time favorite restaurant, Sonny’s BBQ.  Before Chili’s became our go-to restaurant in Arizona, Sonny’s is where we ate at least once a week when we lived in Atlanta.  Anytime we have the chance to be even remotely close to Sonny’s, we go.  Once when we flew to Miami to go on a cruise, we took a VERY expensive cab ride just to eat at Sonny’s.  Another time, we rented a car for a few hours JUST to go to Sonny’s.  Do you understand how much we love this place?  Yep, it’s our number one.

By the end of this day, we were so tired of shopping, we couldn’t even bear to walk into another store.  We were also tired of sitting at all of the red lights, sitting in the traffic of freeways, and just the whole ambiance of the good ole USA.  The things we thought we missed, turned out to be not so great after all.  Things like unlimited refills on drinks or  driving really fast on a freeway.

We did what we needed to do and now it was time to get back to island life.  Crazy as it can be sometimes, this trip was proof that Aruba is where I want to be.  Thankful to be able to go back to America (or should I say Walmart and Sonny’s) if we need to, but even more thankful to live in this wonderful place we now call home.

 

 

 

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

This is what it feels like some days!  I haven’t talked a lot about the process we’re going through to start up our business, but I feel like it’s time to share some of our experience.  I see a lot of questions come up on different social media asking about owning a business in Aruba, or even working here.  Is it easy?  No!  Is it doable?  Yes!  What do you need?  PATIENCE!  Also, a ton of money would be very helpful – ha!

Before taking the plunge and moving to Aruba, we did A LOT of research about what would be required to get our business off the ground.  However, until you’re actually living it, you have no idea what is actually required, how long it takes, etc.  One thing about Aruba is that the laws are constantly changing, not a lot is actually written down, and if you ask two people the same question, you will receive two totally different answers.  See where the patience comes in?  There are days where we feel like this is never going to happen, but then we just take a step back (stare at the blue water and have a little rum) and realize just how far we’ve come.

One thing you must have to start a business here is a managing director who is Aruban.  We are blessed to have met a friend who has agreed to take on this role for us and we are not sure she will ever realize just how grateful we are for her.  This partnership is not something to be taken lightly, there is definitely a legal side to it, and you must be sure you trust each other completely and dot all your I’s and cross all your T’s.  In other words, just don’t walk up to someone in a bar who you know lives in Aruba and offer them to be your business partner!  Be smart in your choices!  If you don’t have an individual to be your partner, there are also trust companies who will act as your managing director, for a “small fee” of course.  It’s actually quite pricey!

Step one of 4,378 is to incorporate your business and this is done with the assistance of a notary.  A notary in Aruba is somewhat similar to an attorney, yet they don’t practice law.  The very first step of the notary process is having your business name approved by the High Commissioner.  This process actually went pretty quick for us, considering, and our official name is ZIsland Excursions, but our trade name is Full Throttle Tours Aruba.  Being officially Full Throttle Tours Aruba was rejected by the High Commissioner because when they did their research, there is a Full Throttle Saloon somewhere in the U.S. and any name that is established anywhere in the entire world, will be rejected!  In other words, GET CREATIVE!

Once you have a name, then you go through the process of being incorporated.  Depending on the type of business you want to have is what kind of corporation you choose.  We are a “VBA” (Vennootschap met beperkteeee aanspraklijkheid – seriously who can’t appreciate the Dutch language!)) which is similar to a Limited Liability Corporation in the U.S.  This was actually also quite smooth for us.  Our first meeting with the notary was at the beginning of August and we incorporated at the beginning of November.

After you are incorporated, then you need to register with the Chamber of Commerce, which is another few weeks, but pretty easy for that.  When your registration is complete with the Chamber of Commerce, the next step is applying for your business license.  This is done through the Department of Economic Affairs, requires copies of all kinds of paperwork, 400 Florin, and a pretty simple interview about your business.  As I forgot to mention previously, each step requires you to pay a fee, or two, to someone.  Of course!  This is actually the step we are at now and were told it should take 6-8 weeks to complete.  We are in week four at this moment, still patiently waiting for that e-mail to come pick up the license!

After the business license, there will be other licenses to obtain that are specific to your type of business.  For example, if you are a restaurant, you would need all of the food licensing.  For us, we will need a water sports license.  Again, more meetings, more paperwork, more fees.

Other accomplishments we have made have been our logo design – thank you Spitball Studios!  We are having our website developed at this moment – TON of work, had no idea what all is involved, but we want to make sure it is done right.  We have had a lot of “family meetings” to discuss all of the photos and the wording.  It’s a pretty bonding experience!

The biggest hurdle to date has been financing.  Before we left the U.S., we were told we would have no issues getting a loan for the boat because we have great credit, blah, blah, blah.  Well, now that we are actually here, the story has changed and all of the banks in the U.S. freak out when they realize the boat will be located in Aruba, and the Aruba banks won’t finance us because we have no history here (understandable).  So if anyone has a source that would give a loan to a couple with excellent credit, a solid business plan, and a commitment to a successful new company, that would be amazing!  We are working on “Plan E” at this point.  We will not give up, we will make this happen, and we are so very excited about what is in store once that boat is in the water!

I know this wasn’t the most “colorful” blog post, but I sincerely hope it is helpful to someone else who may be considering jumping into this wonderful world of business establishment in Aruba. When reading this, it makes it sound pretty easy.  Believe me, it’s really not.  There are a million phone calls involved in each of these steps, visits to a billion different offices to get different forms of paperwork from both Aruba and the U.S.  It will exhaust you.

Again, we totally know it will be worth it in the end.  This process has been a learning experience.  We have laughed, we have cried, we have been frustrated, we have rejoiced, and we know we are doing the right thing.  Full Throttle Tours Aruba – COMING SOON!