Why Gringo Businesses FAIL in Costa Rica

hey guys I'm Michael Costa Rica now calm guys we get lots of emails about in Costa Rica you know how much money does it take you know is this a good idea or what I first want to start off by telling you that I would say out of every ten businesses Gringo's start 7 or 8 fail within the first year or two all right now I also want to start off by telling you that this video is not for rich people we're people that are can come down here and throw around the money this is this is a video for people that are thinking about changing their life want to maybe simplify their life they've saved a little bit of money but they need to still make money this videos you know more for you so anyway the two biggest reasons businesses fail here is one is people totally totally underestimate the amount of time it takes to start a business and they totally totally underestimate the cost it takes the start of business now you might be thinking hey I'm a budget guy I'm attention to detail I'm a task I work with in my you know my budget well that's good but I'm just telling you that it gets very slippery slope ish all right without you knowing it and I'm going to kind of explain that to you so so you're like you know you're at home you're doing your research maybe you run into some of our videos or whatever and you're like honey you know we could so do this you know we could do this so but eventually you're going to be talking to real estate people or lawyers I've got to tell you about lawyers lawyers I think our lawyers everywhere in the world if you know what I mean and they're no different here you're going to be talking to architectures we talking to people now you have to know that in the beginning you are going to get yes answers to your questions so when you say yeah I'm working on a budget and can we stay within this they're going to be like yeah course we'll probably end up saving you some money yes or can can I you know I have a timeframe with no nine months can the construction please oh yeah we know people yeah we'll probably be able to get done before that or they'll even say yes to you know dumbass ideas that Gringo's have like yeah I want to start a a nude yoga retreat slash dinosaur park next to the volcano and people be like yeah Wow that's nobody's doing that you could so do good on that so you have to know that you're gonna get yes answers alrighty now what now what ends up happening is you kind of tend to start gravitating toward let's say the realistic state guy let's say he's from your hometown or he seems cooler where you trial you think you trust him so you start now actually I don't know if you guys know me and Angelo story about coming down here but you might want to go here and our story and I think it could save you a lot of trouble you can learn from all our mistakes so if you're starting a business or something like that you might want to also go here but anyway you got to know that when you these people the real estate guy you think he's going to tell you that it's something is difficult he's going to mix things sound easy to you you know so what you should be doing at this time is you should be talking to 17 real estate people 19 lawyers 23 architects you should be doing your checks and balances you should be you know kind of trying to separate the fact from the fiction who sounds like you know you're more on the up-and-up people you know who you think you can trust who's giving you kind of the answers that sound more reasonable so you don't want to stop you're you're kind of doing your homework at this time alright so I don't know I this next part is the process of how they do things down here those you know paperwork and doing things is so unbelievably ridiculously inept it's it's truly it's like Keystone Cops I don't know so you think you're ready you think you've got your stuff your lawyer told you what to do and you know no you're in the wrong line no this needs to be notarized no you need the original with seventy three copies no what are you doing you have to go to San Jose you go to San Jose they tell you what are you doing here in San Jose you have to do that in the town you're from it's like it's like going to the bathroom with a person that opens the door another person that shows you to your stall another person that wipes your ass another person that turns on the water and gives you a paper towel another person that gives you the Cologne and the candy and it's like if one of those people aren't there you can't go the bathroom or you go into a bank and you ask the same question to four different people you get four different answers it's so unbelievable and you know what it's not a gringo thing this is not just towards Gringo's this is their process they even frustrate other Tico's with this but you know us being Gringo's were very you know task oriented we want to mark things off and and do them and though it's frustrating is you're like seriously this is it and they're gonna look at you with blank faces and and kind of like what's your problem this is how we do it here and you can't do nothing about it the only possible thing you could do about it is a bride I'm not telling you to bribe and I'm not even saying they would accept a bride I'm just telling you that that's how not in control the situation you are and how difficult it is with this with this process of doing things so what's this end up doing it ends up delaying so you have two weeks to maybe you were going to complete some things go back to the states get some more money whatever you don't end up completing it now you've got to come back so you incur more time more costs now you entered gringo pricing don't know what gringo pricing is it's exactly what the name implies you pay more for things than they do here so that house that they're selling for 50,000 once they know you're a gringo they're selling it to you for 85,000 that that carries over to goods and services and about everything else can be gringo price and really the only thing you can do about that maybe is to to to use a trusted Tico to do your bidding I don't really want to get into that right now but that's kind of the short answer on how to control that the other thing is tico time now tico times not like i was talking about the processes of things tipo time is is is they're not on your schedule they're very tranquilo here very laid-back they do things they do them and everybody's kind of good with that you know and so when you think you're getting your electrical put in on Monday yeah the fourth Monday so now now you're knee-deep into this you've got time and money invested you can't really go back and you don't want to go back if you keep plugging away you see in the light at the end of the tunnel you know you're a you're a soldier but and that doesn't even include if you need extra loitering which seems like you always need extra lawyer in here I tell you I'm just probably a few good lawyers out there I just got to tell you I hadn't found them yet so anyway what was supposed to be 75 thousand dollars is now a hundred and fifty thousand dollars what was supposed to be nine months is a year and a half to two two years now you're opening you're ready to start and you've got little money for marketing what you definitely need to do you've got maybe little money for operating expenses you need to make it now and we all know that that doesn't really happen like that Costa Rica is similar to the States you know you got to give yourself a year you need to be able to make it with money and everything else for about a year before you're going to be expecting any money to commit but if you've already lost the money you don't have any money to go for that year now you might be thinking but we know we read blogs we've seen people they make it down here what's what's the story well I got to tell you I'm not telling you to do this I'm telling you that some people slide under the radar put the cart before the horse they're not always on the up-and-up in their business or they may not be legit I'm not telling you to do that I'm just saying some people do do that now the solution to this is the if you think it's 50,000 that's it you need to tack on another you're probably going to need 140,000 now obviously these numbers are relative so if you got to be up and running or going in nine months you might want to give yourself a year and a half to two years so now if you can't do that if you can't if the decision comes in you can't do it then you shouldn't do it here don't come down you are not the exception to the rule you will not make it you will be one of the seven or eight that fail and you will have no money at the end of your day so anyway guys I'm Michael Allen travel Costa Rica now calm these guys over helps you [Music] you

Channel: TravelCostaRicaNow.com

Views: 54,885

Rating: 4.5040431 out of 5

Keywords: Costa Rica, business, moving, retiring, hotel, restaurant, expats

Id: 6K_n0FNqDg4

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 30 2012