Positive experiences earning a living in Turkey?

[Janice1971]

Hi Scareylady, we had the same sort of thing with our cake shop and bakery, we had to employ a Health & Safety person from the local government, she used to come into our shop once a week for about an hour, she sat drinking our tea and eating our cake and then left, all of which cost us 250ytl a month, the goalposts were constantly being moved, we would complete one thing and then we had to start again, we moved into a brand new premise and they wanted us to put a window in the toilet, why?  Baring in mind that in our old shop ours was the only shop in a row of about 7 with a toilet, this was OK!  The whole thing is just one large backhander, an absolute nightmare!

[scareylady]

Hi Janice ...

I have heard about your problems before, It all rings so familier to us and wish we could have helped..... The local taxi drivers from the Devlet hospital used to pop in to chat and have a coffee at our shop,  They used to tell us they would rather bring any injured relatives to our shop to be treated than the hospital as it was sooo high spec and clean but I think we just have to accept that Brits running a business LEGALLY in Turkey is almost impossible.....If we had just made our sausages at home, advertised by word of mouth and never paid any tax or accountancy fees we would have made more money!!

Such a shame xx

Hope all is okay with you and have a lovely Xmas xxx

[Janice1971]

Hi Scareylady, Im over it now, just left with a hefty mortgage as I borrowed against the house to make a go of things in Turkey!  On the plus side, I have a fab husband and two beautiful daughters so in the grand scheme of things I am lucky in love just not with money!  If we had gone down the non legal route I reckon we could still be running, however, I thought that I would go the legal route but all that did was open a huge can of worms!!!!  Happy Xmas to you, where abouts in the UK are you?

[Scunner]

quote:Originally posted by Janice1971

I have a fab husband and two beautiful daughters so in the grand scheme of things I am lucky in love

That's pretty much what I think too - although I haven't got a fab husband of course!!! I didn't suffer personally from red tape and legislation, my downfall was that I believe that a deal is a deal and that your handshake means the same as any contract. Specifically, I believed that the people I made agreements with believed the same as I did and sadly they did not.

On the bright side I learned from that, and all of us trying to do honest business had steep learning curves that should have done us much good for all our futures. I look at my amazing family and we do laugh at a lot of things from our time in Turkey, and I know we are better, stronger and closer for those years there. Compare that with many of the rip off merchants who's marriages ended in tatters, trying to con each other out of the slim pickings that remained, as part of their final swansong.

Never in a million years would I regret our time there but as Scareylady suggests, appreciating the UK is difficult to do until you have tried alternatives. Merry Christmas!

[scareylady]

Hi Janice

I'm so glad that you found love in Turkey and congratulations on your children x

Steve and I went to hell and back together in Turkey (including a terrible road accident and legal issues with the Esnaf - but that's another topic)and what we have now is the strongest marriage ever, we have gone through the worst, so life in general is just blissful!!!

As Scunner said we should all appreciate what we have and never lose the enjoyment of being able to buy Cadbury's chocolate ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE!!!

We are in North Kent at the moment but knowing what a pair of Nomads we are we could be anywhere next year....Maybe Scotland!! lol

Merry Christmas and a Very Happy NEW YEAR xxx  [:X][:X]

[Janice1971]

Hi Scarylady, we too have the strongest marriage ever, we came close to losing it but we have managed to pick ourselves up and move on, there are a lot of things that I miss about Turkey, the laid-back way of life, the freedom that the children had and the extended family support, the sunshine definately made your feel good and happy but I dont meet the mozzies and the powercuts, still its nice that we have family there which gives us an excuse to return time and time again although the first few visits that we made after we moved back to the UK were painful, driving back past our shop and what was our home, the only saving grace is that I still have my house here in the UK as I did try and sell it, however looking back now, I know that the money from the house would have been thrown into the business too and we would have lost the lot!  Its really sad that ex-pats cant make a go of things out there!

[peecee]

I was absolutely gobsmacked reading Scareylady's post on the rules and regulations imposed on her/them.  When I think of the dive of a butcher in Gunlukbasi (which is a very small shop and, to my mind, very unhygenic) then they (the bureaucrats) obviously didn't want the sausage shop to prosper.
I believe the Kargi man lived in Germany for a number of years?