1- The competition sells the same service, but illegally, under really crappy circumstances, charging €9 per hour. They simply pocket the money, without even issuing an invoice, it doesn't even include the VAT. They don't have to take any responsibility, there are no warranties, they officially don't even do anything, there's not even an official, legal trace of their existence. They don't have to rent an office, hire an accountant. By doing this 5 hours a day, they can easily make €1,000. They would point their middle fingers to my €760 job offer, where they wouldn't be allowed to do crappy work, but show up in time every day and meet very high professional standards in their work, they wouldn't be allowed to defraud the customers, and if they did, they would be fired.
If your business plan calls for entering a market where the going hourly rate (legal or not) is 9 and you want to charge 37, your business plan is seriously flawed to the degree that every other explanation you've provided for not starting the business is moot. You have no business plan and therefore you won't hire anyone because you have no business. Find a new market.
2- The competition would do smear campaigns against my company. I would have to face anti-capitalist propaganda, I would be seen as a greedy asshole who charges €37 for what they charge €9, I would be an enemy of the nice Hungarian people, while others work honestly for the fraction of my price...
Without knowing what business you're talking about, it's hard to view this complaint as anything more than irrational defeatism.
3- Many of my employees would only come to work for me to learn my business secrets and to steal my clients. They would lure them by lying that they will get the same value and quality of service, but at the fraction of the price. After they stole enough clients, they would deliberately cause a lot of harm to my company to get themselves fired. They would then go to court, stating that I fired them illegally, and they would win the case. In the meantime, they would of course work happily for the stolen clientele, that has cost me a fortune to build up. And of course they would be offended. They would trumpet on all kind of forums, that they have worked for my company, they know what they're talking about. Not only it is very expensive, but the service is a piece of crap too.
Granted, I'm entirely unfamiliar with Hungarian employment law, but this also sounds like irrational defeatism, or at least a failure on your part to understand best practices in documenting employee behavior. In addition, why doesn't this cataclysmic issue affect the 9/hour competition?
4- Complaining about all this wouldn't help, no one would give a flying fuck.
Complaining about real issues is one thing. Complaining about the market when your business plan is pie-in-the-sky and everything and everyone is out to get you is quite another.
1) You don't get it. Your competitors cheat. Illegally. They don't pay customs, they don't pay taxes, they don't pay social security, and they get away with it. No matter how good your business plan is, your illegal competitors, who often shamelessly copy your otherwise excellent product / idea / service will do it for 1/3 of the price. They simply have a huge, very unfair advantage against us, who do business legally.
2.) This is personal experience, a lot of them, not a single case, and common sense in Hungary. Happens all the time. Our goverment does it for God's sakes. Read some Hungarian forums, and use Google translate.
3.) Because the €9 competition is mostly private persons. They don't hire anybody. Court cases here can last 5-10 years. 3-4 years is very common. And it really is very flawed. I tell you one example how intellectual property is treated. My blogpost was published in its entire length maybe a 1000 times without any permission, whatsoever. Including political parties. It doesn't even occur to their mind that's illegal. The same thing happens if your employees take away your client list, your software, whatever they can. You just don't win the case at court.
4) I know how to do business, my business plans are perfectly sound. This is a blogpost, with a fictional, generic scrap, so that everyday people get an idea. But your comment basically proves me right. People generally don't care, no matter if I whine. I can whine all day long, nobody gives a flying fuck. Not my goverment, not my customers, not the justice system, nobody cares if corruption kills my business. So, I don't give a job man.
You don't get it. Your competitors cheat. Illegally. They don't pay customs, they don't pay taxes, they don't pay social security, and they get away with it. No matter how good your business plan is, your illegal competitors, who often shamelessly copy your otherwise excellent product / idea / service will do it for 1/3 of the price. They simply have a huge, very unfair advantage against us, who do business legally.
You need to find a business which is less easy to copy and/or one in which you can offer significant benefit vs. an illegal competitor. It's that simple. In the U.S. we have an identical situation to what you describe in the services industry: outsourcing. I need to charge X in order to survive as, say, a web developer, whereas someone in India or Vietnam can charge 1/X for essentially the same service. Now it's my decision whether to create enough benefit for a customer to continue in that field, knowing that many potential customers will simply outsource, or identify another field where I can provide a service that is not as easily outsourced.
Competition is competition, in respect to your business plan the legality is irrelevant.
Outsourcing is similar, but still very different issue. Agreed, as a web developer you have to compete with worldwide competition, that may be "unfair". Yes, you have to find a business plan, that still works. It's that easy.
But nationwide local corruption is a different game. Let's say you run a small restaurant. The guy next door opens one, and their menu is as good as yours, but costs 1/2 of your prices. You can't match them, because of all the dirty tactics. You have two options. Go out of business, or start using those dirty tactics too, and then you become a part of the problem.
You can tell me there are other options, like, I don't know, turning my restaurant to something completely different, but the principle still stands. Whatever I do, if it's successful, illegals will copy it exactly, but sell cheaper. It's just a question of time. It's a national sport.
It's the survival of the most corrupt (not the fittest).
If your business plan calls for entering a market where the going hourly rate (legal or not) is 9 and you want to charge 37, your business plan is seriously flawed to the degree that every other explanation you've provided for not starting the business is moot. You have no business plan and therefore you won't hire anyone because you have no business. Find a new market.
2- The competition would do smear campaigns against my company. I would have to face anti-capitalist propaganda, I would be seen as a greedy asshole who charges €37 for what they charge €9, I would be an enemy of the nice Hungarian people, while others work honestly for the fraction of my price...
Without knowing what business you're talking about, it's hard to view this complaint as anything more than irrational defeatism.
3- Many of my employees would only come to work for me to learn my business secrets and to steal my clients. They would lure them by lying that they will get the same value and quality of service, but at the fraction of the price. After they stole enough clients, they would deliberately cause a lot of harm to my company to get themselves fired. They would then go to court, stating that I fired them illegally, and they would win the case. In the meantime, they would of course work happily for the stolen clientele, that has cost me a fortune to build up. And of course they would be offended. They would trumpet on all kind of forums, that they have worked for my company, they know what they're talking about. Not only it is very expensive, but the service is a piece of crap too.
Granted, I'm entirely unfamiliar with Hungarian employment law, but this also sounds like irrational defeatism, or at least a failure on your part to understand best practices in documenting employee behavior. In addition, why doesn't this cataclysmic issue affect the 9/hour competition?
4- Complaining about all this wouldn't help, no one would give a flying fuck.
Complaining about real issues is one thing. Complaining about the market when your business plan is pie-in-the-sky and everything and everyone is out to get you is quite another.