Do you want to start a business in Spain but you lack ideas? If Yes, here are 50 best small business ideas & investment opportunities in Spain. Spain is a country on Europe’s Iberian Peninsula. It includes 17 autonomous regions with diverse geography and cultures. The climate in Spain is predominantly Mediterranean. For this reason, the country experiences mild winters and very hot summers, especially in the coastal areas, with high rainfall in the Cantabrian area.
In the Pyrenees and Sierra Nevada, the climate is alpine, whereas the south eastern part of the country is semi-arid and the Canary Islands are subtropical. This shows that Spain is basically a warm country. Historically, Spain’s primary industrial sectors have been food, textile, electronics production, highly developed machinery, including automobile plants, railroad foundries and workshops, diesel, electrical engineering and industrial equipment plants.
If you want to start a business in Spain but you are not sure of how to proceed, here are 50 best business ideas that are guaranteed to be lucrative in Spain.
50 Best Business Investment Opportunities in Spain
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Become a Tour guide
Spain can boast of quite a number of tourist destinations, and these areas attract visitors yearly. If you live in an area with a lot of tourist activities in the country, one obvious business to do is to become a tour guide. As a tour guide, you can help take visitors around to these historical areas.
You do not need to spend much when setting up this business. Just launch an effective website explaining what services you offer and how businesses and individuals can use your help. You will have to invest money into a good website with proper SEO to drive organic traffic. You will need an impressive portfolio and at least five testimonials received from happy customers.
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Start a hotel business
Every country that has tourist destinations need hotels, and good ones for that matter. People always need where to stay when they are away from home, and building hotels are one way to draw in tourists.
Adding breakfast to your offerings may help you get frequent patronage because it is on record that people prefer hotels that offer meals than ones that don’t. This business is very capital intensive, so you have to prepare for it. You can equally skip the hassles of building a big hotel and just start a small and manageable bed and breakfast that you can run with your family.
3. Bookkeeping business
Bookkeeping is a branch of financial accounting that involves keeping and maintaining records of business transactions. Bookkeepers keep the financial record of a business accurate and complete.
Businesses, both small and large need to maintain updated records in case of taxes and other eventualities, and businesses in Spain are not an exception. Although many software packages are now available for handling bookkeeping tasks, but they never replace the role of a qualified bookkeeper. Working as bookkeeper requires both education and experience.
4. Start a destination wedding service
A popular trend for adventurous couples is destination weddings, or getting married in a faraway location. Spain, for such, can boast of a couple of scenic locations that smitten couples can get married at. If you reside in places like tropical islands with pristine lakes, snow capped mountains and scenic views, a destination wedding service may be a smart business for you to start.
You can offer wedding planning, or help couples who decide to get married on the spur of the moment during their vacation get the necessary paperwork they need, including an officiant, a location, photographers etc.
5. Become an Insurance Underwriter
If there is one thing businesses and the general populace in Spain need, it is insurance. And with insurance comes insurance underwriters. These underwriters are the main link between an insurance company and an insurance agent.
Insurance underwriters use computer software programs to determine whether to approve an applicants insurance application or not. They enter information about a client into a computer program in order to provide recommendations on coverage and premiums.
Underwriters evaluate these recommendations and decide whether to approve or reject an insurance application. Setting up a business as an insurance underwriter is sure to yield good profits as there are a lot of businesses that need your services.
6. Laundry service
Everyone does laundry, and as such a laundry service is a good business to start anywhere including Spain. This business, even as it is lucrative requires very little startup capital and expertise. All you need to do is find a good location and gather the required equipment. Spread word of your business all over your neighborhood and you will surely get clients provided you offer quality service. You can equally decide to focus on tourists to get that market share.
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Start a Recycling Business
Another business that you can set up and profit from in Spain is a recycling business. A recycling facility engages in the recycling of plastic, paper and glass from waste locations. Once these materials have been separated and sorted, operators go ahead to refine them into useable products and then sell them to wholesalers as well as manufacturers.
You can run a small recycling plant in Spain where you can recycle either paper, plastic, metals or the likes. Recycling is big business and the interesting part is that you can start with small initial startup capital.
