BUSINESS OPPURTUNITY - MOROCCO

[wootzy]

My name is Luke, i am 21 years old and am from Newquay in Cornwall. I have a propasition for who ever is interested who is both an avid surfer and who is business orientated. I'm going to start from the beginning so its going to be quite long so please bare with me.

I arrived home a week ago after 4 months of being in Morocco. I only planned to goto a town in the north called Chefchauen for a week or so for a short holiday but... you know how it is. I was staying in the same hostel and the same Room as i was the last time i was there. On the floor above i met some "surfer Moroccans" who were on holiday there. They were really cool guys and i ended up hangain' with them in chauen. It was great & because they're Moroccan and spoke Arabic everything was so much cheaper. Even the room i got for 25 dyhram per night.

So these guys told me about this amazing place, that we'd never heard about called Immeswan Which is located between Agadir and Essouraira. They described it as being a fishing village that is an excellent place to surf with a number of different breaks for all levels of surfers and the waves are consistant. I mean, Its very rare that there is an unsurfable day. It's also poulated with Berber Moroccans. The berbers have a different mentality to the Arabs and they are really laid back people. To me that sounded like paradise so i thought, fleshin' going home i gonna go check out this place.

Youness (One of the moroccans i befriended) said that he would take me there but he has to go to his home in Rabat where he has to buy clothes to sell in Marrakech. Although i only knew this guy for about 2 weeks. I trusted him and felt comfortable enough to go with him. We stayed there for about 2 weeks. His house was great and he cooked me 3 meals a day (full on Tagines, cous-cous, and loads of other moroccan cuisines). He took me to these clothes markets which totally shocked me. In Morocco they import tagged, branded clothes from Europe for really cheap. These clothes are all new and Genuine. The reason they are so cheap is because they are seconds. Which means they have minor defects but to be honest you can't really tell the difference. This is all relative to what i'm have to ask.

After 2 weeks we caught a coach to Immeswan. This place was exactly as they described & more! It defineatly had a wow factor to it. We stayed with one of Youness's friends (Naja) in his apartment. I was living here with these guys for 3 months, surfing everyday, playing music and smoking the local glory at night. I became good friends with alot of the local people and was livng the life of pure luxury! Tourists are just beginning to descover this place. Youness told me that in the past year there has been more tourists there than ever before. We met so many of them and had loadsa cool party's. The tourists generally stay in the Camping as there are no hotels or hostels here. There also isn't any surf shops to buy clothes surf equipment etc. and only 1 place that rents boards but its very expensive, There are no showers that the surfers can use after they have been in the sea.There is also a limited number of cafes people can chill out in, drink tea and eat etc. The caffs that are there all closed by sunset. One of these cafe's Naja's uncle owns. It is on the main street and the terraced where people sit has perfect views of the beach and the surf. This building also has a shop at the front and it has the potential to have 3 rooms made. The shower and toilet isn't in the greatest conditions but it would be easy to restore. Its a Huge place!

Naja's uncle is getting quite old and he wishes to rent it out for 2000 dhyram a month. How could i possibly refuse an oppurtunity like this? So me Naja and Youness discussed the possibilitys to take this place on, redecorate (materials and labour in Morocco is peanuts), open a surf shop, cafe and a shower that people could pay for to us to use. We all sat down and spoke to his uncle and he agreed to let us take it on for as long as we want. We will make a contract for 5 years saying that the rent will never go up and we can basically do what we like to this place.

So, i booked a flight home so i can arrange the finances with my Bank. While i have been back i have been approved for a £4000 loan. I will have to come home every 3 months to Re-order stock such as leashes, fins, wax etc which is all quite expensive in Morocco. I have also bought a bundle of Surf stickers, keyrings, wallets, surf DVD's, wax, leashes, fins etc to take with me. Along with my 5 wetsuits and 2 surfboards that can be used to hire. I have booked a flight back for April 30th where i will be met by Youness to help me with the luggage (I keep in contact with them over the Internet).

This is defineatly going to work because there is such a high demand for a place like this. It is also a beautiful part of Morocco with really great people. I now have the Finances to do this and there is no turning back for me. However. I am not the most intellagent person in the world and have no experiance as far as business is concerned. I am basically taking it each day at a time and hoping that i can pull it off.

So if anyone here who reads this (prefferabbly Brittish) who would be willing to drop everything and join me in a partnership for this venture and live for the forseeable future surfing everyday please contact me on wootzy@hotmail.com. I must stress that the successful applicant must have business experiance, be confident and outgoing and loves to surf!

I will be happy to answer any questions so please don't hesitate to email me.

Luke

[Dec]

Ok..my bad people

[PapaW]

I dunno about that Dec.....

[wootzy]

Its 100% genuine i assure you. My only intention is to find someone who can help me make this work. I have been handed this oppurtunity and to me it would be a dream to do this.

[Dec]

..

[PapaW]

Yep its all ligit.

[Hooked Cabarete]

Hi Luke,

Just want to wish you a lot of luck and I hope you can find a partner. I'm sure if you want it, it will work out great. We did something like this a year ago when we moved to Cabarete in the Dominican Republic to start our apartments Hooked Cabarete. It is not easy, but definitely worth it. Go for it!

cheers,
Chantal

[wootzy]

Thanks Hooked Cabarete. I really appreciate the vote of confidense. It is what i really really want to happen. But at the end of the day. If worse came to worse and things didn't work out. I'd just have to count my losses, come back and pay off my debt. No biggie. However, if i don't take this oppurtunity i'd never forgive myself.

[wootzy]

Well guys,

Thankyou for your overwhelming response to join me in Morocco. HAHA! I fly this evening from Gatwick to Marrakech where my friend will meet me before heading direct to imessouane.

