São Paulo – Opening up a business in a bureaucratic country such as Brazil is not an easy job for those coming from outside. It was in this task, eight years ago, that Syrian Husam Abboud saw an opportunity to help foreigners that, just like him, wanted to invest or open a company in the country, and founded consulting firm Establish Brazil.
Born in the city of Homs, Abboud arrived in the country in 2008 to visit relatives in the state of Goiás. He liked it here and decided to stay and open a language school. “I saw a lot of opportunities here, the country was growing, but I thought there was too much bureaucracy”, says the business owner about his experience of opening up a business in Brazilian land.
So, then, he changed the focus and started to help foreigners that wanted to establish themselves in the country at that time, with their eyes already on the 2014 World Cup. “They were businesses that had operation related to soccer and advertising”, he explains.
Today, the consulting firm has in its portfolio clients from many sectors, such as oil, pharmaceuticals, education, construction industry, investments, real estate, technology, sustainable energy, advertising, marketing, food, among others. According to Abboud, Establish Brazil helped approximately 50 companies and entrepreneurs to establish themselves in the country.
Among the services that the company offers are hiring of staff, advisory for bank credit, drafting of contracts, and assistance in other steps that involve the business and life of a foreigner in the country.
The origin of the companies with which the consulting firm works with is diverse. “We have clients from the United States, Europe, India, China, Japan, Chile, Argentina. Among Arabs, we have from the UAE, Syria, Jordan, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon”, says Abboud.
Lebanon, in fact, has been one of the main countries concerning the demand of people interested in establish themselves in Brazil in the last few months. “Particularly middle and upper middle class that are moving their families to Brazil via investor visas and permanent residency”, says Abboud.
He explains that any investors that spend BRL 500,000 in an existing or new business in the country qualify to receive the visa investor to themselves and their families, with the option of requesting the Brazilian citizenship in a couple of years. “Business owners from the Middle East see this as a great opportunity to secure a better future to their families”, he says.
However, there are less expensive ways to open up a business in Brazil. According to Abboud, with USD 5,000 it’s possible to start investing in the country, while to have establish a company with an office and some employees it’s necessary to invest around USD 50,000.
Asked if Brazil’s economic crisis has been affecting the interest of foreign companies to invest in the country, Abboud says that the crisis “is strongly affecting the image [of Brazil]”, but that, at the same time, it made it cheaper for companies to come here, “due to the dollar appreciation”.
According to him, to set itself in Brazil, currently, can cost 50% less for a foreign company in comparison to a couple of years back. The lower number of competitors also has been a pull factor for some foreigners. “A lot of companies went out of the market and this weaker competition opened up new opportunities”, he says.
Expansion
In 2014, Establish Brazil started to expand its operations and hire representatives in other countries, to offer consulting services both to foreigners interested in opening a business in Brazil and in other Latin American countries as to Brazilians that want to establish themselves abroad.
Today, Establish Global, a subsidiary of the Brazilian company, has representatives in the UAE, Colombia, Peru, Chile, United States and United Kingdom. Operations in Brazil, however, are still the main focus of Establish, with 80% of their clients being foreigners starting their businesses here.
To Abboud, besides bureaucracy, the main barrier faced by foreigners when starting a business in Brazil is not adapting their model of business to the country.
“The first reason why they can’t [achieve success] is to want to apply their business model here, not being open to learn how Brazilians want the product. They have to be always open to understand in which way the client is different here, they need to understand the needs of the client”, he warns.
Besides Abboud, Establish has other three partners, a Syrian and two Brazilians. Located in São Paulo, the consulting firm has 17 employees.
Establish Brazil
Website: www.establishbrazil.com
Phone: +55 (11) 2619-1982
Email: contact@establishbrazil.com
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