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Adult day care
An adult daycare center is typically a non-residential facility that supports the health, nutritional, social, and daily living needs of adults in a professionally staffed, group setting. Every country in this world has an appreciable aged population.
A lot of people in Spain prefer to keep their aged parents and relatives at home instead of sending them to nursing homes, but they would need help to care for them when they need to go out for extended periods. With the right facilities and staff, you can easily carve a niche for yourself in the adult day care industry.
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Start a travel agency
With tourist destinations in Spain, one viable business one can start in the country is a travel agency. A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides travel and tourism related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, travel insurance etc.
It is a fact universally acknowledged that Spain has a booming tourism sector and people from all over the world visit this beautiful country all year round.
There are a number of tourism focused businesses that you can open up to earn a sizable profit. If you like hospitality and have a passion for serving people, then a travel agency is an excellent idea to get started on. You can help tourists arrange their trips, accommodation and tours for the duration of their stay.
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Start a car rental service
Some people are very independent and would always want to drive themselves around no matter which continent they are at any particular point in time. This set of people would always want to rent cars when they arrive at new places in order to explore the scenery the way they want.
You can start a car rental service to cater to visitors who would prefer to ride themselves. You can make available cheap as well as expensive cars in your rental service and you can as well rent motorcycles and bicycles to cater to every pocket.
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Start a craft business
A craft is an activity involving skill in making things by hand. If you have any artistic skills or crafty hobbies, you might just have one of the essential building blocks of a successful business, especially if you reside in a tourist location because visitors always value indigenous crafts.
If you have accumulated quite a number of handmade crafts, you can set up a small shop in the city where you get to sell your crafts. You can also approach other crafts people and offer to market their products too.
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Open a Curio shop
People on vacation are always seeking to purchase souvenirs for those back home. To fill this need, you can open a curio shop in your area in Spain. In this business, you need to provide your customers a variety of artifacts to choose from as well as making sure not to charge exorbitant prices that are likely to drive them away to your competitors.
Every piece of art has a story and if you make known to your customers the cultural value of each one of them, with a friendly smile, it will be difficult for them to resist buying from you and thus, boosting your curio business.
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Fundraising service
A fundraising service is a business that helps individuals and businesses to raise funds for their cause. With Spain having a lot of budding businesses, they would sure need businesses to help them raise funds. A professional fundraiser works with charities, nonprofit organizations, schools, groups and political groups to help each organization raise the money it needs.
Being that there are a lot of such businesses that need help raising funds in Spain, so a fundraising service would do well in the country. You will get your income from commissions from the funds you raise.
14. Open an ice cream and smoothie bar
Everybody love treats, and with Spain being an incredibly warm country because of its location close to the desert, their weather is almost always suited for ice cream. In initiating an ice cream store, proper business plan or project plan is required. Ice cream comes in many different qualities, so you need to decide which ones you want to sell. Decide the store space, products, and marketing plan. You can start your ice cream store business in two ways.
One is through buying the franchise of an established brand or by having your own store. If you are starting the business with no experience, then buying a franchise would be the most prudent decision. Calculate your monthly fixed overhead cost and make a financial planning with ROI calculations.
The sale will increase as per the location you choose and which target audience you select. Make sure that your location will be a crowded place such as playgrounds, malls, offices, and markets etc. You equally need to hire experienced people who have either worked with an ice cream company or who know a thing or two about the business.
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Spa service
A spa is a business that provides a variety of services for the purpose of improving health, beauty and relaxation through personal care treatments. Spas offer a variety of services such as manicures, pedicures, hair care, seaweed wraps, aromatherapy, facials, waxing, acupuncture, facial and full body massages.
These services are almost essential because people need to relax and pamper themselves after working so hard during the week. If you have the skills, you can set up a spa service in your area and target tourists for better income.
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Mobile food truck
A food truck is a large vehicle equipped to cook and sell food. Some, including ice cream trucks, sell frozen or prepackaged food; others have on-board kitchens and prepare food from scratch. The mobile food truck is quite profitable especially when set up near construction sites, or where blue collar workers abound in Spain.
