Anyone Interested in Starting a Business Venture

[Davidglen77]

For anybody thinking about starting a business "venture" in Buenos Aires here's a perfect example of what awaits you.......

http://baexpats.org/expat-life/13010-buenos-aires-not-faint-hearted.html

 

[Quinn]

Hi,

I am a young American male here in BA for 4 months. I quit my Investment Banking job to come here and would love to figure out a way to have an online business and stay here or keep traveling and make money. I was wondering if anyone out there is interested in maybe starting a venture or networking or something. I have a few ideas for website ideas, but obviously don't want to type them out on here, but would love to find people who might be interested. Let me know...I live in Palermo

That's the life I live now. Clients based in US and Europe, I live in BA. It works well. PM me, I might have some ideas.

 

[JonM]

There's no reason or advantage to incorporating or basing an online business venture in Argentina. From a business perspective, if you're simply doing geo-arbitrage to lower your living expenses it makes sense, but there aren't many other business reasons.

If you are interested in technology ventures in South America check out Startup Chile. They're handing out green cards and seed capital to founders. I have zero first hand knowledge, but they have been doing a lot of things like this to attract technology entrepreneurs.

 

[jago25_98]

If you're someone who wants an alternative income safe from their own government and wishes to do things a "different" way, Argentina forces an attitude change to hiding from government rather than working with it -
Incognito & en negro, not job like things.

Starlucia is right, while in BA I also saw many opportunities - too many to choose. I just had a sense that things can happen, despite what the professional upper class say.

If you go in from the start with the knowledge that everything has to act in a black ops kind of way you can make a go of it I'm sure because 1) You got more trust than the locals, and trust is the base of wealth and 2) You got more positivity than the locals (and established expats) and 3) probably more funds than the locals who have the positivity.

In my work I regularly meet people from Indonesia, Norway and my home UK. Many I work with have no idea what to do with thier savings right now. Those people would do wise to dedicate a small section of thier funds to a hedged selection of alternative business enterprise under the radar or at least just a little different to the rest of a safe portfolio.

Though I've stayed out of traditional businesses for the reasons DavidGlen diligently points outs and also from watching my father actually lose freedom to a successful business, I'm chafing at the bit to get into something that fits overwhelmingly with opportunity.

I suggest setting up a short mailing list, meet up and keep open and generous.

 

[JonM]

man I'm in the wrong business..

I know a lot of people who make their living online. It takes time and is not as instant as people think, but if you give yourself a 6 - 18 month runway to start generating income it's quite possible.

 

[elhombresinnombre]

...Most restaurants don't have their menus online, and there is nothing more annoying than trying to pick a new place without being able to check out what they actually offer.

I'm almost ashamed to admit this but, on a scale of one to ten of most annoying things, not being able to check a restaurant's menu online doesn't even register for me.

 

[JonM]

I'm almost ashamed to admit this but, on a scale of one to ten of most annoying things, not being able to check a restaurant's menu online doesn't even register for me.

Same here for me, but what "I" do is probably the worst way to assess a business opportunity. Doing some keyword research and digging into restaurant search activity in Buenos Aires might paint a different picture or highlight an opportunity to go about traffic acquisition from another angle.

The first thing I do when thinking about any online business is keyword research. Keyword research is analysis on what people actually type in search engines to search for "x", how often, and how competitive is it to rank for the query.

A free place to start is the Google Keyword Selector Tool where I grabbed the snapshot above.

 

[Johnno]

...and assuming web page design is still the way it was when I was messing around with it a few years ago you can then embed these key words into your homepage in a way that your website very quickly gets up near the top of the search results - although I'm guessing that by now its not quite so simple because everyone else will be doing the same tricks lol

 

[JonM]

...and assuming web page design is still the way it was when I was messing around with it a few years ago you can then embed these key words into your homepage in a way that your website very quickly gets up near the top of the search results - although I'm guessing that by now its not quite so simple because everyone else will be doing the same tricks lol

lol, I wish. The number one factor that will determine your site's ranking in the search engine pages results is the number of relevant, high-authority links pointing to your site.

Google is also starting to put more weight on social signals from web services like Twitter and social signals are probably going to gain more importance. Thus, you might want to seriously factor social into your traffic and content strategy.

 

[citygirl]

Starlucia is right, while in BA I also saw many opportunities - too many to choose. I just had a sense that things can happen, despite what the professional upper class say.

If you go in from the start with the knowledge that everything has to act in a black ops kind of way you can make a go of it I'm sure because 1) You got more trust than the locals, and trust is the base of wealth and 2) You got more positivity than the locals (and established expats) and 3) probably more funds than the locals who have the positivity.

Those of us who advocate caution aren't doing it because we're bitter or jaded. We're actually experienced. I started a business here, my best friend started a business here, my SO runs a business here and most of my contacts are business owners. We're pretty aware of the challenges and risks and there is a very good reason we all say OJO! Seriously, it's not bitter or jaded - unless you've done it, you really and truly can't imagine the complications involved in business here, en negro or en blanco.

That being said, if the OP wishes to establish a business that is off the radar, enjoy and wish you all the luck in the world!

PS - Buenos Aires Delivery (whomever mentioned them) - most awesome. Menus on-line, super helpful and responsive, great service - huge thumbs up to them.