www.CostaRicaTicas.com

It's not Oscar or Ronie, is it?

Nope. Its a another parasitic gringo, ripping off other gringos. He even knows people know, so he just hussles the newbies in CR. I watched (and even tried preventing) someone from buying $6k of his phony stock. Tried to explain it to the guy, but he was too drunk to understand and didn't want to believe me.

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http://TipsCostaRica.com for pratical advice on living in Costa Rica.
In order to write about life, first you must live it! - E. Hemingway.

[quote="Chi_trekker"]I She had books. I gave her tools. We did role playing. quote]

Chi,

Can you please elaborate in detail on the role playing ?

Sorry bro, I don't mean to kick a man when he is down. I hope things turn around for you business wise.

Buena suerte amigo,

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Rainman3

don't go into business in a country i don't understand. check
don't hire a webdesigner for sales. check
don't hire a latin american on sales team. check
don't plan on a people that only live for today to buy something that will only pay off in savings in the future. check
value of unsolicited advise. $0. check.

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I know nothing, nothing!

Costa Rican work ethic (if that's not an oxymoron) has it's roots in the static nature of the society here. Upward mobility here is very limited. I know many working girls from the slums of Desamparados who have known all their lives that people from their 'class' would never even qualify for a job in a grocery store (HS diploma required). I know a girl who never spent a day in school in her life. She was picking coffee to help the family survive. On the other side of the coin, I know of a young Tico who went to law school and was employed with a prominent San Jose law firm. His grandfather died and left him a large inheritance, and so he said fuuck it and quit, no more practicing law for HIM.

The poor people here generally are resigned to their fates and don't see that hard work pays off, since those who work hardest generally get paid shiit. (picking coffee beans, cutting sugar cane) Most Ticos who are well off come from well off families who could afford to put them through school. They don't feel resigned to their lot in life, they feel entitled to it. There are individuals who break these stereotypes, but they are rare. When you have a static society with a virtual caste system, passivity becomes the norm.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

Chi, I wasn't trying to bust your balls.

I was only pointing out that you can't blame the family cat for eating the family bird. That's what cats do and what they are.

You were blaming Costa Rica and Tico's for not being Americans. Laying the blame squarely on them when it's you who came to them and expected them to act like something they were not.

Your business plan may be quite extensive and cover all the normal things a buisness plan in the US might need to. But this is not the US, and as such you have to take into account the proclivities of your target market and workforce.

I've seen this time and time again. Not just in Costa Rica. I've worked at companies that thought they were going to save themselves tons of money and complication by outsourcing their programming to India and Russia, only to find out that their project management costs skyrocketed, as did their rework, bug counts, and schedules.

That's not to say that outsourcing is bad, or that you can't get a net positive out of it, but they went into it thinking they could treat them like American programmers and get the same work for less money. That doesn't work.

Any business plan in Costa Rica (or most latin countries) has to take into account that the target market has less cash flow, moves slower (usually much much slower), doesn't place the same value on long term planning, and that the customers will waste your time just for the hell of it.

If you take all that into account, and the numbers still come out positive, then you have to consider the difficulty in finding and training and retaining qualified staff.

When it boils down to it, *ALL* business failures are the fault of the business owners and managers, except in certain conditions like unforseen economic collapse.

If your business doesn't succeed, it's because you did something wrong. Not because your customers suck, or the country sucks, or whatever. They have no responsibility to make sure your business succeeds. You are the only one with that responsibility.

Again, not trying to bust your balls... And i'm not trying to say you're a moron or an idiot or anything else. Just that, as the business owner, every aspect is up to you and you are ultimately responsible.

this pretty much says it all and should cover any more comments on this thread

Thanks for clearing that up. Maybe here's a better way to put it? Certain business models just don't work in certain countries. Thats already factor and discussed in my plan. Its also the reason why I have such extremely low startup costs and the ability to dump any demo equipment in the US market. I only really lose a small investment, which is mostly my time and energy. Costa Rica has only flourished in the area of tourism. However, living here, one cannot ignore the influx of many, many growing corporations who are either branched in the US or some European countries. If not now, then some day there will be. Perhaps after CAFTA? I don't know. One also has to see the enormous amount of software and tech companies move their offshore business here (from India or China) because its sooo much more convenient.

People seem to base my original post as admission that this is a total failure. A complex product/service mix with a 6 month sales cycle is not really a failure after 5 months. The horizon looks gloomy according to my original forecast. But, maybe they were bad to begin with and need to be downgraded.

ALSO... REMINDER... I DID NOT POST ON THIS BOARD SEEKING ADVICE. I was essentially just bitching. Period. And hopefully spreading the news that for every X that the American economy sucks, the Costa Rican economy sucks 10X.

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http://TipsCostaRica.com for pratical advice on living in Costa Rica.
In order to write about life, first you must live it! - E. Hemingway.