You can sell sandwiches, hamburgers, French fries, and other regional fast food fare. With the warm climate usually experienced in Spain, people would be more likely to eat out.
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Cleaning business
If you are quite comfortable with the mop and rag, then you could start a cleaning service in Spain. You can easily start your own cleaning business, or if you have saved up enough money, you could buy a cleaning franchise. You can focus on retail businesses and keep your customers clumped into one or two blocks. If you provide great services, it would serve as a mode of advertising for you because your customers will come by word of mouth.
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Coffee Shop
A lot of people love coffee, and would always stop over for freshly brewed coffee every once in a while whether the weather is hot or not. Setting up a coffee shop in a busy area will attract many customers during office break times and in the mornings. You can add donuts, pretzels or bagels etc as coffee accompaniment.
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Bakery business
Think of warm croissants, doughnuts, pies, cakes, bagels etc whenever you are taking your morning coffee, and you would know why bakeries are an essential part of the society. Note that you can easily run a small bakery where you can bake to satisfy your neighborhood and still make profit. It is also possible to bake from home and distribute your fare to grocery stores, but you have to make sure that your city would allow you to run such a business from home.
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Mobile Spa
Running your own mobile spa is a great way to go into business for yourself and offer a service people will want to buy. With a mobile spa service, you can give people spa treatments in their homes, at hotels, during conferences, at festivals — anywhere, really.
For a mobile spa to find success, it’s helpful if the services it provides are wider ranging than just skin care, although offering facials, skin care consultancy, microdermabrasion treatments, and esthetician services is a great place to start. If you can also offer massage, manicure and pedicure services, bridal party hair and makeup, and the like, however, you’ll find wider ranging sales and client possibilities.
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Veterinary business
Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in animals. The scope of veterinary medicine is wide, covering all animal species, both domesticated and wild, and it takes care of a wide range of conditions which can affect different species. In Spain, people take good care of their pets and as such a vet doctor would not have a problem sustaining his or her business.
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Vacation rental business
There are a lot of good sights and places of interest in Spain, making it a nice tourist destination. In order to take advantage of what the country has to offer, you can start renting out vacation homes to tourists and visitors. Since vacations do peak at summer, so your business may likely be a seasonal business, but the profits you would make during the season may likely carry you to the next if you work hard enough.
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Specialty food distribution
Specialty food are basically unique and high value food items made in small quantities from high-quality ingredients. Consumers typically pay higher prices for specialty foods, and may perceive them as having various benefits when compared to non-specialty foods. You can decide to start distributing such food items in Spain either directly to consumers or to restaurants.
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Ornamental Fish Farming
Ornamental fish are flashy fishes that are kept in aquariums in homes as pets. About 7.2 million houses in the USA and 3.2 million in the European Union have an aquarium and the number is increasing day by day throughout the world.
There is also a high statistic of people who own aquariums in Spain. Today, Ornamental fish farming has become one of the most profitable business ventures in the world. This is a kind of small-scale fish farming that can be done in a backyard and one can still make some good bucks out of it.
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Fumigation Services
A typical agro allied related service business that an aspiring entrepreneur who is considering starting a business in Spain should consider starting is fumigation services. Fumigation is done to eliminate unwanted insects, weeds etc. This business is easy to set up and you can equally run it from the comfort of your home. Note that you have to be knowledgeable about the various chemicals in use, and you have to apply and get the required licenses before you can be allowed to operate this business.
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Becoming a Translation or Interpreter
Spain is a great attraction for tourists. Every year a huge number of tourists visit the country. For them, it is difficult to understand the local languages of the country. Moreover, the locals also prefer to speak in their own language. So, if you know English, Spanish and some other local languages, you can start your business by making the communication between the tourists and the locals much more effective. You can set up your hourly rates and then earn accordingly. This can prove to be a successful business in Spain.
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Start Greenhouse Commercial Farming
Spain is an agriculture inclined country and one business you can start in this regard is a commercial greenhouse farm. Greenhouse farming gives room for greater control over the growing environment of various crops. Dependent upon the technicality and specification of a greenhouse design, some of the important factors which may be controlled include temperature, levels of light and shade, irrigation, fertilizer application, and atmospheric humidity et al.
