Do Business With Latin America

Written by Joshua Adekane Wednesday, 13 April 2011 13:20

With the current economic crisis, companies can no longer just rely on countries such as Asia, Europe and Unites States to increase their sales. Suddenly, they have realized the opportunities that the Latin American can offer.

With the current economic crisis, companies can no longer just rely on countries such as Asia, Europe and Unites States to increase their sales. Suddenly, they have realized the opportunities that the Latin American can offer.

Information about Latin America

Latin America is composed of geographic subdivisions which are North America, Central America, the Southern Cone and the Andean States. Some people also include the Caribbeans. The countries which make up Latin America are: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Guatemala, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Cuba, Uruguay, El Salvador, Paraguay, Bolivia, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guyana, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and Belize.

The languages that are spoken in this region are Spanish and Portuguese. Some countries also speak French and Dutch. In general, the business community does speak English.

How to start doing business in Latin America?

1. Get in touch with Embassies

They can supply you with a wealth of information and statistics so you can carefully analyze the threats and opportunities that a particular country represents.

2. Contacting the local chamber of commerce

This represents a very good opportunity to meet valuable contact who might be able to help or even better, become a potential client. Chambers of commerce are basically networks of business people whose objectives are to increase their opportunities. They succeed by having a board that represents their interest in the community and sponsor networking events.

3. Join B2B marketplaces

These are websites that allows buyers and sellers to post trade leads and promote their companies. There are premium memberships that allow users to have their showroom within the portal. There are a lot of B2B marketplaces out there. Most of them have a general and global approach to trade. There is also lower percentage of users coming from Latin America as these website are not available in Spanish. www.mercatrade.com is a newer B2B marketplace that focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean and is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese in the future. This allows for a more dynamic trade within the region.