Taking Care of Business

Shaun did a lot of work this week, with meetings in both Maceio and Recife. These two cities are the capitals of the two states we are looking at working in; Maceio of Alagoas, and Recife of Pernumbuco. On Wednesday Shaun and his dad headed off to Recife at around 8:30 in the morning, for a meeting at 10:30. He met with Jucepe, which is where you register your business in Pernumbuco. He found out that to register in Pernumbuco you have to go to here and then there and then somewhere else. It would take 20 business days to register. After this they met with the secretary of economic development, this is the area that promotes business and also provides assistence and incentives to attract businesses. There are many ways the government is trying to bring business to the state. Then they met with the SEBRAE in Recife, which is the small and medium sized business association , which helps business through the whole process of getting started and helping out while running. It was an adventerous day and lots of things were learnt. They arrived home at 8:30 at night. Shaun's mom and I had spent the day together hanging out with the kiddies, reading, relaxing.

The next day Shaun and his dad headed out to Maceio, another 2 hour drive. They had one meeting with the SEBRAE of Alagoas. They were very impressed with the ease and efficiency that Alagoas has arranged for registering a business, as well as tax incentives. The tax breaks ended up looking to be the same as in Pernumbuco (which is significant because the land we looked at is in Alagoas), but to register a business in Maceio you need to just go to one place, where they have all the areas you need lined up, and it takes two days. Maragogi, however, takes 20 days as well. There is a lady who works for SEBRAE in Maceio helping businesses get set up, and she also works for the mayor of Maragogi every Friday. She does things such as create business plans for free which small businesses may need to apply for bank loans or permanent visas. She helps businesses get registered and also informs them of possible government incentives. So immediately she had a meeting set up for them on Friday with the mayor of Maragogi.

So on Friday Shaun and Dad headed into Maragogi for a meeting with the mayor. This is exciting because in Maragogi the mayor has a lot of power in regards to land and tax breaks. Much of the land of Brazil, when it was colonized, became land that belonged to the cities. The cities have much power in regards to granting it to poor people who can't afford land, or businesses who want to get set up, or even to use the land, especially if it will offer jobs to the local people. So the mayor of Maragogi, Marcus Madeira, was excited about the prospect of this business in his community, and has told Shaun that he will do everything he can to help them, and if he has problems let him know. (The parade we saw on Sunday was for the son of the mayor, who is running for Deputy Governor).

Incidentally, the land we were looking at in Peroba, which is considered part of Maragogi, looks like it is unavailable, as there are a number of owners and they are in disagreement in regards to selling it.

So there are a couple of things Shaun and I have to work on. First of all we need a CPF, which is like a social insurance number. We have heard it is fairly easy to get, we just need to go to a post office. Then Shaun has to decide where to register his business, probably contingent on where we find land. Oh, and of course, first we have to find land. We also have to decide which equipment to buy. Shaun was thinking to buy equipment that is made in Brazil, that should do the job, at least for the first few years, and is relatively cheaper than other equipment. The problem is it sounds like it would need to be modified because it would crush the peat too much and change the nutritional value. So Shaun would like to go to Seragipe next week, which is another state one over, as there is a company there that uses this machinery, and see how it works. The other possibility for equipment is different equipment manufactured here, or in Malaysia.

Some other news we have is we think we have found a partner for the business. From the beginning, and in regards to all his research about working in Brazil, Shaun thought it was important to have a Brazilian on board, to understand the language, the culture, and be able to communicate with all the agencies involved in starting and running a business. We ran into a couple who currently live in Belgium. He is Brazilian, born and raised, and he married the daughter of former missionary, who is also Brazilian, but moved to Holland when she was younger. So they speak Dutch, Portuguese, and English. This is also great because Shaun has contacts for selling Coco Peat to a Dutch company and selling Coco fibre through someone in Portugal, who wants to distribute it. So this couple understands Brazilian and western culture, and he is also business minded, and they both wanted to move back here for some time. We presented the idea to them and they were very interested. They left to go back home at the beginning of last week and already the gentleman has been emailing Shaun with some great ideas for gaining product and is very excited about the opportunity here.

Shaun also has a meeting scheduled on Tuesday with the Secretary of Economic Development of Alagoas. So in general things are finally picking up here, and it looks to be a couple of busy weeks before we go home. But today, seeing as it is a gorgeous Saturday, we are off to swim at a hotel with some friends. It's caipirosca weather, after all! Have a wonderful weekend everyone!