So OK I'm just an industrial janitor but (1) Isn't there an expat Chamber of Commerce or it's equivalent here whose resources you could have tapped for employment law info? Or your lawyer? --This in response to "I didn't know about the 90-day probationary period". (2) Most of the Brothers responding are CRT VIPs and as you pointed out, yearly dues are only $39. Where's your avatar? (3) Given that it's so tough to fire someone here and this ex-employee was so crucial to executing your business plan, do you claim to have done "due diligence" before hiring? I could go on but you get the drift...All that said, I do applaud you for trying to do business legit, when as you point out, so many don't.

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"A man accustomed to hear only the echo of his own sentiments, soon bars all the common avenues of delight, and has no part in the general gratification of mankind"--Dr. Johnson
"Amen, brother"-ED

This isnt unique to CR. a theory I founded years ago believes 80% of will live the life they were raised in 10% will achieve a greater standard of life and 10% will achieve a lesser standard then they were raised with.

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But mama, that's where the fun is

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I certainly don't think my analysis is unique to Costa Rica. It applies to any culture/nation where economic and class differences are relatively rigid. It applies to most of Latin America, and for that matter, most of the world. The USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and some other Asian countries are exceptions, but most of the rest of the world is pretty static.

It's no surprise to anyone in most of the static societies that the rulers come from the upper classes. It should be no surprise to anyone in any country that the upper classes tend to take care of their own (even in the USA... remember: heck of a job, Brownie?). The USA has been a country that prides itself on the fact that a person of modest beginnings can rise into the ruling class. In my lifetime we have had Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Clinton and now Obama who were hardly born with silver spoons in their mouths. We had Kennedy and the two Bushes on the other side, but all in all it's pretty amazing. Still, if you look at it, even the poorest of our recent presidents could afford to finish high school and there was financial assistance available to finish college. You can't say that for most of the so-called developing world.

One last thing, semi related, I had the pleasure (?) of working on a y2k project with a number of Indians (the from India type). Nice guys, generally, but for the most part not even worth the chickenfeed wages they were being paid. They weren't stupid, but initiative and the concept of being pro-active were alien to them. As far as I could tell, they were all from the middle to upper classes/castes of Indian society. They were not the sons of street sweepers. I believe they all had college degrees. (unlike me). They would follow orders and do what was asked of them, as long as it was sufficiently specific. But as soon as their task was complete or they ran into a stumbling block, work tended to stop. If there was still an outstanding problem, they would seldom take it upon themselves to try to resolve it. If a test showed a bug in a system, they would give the results to the manager then go back to their cube. The manager might assume the programmer was working on a solution, but that assumption was very often wrong. I had a group of about 4 in the cubicle next to me who spent 8 hours every day standing around chatting with each other, quietly. I never saw any of them do a single lick of work. You would think they would pester their boss to give them something to, perhaps, and perhaps they did, but I sincerely doubt it. They treated their jobs as a gift more than something to be earned. They were making great money by Indian standards, and if nobody bothered them, why rock the boat? It was no different than any petty bureaucratic job back home, except it paid better and it was cold outside. Sense of ambition? I don't think so. Sense of entitlement? More likely. They weren't Ticos, but the net result was the same.

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"The only normal people are those you don't know very well." Joe Ancis

I know you are not seeking advice.But I do have a resume of running and developing successful businesses overseas.It appears by your complaints, you are missing the boat. You are attempting to operate with a US business model in CR. The traditional business model (the one the business profs. teach) usually fails in the US.How could it work well in CR?
Each product has to be customized to each country. And thier mode of thinking.That can only be done by locals that specialize in that area.Your girl you hired obviously does not specialize in the sales/marketing area.
Latin America seems to cater best to the one person one task mentality.
So pay two people less money and you will get better preformance from each.Make sense to you? Probably not.But makes great sense to them.
And that is what is important.

And a worthwhile note to remember, academic types who teach business usually do so because they have failed at actually running one. So get a tico partner to fire up the group.Build your network of influence (cold calling is really only effective in the US) and get to it.CR or any other country is not a bad place to do business.Just takes some aptitude to make it work.

Hey! Mr Chitrekker! Is your last name QUAYLE by any chance?

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Beware of the DOG!

Where's my avatar? JazzBo...you only need to look at he date when I joined which was 4 years before you. But, whats your point anyway???? The avatar gives me more credence????

Okay... what I'm hearing is the US business model and standard business practices like cold calling doesn't work in Costa Rica. Does anyone have any real practical experience to base this conclusion???? Or, are you just making a guess? WAIT A MINUTE... DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY REAL EXPERIENCE IN COSTA RICA???? Or, are we all just making guesses???? and pointing fingers???

Bilko's points are true. In CR, there is an upper class elite. I live amongst them. They are very rich ticos that own businesses that were handed-down to them from the previous generation. Case in point - Urgelles Furniture store. Another case in point - my neighbor who owns several advertising agencies.

The thing I just can't get used to is the apathy. I was once told by a hotel owner, that you have to pay your workers shit wages. I asked why? He said - if you pay them too much, they stop coming to work. That paradigm just baffles me.

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http://TipsCostaRica.com for pratical advice on living in Costa Rica.
In order to write about life, first you must live it! - E. Hemingway.

QUOTE:

".....You have to pay your workers shit wages. I asked why. He said- If you pay them too much, they stop coming to work."

..........muy Tico!