Top 10 - Business in Brazil

Here is my Top 10 most important things when starting a business in Brazil.

As the country is so diverse, and so is the parts of Brazil. From the not so developed northeast, Amazon rainforest, huge cities of São Paulo (with ca 11 mil people inside the city), Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte and the capital Brasilia.

Many businesses, even foreigners is building there business in either Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, but so many forget about the capital. Of course Rio and S.P. is where the most people lives and most foreigners (so it's relative easier to do business). They seem to forget about the capital. 
Keep in mind Brasilia has around 2 mil people (incl. suburbs), but all the federal offices, embassies, and ministries are placed there. This brings a massive buying power, not influenced by general economy.


Here is my Top 10 advise for doing business in Brazil:

1) Personal permission
You need to have a staying visa and work visa in order to do your own business in Brazil. These laws can be tricky and bureaucratic.

2) Business legislations
It's very difficult to get to know all the laws and regulations of starting a business, let alone if you want to hire someone. So get local help from a consultant or start a Joint Venture with a local. There are great help to get from SEBRAE that is a state controlled institution to help micro and SME companies with start-ups, market surveys, consultants etc.

3) Language
Knowing portuguese will help you everywhere. From meetings with authorities, communication with customers, contracts with suppliers and general life. Brazilians are very helpful and friendly (in general), but not everybody speaks english. 

4) Have patience
There are lots of bureaucracy and everything with authorities is in portuguese. If you need to bring papers from your country they all need to be approved in your home country and then translated in Brazil, before they will consider your application. Coming from Denmark I was used to efficiency as keyword and strict time management, it's not like that in Brazil. If you, as a foreigner, practice the same (as I in used to in DK), they can be a conflict. 

5) Connections
In Rio and S.P. there is a dynamic business environment and as they are so big there are lots of possibilities. In Brazil in general, especially in Brasilia, connections is everything. It takes time to become close and get advantage of this. Many people express their willingness to help, but mostly they just want to benefit from you, until you get closer.

6) Open mind
As well as doing business a different place, you need to have an open mind and listen. Great benefits can be obtained with watching and listening to get more aquatinted with business life and personal life.

7) Bureaucracy
Get used to it. There are so many different authorities and public offices. When applying for certifications or approvals, in general they have 20 work days to answer, and if the reply is somehow wrong one can complain to a senior staff who has 20 work days to decide (and if you are right) sends answer to the staff who then have 20 work days more to reply to you.... it can take a long time.
And of course everything is in portuguese.
This can be helped by having a local business partner or a local consultant/lawyer.

8) Have some money
The interest rate is much higher than in many other countries (especially than DK), but you need to have the money transfer explained and approved by the bank and authorities. For small amounts one could simply used international credit cards from local country.

9) Import taxes
This can be tricky too. There is a high import tax for goods and the import itself involves additional paperwork and bureaucracy (get used to it). The tax level is around 60%. Comparing this to brazilian produced goods with no tax, you need to have special products for it to be profitable. This is of course done to keep labour work inside the country and not get flooded with imports.

10) Body language
As with most latin countries, people use lots of body language, loud voices and temper. For many people this seems intimidating, but is only part of communication. You are never in doubt of the meaning of the words coming out in these situations and in many cases it goes over once the steam is out.

This is just Top 10 - there are many other things to consider when either doing business here or moving here. The internet is great for getting prepared. Access brazilian forums for business, talk to your embassy, search the local government pages of Brazil (there are quit informative).

BRAZIL is a fantastisc country and very diverse. People are very friendly, great service and it's fascinating lively... so much different from cold, rainy northern Europe...

Have patience.....!

AS I am from Denmark, I am used to the keyword; efficiency. From the private businesses I have been part of and also in stores all around. The biggest reason is, of course, keeping the manpower costs as low as possible, optimizing the results and for competing internationally. 

In general, there have been a cut-back in service especially in physical stores, but also it has become very fashionable with online chat service or customer service in low-salary countries (outsourcing). With a relative high lowest salary allowed in DK (due to high taxes and the development) it makes the companies have less amount of people employed.

When looking at Brazil, the lowest allowed salary is (relatively) very low, so the number of employed people has less importance to the end result of the company. You have people filling your car with gas, always many sales persons in stores, always many people employed. 

BUT the service is sometimes too much - here is an example:
I went to a small hardware store in middle of the day with no other customers in the store. Firstly I was met by a friendly salesperson (no. 1) who helped me pick out a cooking spoon, after that I had to talk with another person (no. 2) to have the spoon registered in the system. At the other end of the store I had to pay (no. 3), and at no. 4 person (sitting right next to no. 3) she had to check my receipt and hand-out my spoon... It was fine because I was in no hurry and the people were very friendly so I could try my portuguese :-) But can you imagine being in a hurry and very busy, standing in line 4 different places...? 

The relative high basic salary level in Denmark has resulted in companies optimizing the number of employees (for the fewest possible). At the same time DK is so rich that unemployment money is so high that for the lowest educated people, they don't financially benefit from working - and people can choose (if they bend the rules a little) wether they want to work or not... 
This way the companies doesn't pay for them, the government does => higher taxes...

