Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/28

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Zone blues
From: "Jean-Claude Berger" <jcberger@jcberger.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 21:59:37 +0200

Hello Eric,

Paris is in France, you know. Let's say that you sell an E6 process 50 FFR that
is USD 7.57 (it's the average price here). You owe 20,6 % to the French State
(VAT). So actually you sold the processing 41 F (USD 6.21).

You have to employ somebody. The minimum legal salary is 6,600 FFR a month, USD
12,000 a year including 5 weeks of holidays and for 35 hours of work by week.
You'll have to pay 0.5 time the salary to the French State (the boss pays a part
of Social Security and retirement of the employee. The employee himself gives
20% to the State.). So you will have to pay USD 18000 a year for one person. So
you must sell 18000/6.21=2899 developments a year to pay your employee. That is
14 rolls a day (a year has 200 working days in France or else you have to get an
authorization and pay 20% more on Saturday to you employee and 50% more on
Sunday).

Let's say you need to live too (and with USD 12,000 a year you live very poorly
in Paris if ever it's possible), you have to process 28 rolls a day.

Ok, now you need a place. A small bad looking place in the center of Paris near
Bastille (where most photo shops are), say, would cost something like USD 36,000
a year. 28 more rolls a day. Total 56.

At this point, you don't have a machine, you cannot buy your chemistry and so
on... Let's say that we have to double our production for that: 112 rolls a day.

Each year, you have to pay the Professional Tax that is more or less one month
if income. So we have to multiply our income by 1.1, that is 123 rolls a day.

Who knows a small laboratory that process 123 E6 rolls a day in a place where
there are at least 30 other labs in a circle of less than 5 miles of radius?

Note that you would not make any profit. That's fortunate because you would have
to pay 37% of it to the French State :-).

When do you come, actually? ;-)

All the best,

- --
Jean-Claude Berger (jcberger@jcberger.com)
Systems and RDBMS consultant (MCSE)
Lyon, France
http://www.jcberger.com

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Eric Welch
> Sent: Tuesday 28 September 1999 15:43
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us; leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Zone blues
>
>
> Anyone want to join me in setting up an affordable film processing business
> in Paris? :-)
>
> Eric Welch
> St. Joseph, MO
>
> http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch
>
> Your E-Mail has been returned due to insufficient voltage
>
>