“We could do the website ourselves!” But why independence on La Palma?
First, it was a pragmatic decision to choose this island. After our A level exams, we needed some downtime and favored Spain for this. Looking for a vacation rental suitable for our financial scope, we found something on La Palma. There, we had discovered an inexpensive vacation rental matching our expectations. We quickly booked, and what was probably one of the most beautiful times in our lives started. We lived on the sunny island for two months. With our rental car, we discovered the island and found unique places, beautiful beaches and fascinating landscapes. We also got to know the friendly, open people and the tasty cuisine of La Palma.
It quickly became clear to us that La Palma is a special island. Every day, we fell a little more in love with this small island amidst the giant Atlantic Ocean.
Our idea was born from our own experiences looking for leisure opportunities. Specifically, it arose from our idea of a fishing trip on the island. After a while, we found a flyer that contained no direct booking opportunity. So we went to the address on the flyer. We ended up at a parking garage in the middle of the city. No port in sight, and somehow this looked more like a workshop than like a company offering fishing trips. Despite our bumpy search, we experienced a great trip and kept thinking about our idea.
Back in Germany, we started planning and writing up a business plan. After this hurdle was cleared, we had to fine-tune the idea and create a website. Alas, this is usually depicted much easier than it turned out to be. After several meetings and phone calls with web designers we found out that the website we mentioned would be way beyond our budget.
What to do? We got creative and decided to do the website ourselves. In our two-room apartment, we created a small workspace in the living room and simply started. After a while we found out that this way of working was pretty draining. We were only able to work on our website after our full-time job. This often meant working late hours. However, the idea of doing this for ourselves helped us to keep up our spirits and not lose our enthusiasm.
After many hours of learning new techniques, reading legal texts, getting some help from programmers and a nerve-wrecking, exciting time, we have made it. We are finally online!