Basically, Greenhouses are used to overcome shortcomings in the growing qualities of a piece of land, such as a short growing season or poor light levels. In essence, they are designed to improve food production in marginal environments like deserts.
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Start a Renewable Energy Company
A renewable energy company is one of the best business ideas to start in Spain. The industry of renewable energy is booming in Spain and lots of people are contributing towards this kind of business. It is one of the great business ideas in Barcelona and some other parts of the country. There are various options available for the renewable energy business, and it includes the businesses related to wing energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, etc.
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eBay Selling Business
The popularity of eBay has been exploding continuously. Almost everyone buys products from eBay these days. If you have the ability for producing a product that has a demand in market, you can also sell this product through eBay. This is one business you can run from any part of the world, including Spain, and still make good profits from it.
The best thing about this business is that you can sell anything. Suppose you are a designer and you make some perfect shirts and tops for girls, you an easily sell them on eBay. This business is also growing in Spain. Through this, you can easily start your Online business with a small capital.
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Restaurant and Bar Business
In any area people live, one essential business to start there is a restaurant and bar. This is because, regardless of the nature of the economy, people must surely eat. This is a very profitable business in Spain, but at the same time it is a competitive business.
So, for that, you have to provide best quality delicious food. Your workers should also be well-trained. Initially you can start your business on a small scale and then you can expand it if you start making some good profit. It is one of the amazing business opportunities in Spain if you start it with proper planning.
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Event Planning
Wherever people organize events, there are need for event planners. If you are an organized person and you can follow the deadlines with flexibility, then the business of event planning is the right choice for you. However, there are some skills that you need to have in order to excel in this kind of business and they include excellent communication skills, marketing and being up-to-date. You don’t need to have a particular degree to start this type of business in Spain.
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Become a Private Detective
Recently, there has been a marked increase of people who demand the services of private investigators in Spain. People utilize the services of private detectors for various reasons ranging from employment to debt collection, and even having spouses followed.
It is a unique small business to start in Spain if you have the skills and training. The detectives help in solving different crimes, assist the business owners for investigating their business partners and employees and provide some other services.
These services are sensitive and critical; that is the reason the private detectives earn a great amount of money if they prove to be beneficial for their employers.
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Recruitment Services
Spain is an emerging economic hub, with new businesses springing up on a daily basis. These businesses and organisations need employees to help run them. This is the reason why recruitment agencies do good business in the country. This business about assisting the small-scaled and medium-scaled companies in providing recruitment services and hiring the right people for their companies.
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Become a Yoga Instructor
If you are yoga pro and you love to teach, there wouldn’t be any better business idea for you to pursue. It is one of the wonderful business opportunities that can be started in Spain. You just need to have a place to start the yoga classes.
Initially, you can take the place on rent, then later on you can buy your own place when you start making considerable profit. Another way to up your earning potential in the yoga industry is to organize yoga retreats where people have to pay for to participate.
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Marketing and Public Relations Services
You don’t make money in business by setting up that business; you make money by creating awareness for the business. Marketing and public relations in business is very essential for every business. Some services you can render in Spain include market research services, SEO services; E-mail marketing, Call centers and social media marketing. You would not find it difficult to gain traction in the market if you are always showing results.
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Property Rental
There has been a significant property boom in Spain and the real estate market has significantly improved. The scenario now is very different from what it was a few years ago and therefore property rentals are an excellent idea for budding entrepreneurs or people willing to earn some extra money.
You can rent out properties to different demographics and for different purposes. The key point here is to provide something unique to the people and make sure that the service you provide is good enough to get you more clients in the future. Invest in Spain because you also do not need any special kind of license to get into property rentals and only need to focus on advertising your services.
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Retail Shop
Opening up a rental shop in Spain is another profitable business idea that you can look into. There are a number of things that you can sell but do make sure that the product you choose has a good demand.
If you are selling imported goods, then it might get a little complicated because there are a number of things that you will have to handle at once. Reselling goods made in Spain is an easier option as you will easily get suppliers. Be careful and conduct a basic survey and find out the demand before getting started.
