Diana Esposito, Hometown – Atyrau, Personal tour-consultant, hostess of Bed & Breakfast Salerno Way, Italian cuisine school Casa Esposito, founder of the tourism development fund in the south of Italy, designer
I found myself abroad accidentally. Not knowing what fate is preparing for me, I went to Australia, Sydney. I’d been dreaming of visiting the country of kangaroos. It was there that I met my husband, it was love at first sight. Australia is a distant country for both of us, but we were destined to meet and fall in love. After the wedding we moved to Italy, my husband's homeland.
I couldn’t open a business abroad for a long time, since my husband was categorically against it. For any Italian having business means to have a lot of trouble. The main difficulty is high taxes of at least € 6,000 a year, regardless of whether you have a profit or not. Since I was close to the tourism industry, I learned that at that time the Bed & Breakfast chain of hotels in the south of Italy, in Salerno, where we live, was not taxed. It was a unique chance that I could not miss. After reading all sorts of codes and laws, I prepared a business plan and began to look for investors. my project was agreed to finance only for the third time.
I think in order to achieve a goal you need a huge desire and faith in yourself. Despite everything, I was confident that I would succeed. I did not sleep at night, it was a difficult time, but I coped with that.
My main field of activity is tourism. In addition, I have one more hobby – design, clothing and footwear production. I take pleasure doing this business and do it to have rest from the daily routine, so I don’t expect tremendous success from this project.
I’ve started personal tours in Southern Italy since 2016. Material investment was a minimum, in this business I put only time. In addition, the profit from the excursions covered my daily expenses only. But we had to pay tribute to, through the tour-consultations; we have a huge client base, who advertised us. I’m planning to start the project on excursions to start getting real profit.
The first difficulty that I faced in creating a business is that I am a citizen of another country. Initially, no one took me seriously, but then, after I found an approach to everyone – thanks to my Kazakh goodwill and hospitality they started accepting me well. Nowadays people offer me business projects. Today I take the flag of Kazakhstan wherever I go. For example, when the Mayor of Salerno awarded me a medal, I took a photo by our flag. Without any support of the Government and the Embassy of Kazakhstan, I arranged EXPO presentations in Italy on my own, brought 12 Italian entrepreneurs to Kazakhstan. I consider that as my duty, which I fulfilled.
Nowadays I offer tourists a 5-, 7-, 8-day tours of Italy. This year we will conduct cruise tours on Costa Victoria and Costa Fascinosa liners, where we will visit such countries as Italy, Malta, Spain, France, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia.
Italians are specific people, it's difficult to conduct business with them. For example, I always drive my tourists to lunch in the same restaurant, on the same day of the week, though the restaurant owner, knowing that I will come to him with tourists, can close the restaurant, because he has a bad mood, tired or depressed.
There’s a high percentage of unemployment among young people, they have to study not to stay at home. Hiring occurs under the contract: the first - for 6 months, long-term contracts are concluded after. Short-term semi-annual contracts can be prolonged up to 3 times, after you either proceed working or dismissed.
In the south of Italy they don’t use 10% in the bill, instead there is a "coparta" - payment for service. This is about one-two euros per person as a tip.
Italians respect and love their kitchen. Here Italian cuisine is served only. Recently the Italians have started began to understand sushi. It is almost impossible to find foreign cuisine.
In creating your business it is important to understand that it is possible in one country is not possible in other. We must remember that for each country, first of all, the interests of its citizens are more important than the foreigners’. And before you take up the idea of creating a business abroad, you must be good at all aspects. It is necessary to know the economy of the country, to study the legislation, because in any business there can be pitfalls. This is my advice based on my experience. Don’t forget that any idea can dizzy your head, so be vigilant and soberly assess the situation.