Business
Introduction
Doing a business overseas can be challenging as it seems, but with strategies along with background information about the country of business, earning profit will be very possible. This essay we will be looking at points on how it can be an easy job to do business in other countries. This research will be written in a form of identifying some opportunities and possible solutions to cope with the difficulties. Given the choice of Guatemala as the country of business, the study will show the challenges and the effective approaches that will turn the business in Guatemala a profitable company.
Country Profile
Guatemala or officially known as Republic of Guatemala is located in Central America that bounders north and west to Mexico, Belize to northeast, the Pacific Ocean to southwest, and Caribbean to the east. Mark Lopes and Lester Echeverria (n.d.) described the country’s profile based on the population that 70 percent of Guatemalan lives in rural areas. Economically, the country’s government along with World Bank created a financial system website that will advance fiscal and administration transparency. This system developed a more confidence on the investor and public sectors’ insight when it comes to the Guatemala’s investment system Lopes & Echeverria, n.d.). In addition, Guatemala's economic system is dominated with the private industry, which produces nearly 90% of GDP. Farming leads to 13.3% of GDP and records for 26% of exports. Most production is light assembly and food handling, designed to the domestic, U.S., and Central American. Over the past years, travel and leisure as well as exports of fabrics, clothing, and non-traditional farming products such as winter vegetables, fruits, and flowers business have grown, while more conventional exports such as coffee, sugar, and banana continue to signify a large share of the trade market (globaledge.msu.edu).
Doing Business in Guatemala
Based on the website doingbusiness.org, doing business in Guatemala is easy. It shows that the country's Doing Business rank went up from rank 98 in the year 2012 to rank 93 in the current year; it is a five point high after a year. In addition, the country's DTF or Distance to Foreigner points went up from 59.8 in 2012 to 60.9 in 2013. As the website shows, starting a business in Guatemala will not be very hard. Given the information, starting a business from checking the proposed company name at the Guatemala Mercantile Registry up until the application for book of salaries authorization from the Guatemala Department of Labor will only take 34 calendar days, having the fact that starting a business will take 12 processes. The same ease of starting a business also applies to getting electricity and credit, as well as the process of protecting the investors. On the other hand, there are some difficulties that a business starter may encounter in Guatemala.
One of the difficulties that a business owner may encounter is the recurrent issue, which affected most foreign investors are the highly restrictive requirements for work visa that made it hard to hire expatriates. As a result there are low numbers of foreign workers in the country slow down the transfer of supervisory and managerial knowledge. This instance has a clear factor that may affect the marketing plan of the business as it will not be able to expand the marketing strategy that needs to keep the business stable (unctad.org).
Conclusion
Doing a business is relatively difficult especially if it’s a new entity that is planning to operate into another country. Based on the information research, Guatemala’s government is doing its strategy to develop its economy by creating systems that will make the businesses in-line with their laws and at the same time earn profit. Starting a business may be hard in some points; however, by knowing the country’s economic profile and policy will help the business owner to establish his venture. In addition, as long as the business owner will be able to cope with difficulties using the right strategy will surely make the stability that it needs to grow.
References
Lopes, M., & Echeverria, L. (n.d.). .gt. Retrieved July 14, 2013, from http://www.cid.harvard.edu/archive/cr/profiles/guatemala.pdf
Michigan State University (1994). Guatemala: Economy >> globalEDGE: Your source for Global Business Knowledge. Retrieved July 14, 2013, from http://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/guatemala/economy
United Nations (2011). Investment Policy Review Guatemala. Retrieved July 14, 2013, from http://unctad.org/en/Docs/diaepcb201009_en.pdf
The World Bank (2013). Doing Business in Guatemala - World Bank Group. Retrieved July 14, 2013, from http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploreeconomies/guatemala/