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Become a language teacher
If you have an excellent command over any language like English, Japanese, Chinese etc then you can also become a language teacher in Spain. Just be careful and check if there are enough people willing to learn the languages that you are fluent in.
Learning fluent Spanish for communication is also advisable to get more people on your side because there are many people who are willing to learn an additional language like English. It may sound easy but because of more supply than demand, you will have to stand out and be the best in your field to survive in this sector.
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Open a dental clinic
Health sector can be a little tricky to get into because you need to be really qualified in your field to stand out. This is why businesses such as dental clinics are left only to professionals. If you are a dentist, then it goes to show that you have to start your own dental clinic.
You will require a license from the authorities in Spain to practice your field, therefore it is advisable to be patient and give an appropriate amount of time to fulfill all the legal obligations before starting any kind of business related to the health sector. Also look into insurance for public liability if you are interested in this field.
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Ride Sharing Services
Car sharing administrations is another business you ought to consider if you live in Spain. This is because keeping up or maintaining an individual auto is extremely costly and a great deal of low salary workers would rather go in for ride sharing services. If you have a car and you work at a certain area, you can set up a ride sharing service for your neighborhood in order to earn extra cash.
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Sell Automobiles
The automobile industry in Spain in indeed lucrative, and, and you can cash into this industry by selling automobiles. In addition to marketing automobiles for the manufacturers, you can equally start selling car accessories like batteries.
Spain has a rich hold of lithium which is a noteworthy element for battery making. Another business you can start in Spain in the automobile industry is to begin assembling or offering hands free gadgets for drivers so they can do other things while driving without endangering their lives and those of others.
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Open a Fitness center
Being fit is the new cool, and everybody in town wants to have taut abs, bulging biceps and be as fit a two fiddles. This is the reason why fitness centers can never go out of fashion. If you have the related capital, you can set up a fitness center in Spain, and help people in your area get into shape.
If you do not have the capital to set up a proper gym, you can decide to record your work out videos and put them up for sell. Another way to make profit in this industry is to upload your fitness videos on YouTube so that you get to earn money when people watch your videos. You can also encourage people to subscribe to our website so that they can get daily workout videos.
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Collaborating/Office Sharing
New businesses keep springing up Spain and they all need office spaces. Most of these new entrepreneurs cannot afford the exorbitant fees paid to get office spaces, so they usually rely on office sharing. If you have the funds to build an office, you can start renting out spaces to people who need offices but cannot afford to get an independent address. Note that this business is capital intensive but if you are able to build yourself a suitable office space that you can rent out, you have gotten yourself a cash cow.
44. Bee keeping
One of the economic hubs of Spain is agriculture. To take good advantage of this sector, you can start to farm bees. This foul tempered insect has been serving the needs of humans since the beginning of time. A lot has been said about the healing properties of honey, which is a bee by-product.
With the increasing awareness of the health benefits of honey, the demand has increased exponentially. Bees are reared for their honey and other by-products like beeswax, and this is a profitable venture that can be started with very minimal startup capital. You don’t need to have land or any establishment to start the beekeeping business, but the business demands day-to-day monitoring with close supervision of the bees.
45. Start a Meat Processing business
Meat processing is the use of machines to process and package meat that is to be taken to the market. Commercial meat processing is a capital-intensive business, because all processed meat products must in one way or another be physically and/or chemically treated. Additionally, you must have proper distribution and marketing strategies before initiating the business.
46. Interior Designer
If you have a way with frames, fabric and fabulousness, working for yourself as an interior designer is a great way to take control of your time while making the world (or at least wealthy people’s homes) a more beautiful place. You do not need a college degree to find clients; all you need is the requisite experience and maybe a rich catalogue of designs and creations. Being an interior designer in Spain would net you good profits.
47. Fashion Designer
If you are very creative with fabrics, one of the businesses you can start in Spain is to become a fashion designer. A lot of fashion designers that show their creations on the runway are from Spain, so you can be one of them, and it is never too late to start. But even if you are not going for a runway show during Fashion Week, there are many off-the-rack clothings that need designing — without you putting in the crazy hours and working with even crazier personalities.
