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oisin_browne

Nov 27, 2003, 11:05 AM

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Moving to Mexico

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Hi Folks,

I'm an Irishman recently returned from spending a year living and working in Mexico. I taught English in a private school for the year and did a bit of travel also. I miss Mexico a lot and would love to live there permanently. I work as a systems analyst/computer programmer here in Ireland. Ideally I would love to open a small internet cafe somewhere in Mexico. Maybe I could combine this with English classes or even teach computers through English. I understand that I would have to provide something that is not readily available in Mexico so perhaps the internet cafe could provide some type of Irish beverage or cuisine also.

I'm not really interested in looking for a job with a Mexican company. Can anyone give me suggestions or even fill me in on my options? What are the legal/financial restrictions in relation to setting up a small business enterprise like this etc.? Is the concept of a small internet cafe with English language tuition and Irish cultural influences a realistic possibility or just a pipe dream?

Yours in anticipation,

Oisin.

El Gringo Nuevo

Nov 27, 2003, 2:54 PM

Post #2 of 4 (370 views)

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Re: [oisin_browne] Moving to Mexico

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Greetings Oisin; Hope you make the transition. From my limited perspective as a viewer of this site, it seems that a person with computer, internet, connectivity, trouble shooting, problem solving and setup technical skills in the world of web who is willing to make house calls would have a goodly number of clients. I'd be a client for sure when we relocate to Lakeside within the next 12 months or so. Taking measured and reasonable chances is what keeps us young mentally. Best of luck

johanson

Nov 27, 2003, 4:59 PM

Post #3 of 4 (361 views)

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Re: [oisin_browne] Moving to Mexico

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There are all kinds of folks who say they can fix computers Lakeside (Lago de Chapala, and a few of them are very good. The best ones have more than enough work to do. The area of greatest weakness is in LANs and WANs. Broadband has recently arrived, and folks are wanting to network. I have an acquaintance who charges 500 pesos per hour with a 500 peso minimum. Often he can complete his work in 20 minutes. The normal house call rate is between 200 and 250 per hour.

Why is he able to get so much here in Mexico? Because there are just not enough folks around who know how to network. Most of my neighbors have no idea what an Ethernet Bridge or an 802.11g backwards compatible Linksys router is or how to configure same. If you are good at setting up simple networks, be they Ethernet or 802.11a,b,g or a combination of the two there is always a need.

If you understand fixed WIFI and are willing to make house calls there is also a need. Sometimes nothing more is required than powering off an then on the Ethernet Bridge. The last time I suggested that over the phone the user pushed the reset button instead, creating more problems. Today there was a call from someone who had reformatted his hard drive and wasn't sure what an IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, etc was and wanted to hire someone to help him with his wireless configuration. The local ISP would love to have the names and tel #s of additional network and WiFi technicians they could recommend to their clients.

El Gringo Nuevo

Nov 27, 2003, 10:23 PM

Post #4 of 4 (340 views)

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Re: [johanson] Moving to Mexico

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Thanks Pete, well put. Hope someone with those skills shows up soon.