Expat Entrepreneurs: Kristin from Kristin Duncombe Therapy

In this series, I feature expats who started their own business abroad. From food to fashion, art to tourism — these women had the guts and confidence to pursue their passions and turn it into something bigger. Check out previous interviews here.

I’ve loved featuring artsy creative types so far, but I was interested to hear about Kristin’s story because she ventured into a business far more academic: psychology. Find out why and how this American moved to France and set up her own practice, and how to avoid the costly mistake that made her leave Paris.

1. Tell us a little about yourself and your life before Paris.

I moved to Paris in 2001, from Uganda, where I had been living and working for two and a half years. Prior to that I had been in Kenya, and prior to that I had been all over the place, from the United States (where I am from), to the many countries in Africa and Asia my family lived in when I was growing up (I am a Foreign Service brat).

2. Why did you move to Paris?

There are two answers to this question. The “simple” one is that I moved to Paris because my husband had a professional opportunity.

The truth is that he didn’t really want to move to Paris, but we were at a point in our lives that if we didn’t settle down some place that was acceptable to both of us, we weren’t going to make it as a couple. He is from central Argentina, where he spent the first 26 years of his life, and is emotionally and culturally still very rooted. Having travelled so much throughout my childhood, I really struggled with a sense of rootlessness as a young adult.

Moving to Paris was a compromise that allowed him to stay professionally engaged with Médecins Sans Frontières, and allowed me to create a home base.

3. What was the hardest part about moving to Paris?

Honestly, there was little that was hard — at the beginning. (The hard part comes later!) Those first months in Paris I kept telling people that I felt that I had a guardian angel looking out for me. I got my residence papers with work permit quickly and with zero hassle, and found work quickly — albeit outside of my field, but at least it gave me some income — and I was basically in a state of euphoria to be in the most beautiful city in the world after what had been a rather traumatic and dramatic departure from our life in East Africa.

A few months after getting settled in Paris I was ready to start work in my chosen fields, Psychotherapy and Health Education (I have Masters degrees in clinical Social Work and Public Health). I very quickly realized that I would never get hired by any French establishment, as by training — but also by culture, I suspect — I was just too foreign.

Once I got my head around that, I realized that what I needed to do was become self-employed. It felt daunting at first — I had never imagined myself in “private” practice — but it turned out to be shockingly easy to get set up. I went to the appropriate administrative offices, armed with a stack of novels, thinking I was going to be sitting there all day long waiting for someone to make time for me only to send me away, discouraged…but no, I was in and out in a matter of minutes, signed up with the requisite papers to begin my private practice.

4. Tell us a little bit about your practice.

Once I was “legal” to work, I began networking like crazy in the expat community: embassies, international schools, women’s associations, etc., to provide health education and therapy services to those in need of an English speaking practitioner. As a therapist I tend to work very behaviorally, and have been able to marry that angle with my background in health education to offer seminars for teenagers and parents on dealing with substance abuse, eating disorders, anxiety, transition and cultural adjustment.

Having been an expat most of my life, I have been able to bring my personal experience together with my professional training to create a very successful private therapy practice and consulting business.

5. What was your biggest fear in starting your company, and how did you overcome that?

The biggest fear was linked to this question: what does it mean to be self-employed, versus hired with a salary, benefits etc. In my mind I had to make the leap that I could give myself “permission” to do the work I am trained (and love) to do, versus getting the “permission” to do it (in the form of a salaried job).

6. What surprises, either positive or negative, have you encountered in running your company?

The biggest surprise has just recently come, and is certainly more a reflection of how I function than really anything about being in France.

As I said earlier, everything about getting started in France was easy, surprisingly so, as I had also heard nothing but horror stories about dealing with the French administration, bureaucracy, etc. All these years I have worked, very happily and enthusiastically. As it turns out, I have loved being my own boss, and I feel very inspired as a therapist and community educator. I always plugged my ears to the messages (wise, as it turns out!) some people delivered along the way: that I was working too much and that in France it does not pay to do so.

I guess I am very American this way, as all I could ever think in response was how could I be working too much? Do understand: I never surpassed a 40-hour work week. I have kids, and other interests, so it’s not like I was ever down at the office until the wee hours, or working weekends, etc. The message that I was working “too much” was in reponse to what I thought was a normal amount of time to invest in one’s beloved work.

To make a long story short, about eighteen months ago I moved with my family to Lyon, where I also launched my Therapy and Consulting practice. At the same time I continued to commute to Paris two days per week to keep my Paris activities alive. Then about a year ago the French tax administration, which I had come to believe had been wrongly accused as being difficult and inflexible, got in touch with me to say that in fact, I had earned too much money and had not taxed my clients properly, and that I now had to pay a small fortune to the administration in VAT back taxes!

I should clarify here that no therapist has ever gotten rich working a 40-hour week. My earnings these last years have actually been very modest. But what I did not know was that a law had changed in 2009, saying that any mental health practitioner without the requisite French diploma would be subject to the VAT. This meant that as of 2010 I should have been charging VAT and paying VAT back to the administration. I had no idea that this was the case — and that is the part that is a reflection of howI operate: I just forge ahead, building building building, without meticulously studying all the rules and regulations, reading the fine lines, etc.

I still don’t know how I was supposed to have known that the law changed — and my expert comptable has not been able to account for that either. But the bottom line is, overnight, all my ideas that it was actually “so easy” to be in business here changed! I was hit with a big debt that has forced me to reconsider everything about my professional life. I don’t earn enough to pay back the taxes, along with all the other expenses that go into being self-employed (overhead plus social charges, which are considerable) and still stay afloat between two cities.

So, I am retiring my practice in Paris and will significantly reduce my activity and just stay in Lyon. It has been a big shock and a source of a lot of anguish and shame (How could I have been so stupid?) but it’s not life and death: Just a hard learning experience.

7. What’s the best part about the business?

The best part of the business has been the work itself. I can honestly say that it has been a huge pleasure to get up and go to work every day these last ten years.

8. What’s the worst/hardest part?

The hardest thing for me has been trying to understand “the rules.” I have a hard enough time understanding tax papers and legalese in English. Trying to navigate those things in French has been extremely difficult — and you see, I failed!

9. How has this improved or impacted your professional experience?

I had my own mental health crisis when I realized how I had messed up. However, I take it as a sign that it is time to do something else. I recently published my first book, Trailing: A Memoir, and now that I understand that it doesn’t pay to work fulltime, I have decided to scale back my work time and write another book.

Funnily, I guess it’s the dreaded French administration that has given me “permission” to work less and write more.

10. What advice would you give for future entrepreneurs in Paris or abroad?

Unless you speak perfect French and understand taxes, legalese, etc, do not attempt to be in business without a guide! You may think you understand how things work, but if you are like me, you will learn the hard way that in fact, you understood only a fraction of what was necessary to function appropriately. If it seems too easy to be true, it probably is.

To learn more about Kristin, check out her website or her book, Trailing: A Memoir.