Adventure to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

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Three years ago before their adventure to Puerto Vallarta Mexico began, Jessica Corley and Rhonda Manthei owned a small business in the Old Town section of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Serial entrepreneurs, they had owned a hospice company and did well enough to retire for about seven years. But retirement was not for them. Adventure was calling.

Jessica, 51, grew up in Massachusetts and 61-year-old Rhonda in Chicago. The two met playing softball in Albuquerque and immediately hit it off (pun intended). Two children followed. Adam is now 25 and daughter Emily 15.

Their adventure to Puerto Vallarta Mexico started with Emily’s two-year junior high school exchange program in Mexico City. “After her wonderful experience, Emily told us that she would like to have her high school education also in Mexico,” Ms. Corley explained. “We said fine, but we were not going to live in Mexico City for sure, way too big for us. So we began researching international schools in Mexico and discovered that the American school in Puerto Vallarta was among the best schools in Mexico for American kids. We contacted many Americans who had children attending the school and had lengthy telephone conversations with them about the school and in general about living in Mexico. Our whole motivation was driven by the school’s ratings. We told Emily, if she was accepted, we would move to Puerto Vallarta, even though we had never been there.”

The family flew to Puerto Vallarta in September 2010 for Emily’s school interview and testing. She was accepted for the following year. “Once our daughter was accepted, Rhonda and I started our planning,” Ms. Corley said. “The first thing we did was to search online to find a real estate agent that could help us. The second thing we did was to sell mostly everything we owned: our house, cars and most of our furniture. We took only those things that were most important to us, like our bedroom set.”

They made two more trips to PV (as the locals call Puerto Vallarta) between September and December 2010 looking for a place to live and a business to buy or start. We knew we had to work when we got to PV and we knew we wanted to own a business, so we did lots of research on the different kinds of opportunities that might be available for us down here,” Ms. Corley said. “Restaurants are big because it is an international tourist city but we did not want the crazy hours.” They also investigated other tourist-oriented businesses, but finally settled on buying a Mail Boxes Etc. franchise. “We actually found out about the franchise opportunity through our real estate agent. He had a friend who had owned the franchise rights for about two years but had never exercised the right to start a business.”

They decided not to buy a home when they moved and opted for renting instead. “Initially we rented a home in the Marina area north of downtown, where the American school is located,” Ms. Corley said. “We found it online and took a leap of faith by renting it after doing a quick drive-by and looking through the windows.”

In December 2010, the two purchased the Mail Boxes Etc. franchise rights for the Old Town area of Puerto Vallarta, just south of the Cuale River. “We found a space on the retail street level of a new condominium,” Ms. Corley explained. “It was perfect. A raw space that we could design and build to our needs.”

The franchise made sense for them, primarily because they are not fluent in Spanish and the business allows them to cater mainly to the English-speaking expat community. Lack of language skills, though, did complicate their franchise training experience. “We had to do our training at corporate headquarters in Mexico City, which was two weeks of intensive training from 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. every day and it was entirely in Spanish,” Ms. Corley said. “I studied the book every night and looked up words I did not know to prepare myself for the next day. We also found another person who was born in the U.S. and bi-lingual. He became our best friend for two weeks.”

Purchasing a franchise provided them with not only professional training but also help from corporate headquarters when they opened their doors. “We asked corporate to send someone to help us for the first three days, which was very helpful,” Ms. Corley said. “We had to pay all expenses but it got us started on the right foot.” They bought the franchise in December 2010 and were able to open their business six months later in May 2011.

To get through all the licensing, regulations and procedures in opening a business here, we relied heavily on the local network of American and Canadian expats who knew the ropes,” Ms. Corley said. “The first step was to find an attorney who was highly recommended by the locals. She in turn connected us with a bi-lingual Mexican accounting firm that had both Mexican and U.S. accounting licenses, since we still hold assets in the United States. He in turn hooked us up with other people who could help, and so it goes. Believe me, it is all about getting connected with the local expat community.”

But even with the local support system, both considered the process a painful experience. “Part of the learning process is you find out that things work differently in a foreign country,” Ms. Corley noted. “I learned patience very quickly, you have to or you do not survive in Mexico. Coming from the U.S., the business culture here is very different. You have to reset your expectations, particularly in business practices like making and keeping appointments and customer service. It takes much longer for things to get done here.”

The biggest barrier for opening a business for them was learning all new business practices. “I am well-versed on all the laws and regulations for opening a business in the U.S., but everything is completely different in Mexico,” Ms. Corley said. “Setting up the books, learning about Facturas (legal receipts given for goods and services in Mexico that can be used for business expenses or tax deductions) and learning about employment rules that are completely different have all been big challenges.”

Their attorney and accountant did most of the work in setting up their business. The attorney secured their FM-3 work permit visas within two months, reviewed the franchise and space lease contracts and handled other legal matters for them. The accounting firm handled most of the work in dealing with the city in obtaining their business and tax licenses. The firm also by law has access to their business checking account at a local bank to pay employment taxes and must prepare the monthly financial statements, tasks that Ms. Manthei handled in their previous businesses.

Now that the business was established, the family decided that the commute from the Marina to Old Town was too long and decided to try condo living for the first time. “We moved to the Riviera Molino condominium, which just happens to be right above our store and super convenient,” Ms. Corley commented. “It is our first experience with condo living so everything is brand new.”

Asked if personal safety is an issue for the family, Ms. Corley said, “Although the media in the United States report extensively on the drug war in Mexico and its casualties, our family feels very safe. For us, Vallarta is one of the safest places we have ever lived. We have no insecurities about letting our daughter stroll the Malecon at night with her friends and we walk to most of our favorite places with no fear of violence. We feel completely safe in PV.”

Would they start a business again? “It has been somewhat of a painful process, but you know the adventure is worth it,” Ms. Corley said. We are moving in to our second year of doing business and are starting to reap some of the benefits of our hard work. When you have a business down here everything is different. It is kind of like just graduating from college and feeling like you know everything until you find out you know absolutely nothing about the real world.”
Ms. Corley offered advice for would-be expat entrepreneurs: “Be patient with the process. Everything just moves more slowly down here. Become part of the community so that you can promote your business. That is just the way it works. And, find the right people. People that can help you not only build your business but also help you learn how to live in your new world. Find people who have lived in the area for a long time, who know the ropes and who know the right people. Finding people you can trust is the most important part of starting a business in Mexico or anywhere else in the world.”

Now that their business is doing well, Emily is flourishing in her new school and they have assimilated into the local expat community, the family has no regrets about their move to Puerto Vallarta. “We have made some incredible friends in the time we have lived here,” Ms. Corley remarked. “I would say life-long friends. PV is beautiful, the weather is awesome, the ocean is calming and the people of Mexico are the friendliest people you will ever find. Whatever the future holds for us, PV will always be a part of it.”

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