So it still feels as too much service with all these people helping you, and you can rarely "jump in a store, shop and quickly move on"... Deep breathing is very helpful :-)

At the end of the day, it is still better to have it this way of too much service, rather than the government paying them for not working at all.

Super dry season

Since it haven't been raining since june, it is now very dry and very warm. Schools are not allowing students to play outside between 10am-6pm due to the very dry and warm weather. I can only imagine what this means for all the elderly people or all the ones that have to work outside.

Temperatures up to 40 degrees and humidity down to 7%, which is the level of the deserts... Or to put it an other way - it takes around two hours to dry jeans after washing when its hanging inside. 

So, I and everybody else is longing for the rain to come, which will be very soon !

Ever since June, when I arrived at Brasilia, it has been sunshine with blue skies every day. For me that is just fantastic. Combine this with access to cold pools or public natural baths, its amazing.

As I am from Denmark, I am used to the summer being round 20 degrees and being lucky if there were several days in a row with sunshine. Most of the time its grayish and around 18-20 degrees in the summertime. Here it feels like summer all the time. 

For these last few days there has been a strange look in the sky. It seems like its foggy, with low visibility and sometimes there is a heavy breeze coming by. Its very strange. 

Check the morning picture below the foggy view.

This is only surprising for foreigners as there are air-conditions and humidifiers everywhere. Still the walk form your parked car to the air-condition can be very warm (if you are from a cold country). For me its a challenge just to wear long pants and closed shoes....

Why is it so difficult to be international?

Its no different to which country you want to move. All the paperwork needs to be done according to local requirements, of course. But is it really necessary this way... :

1) first make your local authority print and sign your papers
2) get your local Foreign Minister office to sign off that it is official
3) get the embassy to the country you are moving to approve the local Foreign Miniters signature
4) go to your new country and get a translation to the new language, from an authorised translator 
5) then you can use the papers for the new local authorities
 - AND all of these costs money (of course)...

This is no different from what I am going through, these days. I already moved to Brazil, with my future wife and child, and so I need some documents from Denmark. Luckily I moved to a relative easy country and just need the above mentioned done. To get a permanent stay in Denmark is even more difficult.

On top of all this paperwork add:
- have stayed legally 5 years in DK (to get this you need ca. $6.000 in bank account too)
- no criminal record
- no debt to public authorities
- go through a point system
- learn some danish (which is very difficult) and take a language test 
Then you can apply.
Read more here: https://www.nyidanmark.dk/da-dk/Ophold/permanent-ophold/permanent-ophold.htm. 
The rules  are very complicated and you might receive different information from different authorities. Great!

Here in Brazil its a little different. You can not get a working visa, unless a company wants to hire you, if you can bring something to the company that local employees can not and foreign employees does not exceed a certain percentage. Then you can stay as long as you are working for this company.
For me, I want to stay with my future wife, and then the country is secondary. So another way is to get married and then apply for a temporary visa. After several years one could apply for a permanent visa.

So moving to Brazil with higher education, good working experience, an international mindset and wants to work for my money - WHY is it that difficult to be accepted (in these countries) ?

Why is it so difficult to move between countries? 

Is it really that unfair to give positive treatment if you:
- have education
- not expecting unemployment pay
- wants to integrate
- wants to work for the money
- learn local language
- respect local laws
Isn't that want the countries are needing in the future???

Language problems...

Language problems ?

One of the biggest problems in Brazil is the language. 
In Brazil they speak portuguese, and very few in restaurants, bars, supermarkets, post offices, police, federal offices and businesses speak english. One reason is that most music and television programs are Brazilian or synchronized to portuguese. Once you talk with more educated people they speak english. But the problem is all the day-to-day issues.
Of course this is a great way for foreigners moving here, because your portuguese language skills will improve much faster. The Brazilians have more patience and are willing to help, even with a smile (this is not as common in Europe in general, France especially).

Problems can occur once you have to:
- apply for your CPF no. (personal no.)
- extension of tourist visa, local driver license
- going to the hospital or 
- if you have to talk with the police  (for some reason)
they usually don't speak english!
(Meeting people on the street and try to communicate can be fun...)

In Denmark, where I am from, we have lots of english/american music and no synchronization of television programs. This helps the danes speak english better, but also not optimal for foreigners in DK to learn danish.

So, I guess there are some challengers.... foreigners coming to Brazil (especially with the coming World Cup 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 Rio de Janeiro) and for Brazilians moving abroad. 
Millions of tourists are coming to Brazil the coming years, especially for the sports events, but also because of all the media coverage that will focus on Brazil. The local restaurants, bars, shops, supermarkets etc. can benefit (and improve sales) if they learn some english. All the tourists must be aware of this language issue... so if you are going be aware and prepared!

With all this attention on Brazil (with the growing economy) foreign companies that want to invest here on to export to Brazil will have issues like:
- import costums
- authorities approval
- distributions
- banks
- investments
many authorities do not speak english!

For the Brazilians that are going to study or travel abroad, you will have great benefits of knowing some english in advance. Not that many people around the world speak portuguese (or spanish), neither at authorities or hospitals. 

The missing language can give you many difficulties, but stepping one step closer to each other, and you will both benefit greatly !

So.... if you should have any questions or if you need some help with translation of want to know more of both portuguese and english language or cultural differences - I can help you !!