By Chuck Bolotin for Forbes.com
In the US, I’ve had more than my fair share of starting and running businesses in diverse settings, including selling electronic office equipment; taking a device that checked for the presence of weaponized bio agents and re-positioning it for pharmaceutical manufacturing; creating software for physicians, etc. I’ve also been a guest lecturer to MBA students and was on the screening panel for high net worth investors.
But I had never started or run a business outside the US.
Until now.
Like most businesses, the idea for this one came from what the founder (in this example, me) experienced when trying to buy a product or service; in this case moving our family’s household goods from the US to Mexico. When my wife handed me the estimates from the two established moving companies in town, I was shocked—not only by the price (which I felt was outrageous) but even more by all the importation rules these moving companies wrote that we had to follow along with dire warnings that if we didn’t, it would be our fault and we would have to suffer the dire consequences.
Given that this looked like something that needed fixing and that I had experience with business in general, I decided to investigate further and if everything lined up, maybe even start a company here in Mexico.