2020 marks the 10-year anniversary of my moving to Colombia and starting a company with my business partner. This personal retrospective explains why I haven’t regretted it for a moment. Many people called us crazy, leaving our comfortable corporate positions behind and moving to a country infamous for its violent past imposed by drug cartels, Guerilla and paramilitaries. But we saw positive signs starting to emerge in spite of the country’s bad reputation. The security situation was improving, international investment was slowly starting to increase, so was tourism. We believed that these signs were only the beginning of a significant upturn and our hopes were not only met but exceeded. Still, it took a leap of faith and a lot of hard work to build our company Ongresso.

Was wir Dir bieten:

Ein internationales Umfeld mit verschiedensten spannenden Projekten im B2B und B2C Segment. Ob eine auf Künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) basierenden Dronentechnologie zur Landvermessung, die von Malaysia nach UAE expandiert werden soll, Maskenerkennungssoftware aus Tschechien für weitere Europäische Länder, patentierte Handytrocknungs-Kits oder Verpackungstechnologie aus Mexiko, für die wir weltweit neue Märkte erschliessen, bei uns gleich kein Produkt und kein Kunde dem anderen. Wir bieten Dir viel Raum für Entwicklung und Wachstum und freuen uns auf Dein Engagement!

Deinen Arbeitsplatz kannst Du frei wählen, zuhause, im CoffeeShop, bei uns im Office in der Hamburger City. Die Abrechnung erfolgt auf Stundenbasis, oder als Minijob, wie es Dir lieber ist.

Die vollständige Stellenbeschreibung siehe unten. Bitte sende einen kurzen Lebenslauf an jobs@expandeers.com

We are searching for solutions which are flexible and future-proof. Legal requirements may change or disappear altogether. A.I. solutions are future-proof, as other usage scenarios are also possible. This includes implementation of other security aspects or the possibility to analyze and evaluate the purchasing behavior. At the same time, requirements regarding data security and system simplicity must be considered. The webinar will present concrete solutions and give you the opportunities to discuss further.  You will receive exclusive insights and suggestions and you will have the opportunity to ask the attending experts live.

THREE WAYS TO START OPERATIONS

There are three ways to begin operations in Peru:

1. Company formation

2. Independent contractors

3. Professional Employer Organization (PEO)

1. Company formation

Establishing a legal entity is the most time consuming and complex of the three expansion options. However, it gives you the most control over your workforce and operations in a foreign country and is the only option that allows you to hold fixed assets like real estate. If you have completed a thorough market investigation and are committed to a long term growth investment in Peru, company formation is likely the best option. Expandeers Partner Ongresso can help you to accomplish this in 6 weeks.

While there is a more significant investment of time and money when establishing a legal entity, some businesses choose to outsource back office tasks related to HR, accounting, tax and legal to external specialists to reduce complexity and time spent on non-core activities. This allows them to become operational faster with a smaller team and put their principal focus on strategic instead of administrative tasks.

Based on the average exchange rate of 2019, the Brazilian Real has depreciated by -18% against the US dollar since 2015 and eroded by -7.5% from 2018 to 2019. Brazil’s weaker local currency make Brazilian exports paid for in US$ less expensive for international buyers.  Brazil is the world export champion for many commodities, but few people take into consideration that Brazil manufactures planes (which operate in Germany, for example), cars, transformers, electric motors and generators of all sizes, machine tools, roller bearings, other standard parts and many of the components that are necessary for the manufacturing of machines and systems.

Compliance with international standards such as ISO 9000 is absolutely common in Brazil. Also, Brazil allows contracts to be in any language, as long as both parties can understand them and certain rules are followed. The pace of every negotiation depends on the place or city where it is held. How to find the right supplier and how to ensure that you get what you want, without any problems? Buying something is mostly easy, if you know the supplier already. Sourcing is the process of finding the right supplier, who can either be a manufacturer, importer or distributor.

Expandeers can assist you regarding any sourcing in Brazil and putting the overall process of procurement in place. With Expandeers' associates Karlheinz and Holger we will get the right pricing and delivery conditions negotiated for you. Furthermore, financial health and references of the suppliers can be verified and delivered to you. Whether you need steel scrap for your foundry, standard parts for your production or subassemblies, units such as pumps, compressors, but also frequency converters, tools, devices, aluminum profiles, glass parts and complete machines, e.g. lathes, milling machines, drilling machines, machining centers, special machines – contact us at Latam@expandeers.com to learn how we can support your business.   

Expandeers is a multilingual global professional network of senior business development experts, providing reliable expansion support to SME around the world; we offer full Expansion Management and expansion services to SME in many ways: From strategy, set up, sales, market entry, marketing, digital business, business development up to sourcing and staffing - we cover all segments a business could ask for when growing ambitions are high.

Karlheinz and Holger are the managing partners of EUROLATINA LTDA. in São Paulo, a company that has been helping industrial companies from Central Europe for more than 25 years in order to conduct business in South America, with a focus on Brazil. As an engineer and business economist with many years of international experience, they complement each other and understand the concerns of our customers.    

Bill Gates - the prophet?

In a TED lecture in 2015, Bill Gates already said that "There will probably be no more World Wars, but we will all have to fight pandemics and viruses. Instead of NATO - with always available troops - we need doctors, researchers and companies that work together encountering an outbreak and be able to end it quickly, and they need to be ready for action at any given time. It is a global task”. As we can see now Bill Gates was not heard in 2015.

Restrictions affect everybody, social contacts suffer. Schools and day care centers close, children must be looked after, homeschooling shows the digital deficits of schools and institutions in general. And companies? Shops are forcibly closed. Employees drop out due to company guidelines, due to illness or because of quarantine, have to look after their children or work in the home office ("working remotely" if one could). Covid-19 therefore means that end consumers can no longer buy in a classical way as they used to do it. The reasons for that obviously are that they no longer have the time to go shopping, should not actually go out at all, do not want to spend their disposable income, earn less through short-time work or even lay-offs, or simply see no point in “shopping”. The primary factor, however, is that stores were simply closed down by governmental order. This virus means that shops can no longer sell and consumers are no longer allowed to buy. No sales, no earnings ... that cannot be survived for long, as costs and claims (third-party as well as own) remain unchanged.

Yes, a crisis. But yes, let's carry on now!

Crisis !!!! Everything is bad, challenging, awful times. Absolutely out of question. But live has to go on - we all have to carry on. As an entrepreneur, you have a responsibility towards society, employees, but also family and yourself. So keep your eyes open and get through with your new start. No crisis lasts forever. The question is how do you deal with this crises, how do you get through the crisis and how could you possibly take advantage of opportunities to advance your company further or even reinvent it over all?