Greatcornbow It looks like the guy has moved in the last years from the UK to Austria, which can be an exciting exercise.
According to this entry in our WK, he does have a business license at this place since 2019 for craftwork with non-precious metals, which would fit.
Which means. at least the following things:
- the poor guy has been paying for the last 4 years social insurance in Austria.
- he was clever enough to move onto the continent (assuming he's a Briton) his EU citizen rights before they expired. (But why Austria? OTOH, the place is really nice.)
- he's hardcore (he claims he speaks no German, that must have been nerve wrecking, dealing with the Austrian bureaucracy)
- his website is semilegal (he has some of the information an Austrian website requires, but technically it's not a legal imprint)
Without having any contact with the guy, it perfectly looks like a small Austrian handicraft business, operated by a non-native who has extra pains being compliant. Running a small business is a never ending trial to find a balance between doing admin work, and real work that earns the money.
(As a cynic, he might be earning more doing artful metal fences for rich folk, than belts.)