The offer still stands if anybody would like to come and join us in this project. Or even if you would like a surfing holiday don't hesitate to contact me on wootzy@hotmail.com. Flights/transfers, accomodation, surf lessons, board hire and many more activities will be arranged.

I will update when i next goto a cyber cafe. Wish me luck

Luke

[PapaW]

Have a wicked time dude!

[libby]

Good luck,

so much respect for you, hope it all works out, and hey even if it bombs you will have tried your best and will have some wicked stories to tell. Jealous.

[CheeZee]

DAMN DAMN AND DAMN ...business dude of seven years here ...hello " !!!!! and bored as with this lil'company i started and have been looking for something like this to get into ..man .. drop me a pm' when you get to a cyber cafe as things are changing this year ..im selling my lil'business and going into snowboarding chalet franchises with my best buddy whos been in the sporting holiday business for 5years+ but thats not really my thing ...

what can i say ...shame i missed this fleshing thread

Best of luck and stay in touch

.. CheeZer

[iain_mcw]

Wootzy, are you the guy I met at the surf shop in May, you'd pretty much just stepped off the plane. I was staying at Kahina with a french girl. Anyway, just want to say all the best with your plan, I'm planning something in Morocco too, so I'll be back to imessouane soon enough.
Cheers
Iain

[intenso]

Come on iain you cant tease us like that how was Morroco?

I plan to spend a few weeks there in january 07 any tips for accomodation?

[iain_mcw]

Morocco was sweet, had boilers at head and a half with three others out for a couple of days, a mental wavesail in sidi kaouki and then a couple of ultra mellow days at immesouane surfing small but perfectly formed waves, place has oodles of potential though. There's some photos of boilers here http://crustytiree.com/chat/messages.php?Id=637

Apart from the surf, the country is full of culture and character, compared to britain everyone wants to talk, sometimes to sell you some tat but often just for shits and giggles. My main impression was of a hardworking country, it's not a rich place and in the markets of marakech you can feel hassled but they're friendly and polite and there's not a lot of begging that I saw compared with other nations at a similar development and wealth level.

Accomodation, we stayed at hostel atlantique in tagazhout, Hasan willl sort you with a nice apartment if you ask them but we stayed in the hostel, cheap 'n' cheerful. Imeousane, we were at Kahina, great place overlooking the surf. It's the kind of place you should let yourself in their hands and good things will happen. Go, enjoy, surf.

[Adrenaline Fueled]

Sounds like a cool place Iain, seems like I have another place to add to my 'To-Surf' list

And good luck Wootzy! Living the dream dude! Keep us updated as to how it goes. Hehe, I did a business course once, but I didn't like the idea of 'working' 24/7 which seemed to be neccessary to be successful in business... but any business that involves surfing can't be that bad Really hope it works out for you!

[intenso]

Sounds great

What kind of prices are the hostels and the apartments?

[wootzy]

Hi iain_mcw

Yea that was me mate. Naja owns the "surf shop" in immesourne and i was staying at his apartment. Until about 2 weeks ago when i decided to come home.

It seemed as though fate did not want me to live and work in Morocco. I had to discover that the hard way. Youness, Chaffick and 4 other Moroccans were all arrested in Marrakech. Apparently in Moroccan law it is forbiddon for locals to associate with tourists. They were arrested because they were with us. How backwards is that? To top it off When we went to the police station to find out why they had been arrested the so called "tourist police" told us that they would remain in prison for 2 days and each of them will be fined 2000 dhyrams (around £150), which they pretty much demanded us to pay.

From that incident i kinda lost my confidense in Morocco and decided that i wasn't prepared to invest my life savings in somewhere with such a corrupt system. I figured, if they could do that just by being with Moroccans, how would they be if i owned a business with them?

I was determined that i would not let it ruin my time in Morocco so i went to Chafficks apartment got all of my luggage and headed direct to Immessoune. It was great to see everyone again but the surf was really poor and there's not much to do in immessoune when there's no waves apart from smoke hash. The first time i unpacked my surfboards after leaving england was when i arrived in Immssoune. My brand new Tuff lite Al merrick shortboard was ok but my mini mal was in 2 pieces. I was a bit annoyed but i didn't let it bother me because i still had my shortboard. The icing on the cake was when the waves were finally rideable and i took my board in the water for the first time. As i was paddling out a Morrocan guy was on a wave heading towards me. When he clocked me being just in front of him he bailed and the nose of his board colided into the bottom of mine leaving quite a large hole.

So for the past month i was waiting in Immessourne for Youness and Chaffick to come so i could find out that they are ok after their ordeal in Marrakech. The last week i was there i lost my wallet and developed the flu. You can imagine how fed up i was and how much i was looking forward to leaving. I travelled to Spain and got a flight home from Malaga. Although i was really ill i was quite relieved to be home. I then spent the next week bed ridden at my parents place.

I am still in one piece and i made it back which is the main thing. Plus i got my board repaired and had some really great sesions in fistral at the weekend which put a smile back on my face. Now its time to plan my next trip

[Adrenaline Fueled]

Hey Luke, sorry to hear your dream ended the way it did. Seems like you haven't let it get you down too bad, and it's not everyone who can say they went to try and start a surf shop in Morocco! Helluva story for the grandkids! Keep smiling. keep surfing, and everything else will always fit in...

[pat42]

Hey Wootzy,

I saw your first post the day you were leaving for Morroco and thought it would be a bit late to warn you of going to somewhere like Morrocco on the promises of riches from someone else. (been there done that!!)

You'll have to take this experience and learn from it........I'm sure you learnt a lot

Just be careful who you trust in the future cos there are plenty of people in the world wiling to take advantage of that trust and rip you off

But good on yer for giving it a go and just look forward to the next trip