48. Offer senior hair care services
The hair dressing industry in Spain is very competitive, and for you to carve a niche for yourself, you can start offering hair care services for seniors. You can choose to offer your services to seniors in retirement homes, or you can set up a schedule where you get to go to their homes at an appointed time to take care of their hair.
Because you get to serve these seniors at home, you get to charge more for your services. You can equally get a physical salon where the stronger seniors can come and have their hair made. Know that you have the gentlest of hands and use the gentlest of products so you would not have any complaints that can ruin your business.
49. Become a Personal Concierge/Assistant
A concierge provides assistant services to people. This business is for someone who is supremely efficient and has the ability to make things happen. People who hire you will expect things when they want them and you need to be able to come through with not only what they want, but with a personal touch and a smile on your face.
The most likely clients for a concierge service are top executives who find themselves at the office by 7 a.m. and are there most nights until 9 p.m., leaving them very little time to do all those things that often need to be done during those very hours.
50. Become a Marketing copy writer
If you can write copy that gets people excited about purchasing what your client has to sell, you can make good money in this business. Because Spain has a lot of business concerns, so offering this service would get you good money in a short while if you are able to offer your service in the right places.
More Profitable Business ideas & Investment Opportunities in Spain
51. Automobile Industry
There are a lot of very lucrative businesses in the auto mobile industry in Spain. Some of the top businesses in the Spanish automobile industry include-:
- GPS Services-: You can offer GPS installation and tracking services. There are a lot of foreigners and tourists visiting Spain yearly and asides that, there are also lots of locals that can benefit from the security and direction that a car GPS tracker offers. A particularly interesting type of GPS service you can offer in Spain is helping people find suitable parking spots especially in urban areas to prevent being penalized for illegal parking.
- Car Sharing Services-: Car sharing services is another business you should consider. Maintaining a personal car is really expensive and a lot of low income earners would rather subscribe for car sharing services.
- Car Batteries-: You can also go into sales and export of car batteries. Or if you have enough capital, start manufacturing car batteries too. Spain has a wealthy reserve of lithium which is a major ingredient for battery making.
- Hands free devices-: Another idea is to start manufacturing or selling hands free devices for drivers so that they can take emergency or important calls on steering without endangering their lives and those of others.
52. Renewable Energy Industry
The renewable energy industry in Spain is growing and you can also join this attractive moving train. You can go into Biofuel production as a way to help people save energy costs. You can also consider other renewable energy options like Solar, Geothermal, Biogas and wind energy. I am certain that a lot of business owners and home owners who are tired of rising energy costs would welcome your business.
53. Marketing and Public Relations Services
You don’t make money in business by setting up that business; you make money by creating awareness for the business. Marketing and public relations in business is very essential. Some services you can render in Spain include market research services, SEO services; E-mail marketing, Call centers and social media marketing.
54. Private Detective
Private detectives are not only used to solve crimes, they are also used by business owners to investigate potential business partners, employees, suppliers and even consultants. Private detectives earn a lot of money not just in Spain but all around the world.
55. Co-working/Office Sharing
This is a business that can serve everyone but could be targeted at foreigners. A lot of foreigners who wish to start their own businesses may not be able to afford the luxury of renting an office space. Co-working makes it possible for several people to come together to share an office space to carry out their businesses. As a Co-working service provider, you would provide the space and collect rent from interested persons.
56. Translation/ Interpreter
Spain is a tourist country. A lot of tourists troop in and out of Spain every year. If you are very good with the language, you can serve as an interpreter for visitors who do not understand the language, so as to allow for effective communication and enable them enjoy their stay.
57. Hotels / Bed & Breakfast
This business is targeted at the tourists too. You can set up a hotel or even a bed and breakfast place to provide accommodation and feeding to the dozens of tourists and business visitors trooping in and out of Spain yearly.
58. Recruitment Services
You can assist small and medium sized companies to recruit good hands to assist them in their business.
59. Restaurant and Bar
This is one of the most lucrative but highly competitive businesses in Spain. However, you can make your own restaurant and bar business stand out by researching niches that a less competitive; trust me, you will find a lot of them.
60. Property Management
You can also make money from managing people’s estate or developing your own properties and letting it out to others.