Opening a business in Ibiza: the complete guide for Italian entrepreneurs

Every week someone writes to me with the same sentence: "I want to open something in Ibiza". Sometimes it's a restaurateur with years of experience, sometimes a professional tired of their city, sometimes a couple who spent their holidays here and don't want to go back.

The idea is always beautiful. The problem is almost always the same: nobody knows where to begin. This guide puts the stages in order, just as I live them every day with the people who arrive on the island.

Stage 1: working out whether the idea makes sense here

Ibiza isn't an ordinary city. For a few months a year it lives at a pace very few places in the world know; for the rest it slows right down. A business that works all year in Italy may not work here, and vice versa.

Before you fall in love with a venue, ask yourself: who are my customers? Tourists, residents or both? What do I do in the months when the island empties? Is someone already doing the same thing, and how is it really going for them?

Stage 2: starting from scratch or taking over

You have two paths. Starting from scratch gives you total freedom, but it takes more time: finding the premises, fitting them out, getting the permits, building a clientele.

Taking over an existing business gets you going faster, with premises already up and running and perhaps a customer base. But the price has to make sense, and here many prices don't. I go into this in depth in the article on how to take over a business in Ibiza.

Stage 3: the premises

The premises are the choice that can make you win or sink you. Location, footfall, the seasonality of the area, the terms of the lease, any traspaso to pay the outgoing operator: every detail counts.

The most common mistake is signing in a hurry because "if I don't take it, someone else will". Sometimes that's true. Far more often it's a line said on purpose to rush you.

Stage 4: paperwork and tax

Spain has different rules from Italy, and the Balearics have their own quirks. Legal structure, VAT registration, activity licences, specific requirements for your sector: these all need to be checked with a local accountant and gestoría before you sign anything, not after.

My advice is simple: don't improvise and don't trust "it's always been done this way". Rules change, and inspections happen.

Stage 5: staff

Finding good staff in Ibiza is a challenge, and finding them somewhere to sleep is even more of one. Anyone who opens without thinking about this ends up, once the season has started, with the venue ready and nobody to run it.

Stage 6: opening

If everything else has been done well, opening is the best part. If it's been done badly, it's the moment you discover all the problems at once.

The mistakes I see most often

Arriving without contacts and relying on the first person who turns up. Building a budget on hope instead of real costs. Starting late, when the season has already begun. Thinking you can manage everything from Italy.

Where to really begin

Before looking for premises, before talking to an agency, before booking yet another flight: do the maths. Understanding what your project really costs and what it can earn is the first step, and it's the one almost everyone skips.