How To Bringing In Dollars To Bs As For Possible Business

[sleslie23]

One of the reason Iam planning on this venture is due to and part of the reason is that, The Tsunami devastated regions of North east coast pacific side of Japan has many culinary experts and to this date not much else to do for these fine professionals that can cook the: Sushi, Tempuras, Tonkatsus, the Yakitoris and other palating dishes of Japan. Thus putting those unemployed cuisine experts to good use, and thinking of Bs As or Santiago de Chile. However these cheffs are young enough but for me, in Chile there are non health plans available for elder folks as me over the age of 60! So gathering infos if I make over to the Argentina side. Many asked me why not Peru. But I have been in Peru and can not able to stand those Peruanos..Besides, the enormous amount of toxic, antibiotic and water injected chickens they the nation loves to consume every day..I want to go to a place that eats beef,sea food, poultries and healthier somewhat and the pasta eating nation can be not that bad. But that is me thinking, I could be very wrong but trying to gather infos, for the time beeing! So much obliged to all forum members that can throw your 2 cents worth in here!

If you do open a restaurant, I will probably eat there every day!

 

[HenryNisental]

My dear Oriental friend: in my modest opinion, the best that you could do is to open a bank account in near Uruguay (in US dollars).
Then you can tranfer your funds there without any major loss. Next you can visit here and see for yourself the market possibilities. If I were you, Sao Paulo (Brazil) may be a better and larger market due to the the large Japanese colony there.

 

[French jurist]

Like said Henry, open a bank account in Uruguay, it takes 45 minutes to do so (you'll need to explain the origin of the funds though).
Furthermore, having the money ready on the other side of the river: protects you + allows you to master the time (like if there's sudden a big economical crash here = you'll have an incredibly great windows of opportunities for 2 months = my Uruguayan friends bought a pH in Cabrera x Bonpland for 40.000 USD in january or february 2002... It's likely worth now 5 times more, at least).

Opening a restaurant (one of my dreams) is great, but it has a well deserved reputation of being a very demanding business, with many risks, a lot of turnover for the employees (get ready for lawsuits...), etc. You already know that of course but well, when you add to that all the trouble with the inspectors & authorities (check the story of the Candy store of David, one of the members here), it's not for the faint hearted.

 

[Ceviche]

u can open a restaurant here. nothing weird about it. but u will have competition.

 

[Montauk_Project]

Come here. Get a pensioner visa. Get the lay of the land for 6 months AT LEAST. Learn Spanish. Find a reliable partner (not easy). Do market research. Then see what business to open.

 

[French jurist]

Life can be paradoxal at times, one opens a Sushi restaurant, and might end up eaten, not alive, but in a crude way.

 

[Ceviche]

Life can be paradoxal at times, one opens a Sushi restaurant, and might end up eaten, not alive, but in a crude way.

cmon , dont exaggerate so much. if a person has the b*lls, he can do it here despite everything . A little tougher but not as tough as u guys are proclaiming.

And most importantly, remember in life.. "no pain..= no gain".

I see many expats whom I encounter in BA, sitting jobless eating their retirement funds or doing some low jobs as teaching English or other languages or doing some smalls jobs for a Argentine business. And the moment they sight a would-be expat entrepeneur, they take out their swords to kill him/her immediately.

Is it case of jealousy or sour grapes?

 

[Ries]

I think it would be hard to make it with a real japanese restaurant, with a measly hundred grand.
Now, more than ever before, there is a possibility it would work- there are more, edgier cuisine restaurants than ever before, many serving stuff that, only a few years ago, the "conventional wisdom" said argentines wouldnt eat.

But you would definitely need a knowledgable argentine partner, to navigate all the shoals- simply importing decent fish to serve would be a big hurdle.

Most world class japanese restaurants anywhere in the world- LA, London, Moscow, or Singapore- fly in fresh fish daily. Many have to fly in real wasabi, or nori, or even the right tasting burdock root.
Most of these authentic ingredients are just not available in BsAs, but, compounding the problem, importing stuff is harder, slower, and more expensive in Argentina than in probably 90% of the world.
Figuring out if its even possible to get daily air shipments of fish from Tsukji would take a while, and definitely require a connected Argentine partner.

Even in LA, really really good sushi can cost hundreds of dollars per person- and thats in a place with dozens of daily flights from Tokyo, and easy customs and import rules.
It is possible- restaurants like Olsen get stuff in, somehow, that you sure cant buy at Disco.

Argentine fish is not gonna cut it- the quality, and variety, is simply not there.
All the good stuff, worldwide, gets auctioned at Tsukji anyway, no matter if its from Chile or Alaska.

I dont think you would believe the stuff they call "sushi" here- canned tuna fish and cream cheese. Bastardized suburban california sushi, which there is made by mexican cooks in vietnamese restaurants, is better than most Buenos Aires sushi.
The worst part is- people here LIKE cream cheese on their sushi.

You absolutely have to come down for a month, and do your homework, before you even consider what kind of restaurant you could possibly open.

A ramen restaurant, something like Momofuko (except I am quite sure you aint no Chang) would probably be a better place to start.
Argentines already know they like noodles. And pork. And chicken. Miso, maybe a bit more of a stretch...

 

[sleslie23]

cmon , dont exaggerate so much. if a person has the b*lls, he can do it here despite everything . A little tougher but not as tough as u guys are proclaiming.

And most importantly, remember in life.. "no pain..= no gain".

I see many expats whom I encounter in BA, sitting jobless eating their retirement funds or doing some low jobs as teaching English or other languages or doing some smalls jobs for a Argentine business. And the moment they sight a would-be expat entrepeneur, they take out their swords to kill him/her immediately.

Is it case of jealousy or sour grapes?

I think you're the one who is exaggerating.

I admire anyone who has the balls to start a business here, but not every type of business is suitable for every location. As you well know, Argentina is not for the faint of heart, and certainly not a good place to learn as you go.

 

[Canick]

to the best of my knowledge if you bring money in USD in to your bank account (assuming you can get one), it will be converted into pesos at the official rate.
I had a bank account here when i was not a resident some years ago, but i think that has changed.
the best way to maximize the USD-peso rate in blanco is the contado con Liqui option also mentioned many times on the site. (you buy arg bonds in usd from another country-then transfer bond into argentina then sell bonds in pesos at just below blue rate).
i also like the send the money to uruguay option and learn a bit more about your business and how it would work here.
good luck
n