Sarah Drane tells all about expat life running a PR company in Majorca

Sarah Drane runs marketing firm Purple Cake Factory

What are your memories of the early days in Spain?

When I moved it was April Fool’s Day, I was 22 (about to turn 23), had filled my easyJet baggage allowance with everything I may need for a new life (one plate, one saucepan…) and spent a very lonely two weeks living in a hotel waiting for my Spanish national insurance number to come through before I could start work.

The housekeeping was sorely missed when I moved into my one-bed flat which itself had its ups and downs.

Ups – almost beachfront Marbella, a bare-footed skip and a hop to the sea and a bargain 500 euros a month.

Downs – the patio doors never closed, bits of the balcony fell off onto the street below and I once came home to find that the landlord had removed the entire bathroom, toilet ‘n’ all, without informing me.
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Other overriding early memories are of a Costa on a high. I started in-house at a real estate agency, we had 200 odd staff, were selling 200 odd properties a month, had a fleet of logo-ed cars that almost filled the underground car park, Puerto Banús was buzzing with energy and youth and you had to literally fight to get a rental property.

Why do you think you've stayed where other people have come home?

Like my father, I am a stubborn sod. I remember vividly setting myself a timeframe of one year and within that year I was not allowed to return to the UK and risk facing anyone saying “I told you so”. Year one was tough, there were times when I thought I had made a mistake, but I would always remind myself that it’s better to have a bad day in the blazing sunshine on the beach than on a cramped train platform in the pouring rain.

Obviously, the fact that my career is stable has also helped. As a PR company we haven’t put all our eggs in a Spanish basket and in fact have clients spread across the globe from Brazil to Gibraltar. Had we been reliant on local business, we’d have closed long ago.

In terms of your business, was it difficult to get established in a new country? Was there a lot of red tape?

I have a philosophy that if I don’t know how to do something or am not very good at it, I get someone else to do it for me. You could call it laziness but if I can get a bilingual administration company to put my car through a Spanish MOT (ITV) without me leaving my desk, I will.

The same applied when myself and my (late) business partner set up Purple Cake Factory. I was already a self employed autonomo and had an excellent bookkeeper and accountant in place. We let them handle all of the paperwork required to create an SL (limited company) and just rocked up at the notary on the appointed date – April Fool’s Day 2004 – to sign the paperwork.

I distinctly remember, as we were throwing various bits of the notary’s stationery out of the seventh floor window counting how many seconds each item took to land, saying to my late business partner Jake: “Are we grown up enough to run a business?” But it all came good in the end. Eight years on and I have the same accountant, the same bookkeeper and they still handle all of the red tape and bits involving numbers that I am rubbish at.

The Purple Cake Factory is such a fun name. What's the story/inspiration behind it?

Sadly the story isn’t as interesting as you’d expect… After I left the real estate agency, I became a sole trader and called my ‘business’ Purple Circle. I chose a colour and shape to make logo design easy and figured that both boys and girls like purple.

Jake came along into my life, and was also a sole trader called Cake Factory (‘Cake’ because a Danish colleague he was introduced to was convinced his name was Cake and ‘Factory’ as factories push out lots of work). We joined up, cut and shut and I lost the Circle.

I am delighted with the company name. It says we’re fun, don’t take ourselves too seriously, and it’s highly memorable.

You specialise in marine, property and travel. What do you like most about these industries?

I actually started out PR life in a real estate specialist PR agency in south London, so that industry was kind of chosen for me, but I have become quite the passionate property geek. In my 12 years in real estate PR, I have witnessed a fascinating cycle. London property launches, the Spanish overseas home boom, the desperate switch to emerging markets as Spain faltered, another switch into repossessions and curious ‘green’ schemes and now a return to basics.

My client portfolio now only has one emerging market, Brazil, which is verging on the established now, and the rest is a reassuring Spain, UK, Gibraltar, Florida mixture.

Travel is a close cousin of property. Many of the things that affect an overseas holiday home market (airline routes, climate, golf courses, beaches) are exactly the things that define travel. It’s not a difficult sidestep to make.

As for marine, well, if you live in Marbella as I did for seven and a half years, you are surrounded by estate agents. If you live in Majorca as I have now done for two and a half years, you are surrounded by people earning a living from boats – chandlers, captains, charterers, guardiennage, brokers. It’s impossible to avoid. And if one of the perks of PR-ing a marine business is plenty of days afloat, bubbly in hand, I’m certainly not going to turn it down!

Mallorca is an enduringly popular choice for Brits, both for holidays and working abroad. What do you like about the area?

I developed a severe seven year itch with Marbella and ‘where next’ was a toss-up between the UK and a place from my youth – Majorca. Two and a half years later it was the right decision.

As a family we’ve had a holiday home on the Island since 1984 and I have fond memories of extended summer breaks splashing in the sea, watching Mallorquin dancing in the countryside, taking horse and carriage rides around Palma, eating platefuls of paella and getting stuck in the springs of a collapsed camp bed.

What’s not to like about Majorca? It is absolutely idyllic and, cheesy but true, does have something for everyone – golf, beach, mountains, bays, coves, marinas, nightclubs, haute cuisine and a proper Barcelona-esque capital city.

Any advice for people considering a move to Spain?

Unless you adore rain, crippling traffic, high prices, miserable faces, deserted high streets, mindless crime and a sweaty armpit in your face on the Tube – I thoroughly recommend a move to Spain. No, it’s not Shangri-La, you will have bad days here just as much as you will have bad days in England, but I can guarantee you many more smiles in Spain. However, I would kill for a proper English country pub and newspapers replete with all their colour supplements.