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It’s nearly a year that we’ve lived in Buenos Aires. A whole hell of a lot has happened and we don’t even know where to begin… But, we’re not going to get into all that right now anyway… Instead, we’d like to shamelessly self-promote a project that we’re involved in.

If you can read Spanish and would like to know what’s going on in Latin American and world financial markets then be sure to check out this free daily email newsletter at: http://moneyweekes.com/

Here are some of the latest articles:

Baja de Tasas, Sólo un Remiendo

Más Acerca de por qué el Sector Inmobiliario Mexicano es Prometedor

¿Cuál Será la Suerte del Dólar?

Semana Negra…¿Hay una Luz al Final del Túnel?

Saludos!

Much more to come as we approach our one-year in Argentina anniversary…

The Argentine peso is one of the few world currencies that has lost ground lately to the US dollar. Canada, Europe, Russia, Asia, even Brazil… virtually everywhere is getting more expensive for American visitors as the US dollar slides…

As a middle class American you can live well in Argentina… but only if you continue to receive an American wage in dollars… Unless you have some kind of special opportunity with an Argentine company or money to invest, we would not recommend moving to Argentina with the hope of finding a job here… You do not want to be beholden to the Argentine job market, as an English teacher etc, the wages are just too low…

What you can do is get some kind of online business going and get paid in dollars with your expenses in pesos, then outsource in rupees. (Of course, we recommend this to our Argentine friends as well.)

Getting an online business going from scratch is hard. But if you want it badly enough, you can do it…

We’ve been working and traveling heavily of late… which has cut down significantly on our posting… But we’re going to fight this trend and do our best to start posting regularly again.

We enjoyed our trip to North Carolina, it was familiar, easy, and relaxing… plus great to see friends…

But we’re happy to be back in Buenos Aires… where we have to stay on our toes in terms of the language, of course, but also in terms of opportunity… We met a guy at the wedding in North Carolina who had just returned from Argentina. He was extremely bullish and excited about our new home country… Evidently his business mentor told him, “if I were a young man, I’d move down here immediately”. He was trying to figure out how to persuade his wife to move the family (three kids) down… We, of course, identify with his enthusiasm. But we didn’t do him any favors when we accidently dropped the bomb on his wife by saying, “So, you’re planning to move to Buenos Aires?” “No.” was the abrupt reply… That little faux pas probably set him back a couple weeks in his plans, but, he still seemed confident that he could persuade her…

There are opportunities out-the-whazoo here. A couple of Americans recently opened The California Burrito Company on Lavalle in el Centro. When we went there the place was packed, business looked brisk, and the burritos were tasty… We’ve met a number of foreigners and Argentines involved in real estate, and the opportunities in this arena are virtually endless. There are places in Argentina where land is selling for less than $5 an acre…

We must admit to you dear reader, that we’ve been a bit tight-lipped about some things because we don’t want everyone to know about these opportunities… For that we apologize, but we’ll reveal all, or nearly all, in due course… Also, we don’t want to mislead you. As one Argentine friend said, “Argentina has opportunities, but it’s opportunity from crisis. Don’t forget that.”

We’re working with our Argentine financial writers, as that’s our biz, to prepare a report about what to expect in the markets around here in the short, mid, and long term. There’s anxiety here on the eve of the presidential elections, and certainly some pessimism. There’s inflation no doubt. Will it expand? Contract? What’s going to happen…? We don’t know any better than anyone else. But we won’t let that stop us from making some predictions…

Hasta la proxima.

Oh dear reader, we’ve really been letting you down this week…

We used to be involved in a business that sold productivity and time management programs, we need to look back and take some of that advice right now… We are overloaded with projects.

And now we’re semi-involved with two simultaneous real estate transactions, which have kept us distracted from our many projects that all desperately need our attention…

It’s good to be busy no doubt. But why does it have to be so seemingly chaotic and taxing?

Why can’t we have a four hour work week like Tim Ferriss?

Well, because we don’t want to… We need pressure, that’s how we work…

Things are as they should be. But it puts important but not urgent items like our Spanish lessons in the backseat.

We’re jealous of those jerks who come down here on a semi-vacation to learn Spanish and that’s all they do… But in the back of our mind we know we wouldn’t be comfortable doing that anyway.

We’re responsible for our own destiny everyday. And it’s our own damn fault that we’re not making progress in the language department. Any moment, any day now, we’re going to change all that… but just as long as it’s tomorrow…

We’re supposed to go to the opera tonight. We have no idea where it is or what to expect. But we’ll let you know what happens, stay tuned…

Today we found ourselves visiting a broker on behalf of a client. This particular broker has penthouse offices in one of the taller buildings in Buenos Aires. When the elevator arrived at the top floor we stepped out onto a glass encased landing with large glass doors with gold handles. No one was around. We looked across the entry way to a fancy conference room with floor-to-ceiling windows and an incredible view of the Puerto Madera harbor and the Rio Plata.

We stood there gawking at the view for a moment then came to our senses… We knew there must be a little call-box around there somewhere. It was hidden off to one corner. “Hola. Senor Bonner para Senor So-and-So”, we said into the box. “Si, Senor” said the box. Then a neatly dressed secretary came and opened the door for us.

The broker came out and we were surprised that he was about our age, about our same stature, with unruly hair like ours, but much better dressed… We had a quick and productive meeting on behalf of our client. He asked us how we were taking to Buenos Aires and we told him how much we liked it… They take pride in their city, so that usually wins some points. Anyway, our business was already done and it was time for us to leave.

They had to practically push us out of the office as we wanted to stay around and take in that view for a while longer… But back down to the busy streets we went. Hustling and bustling, noisy, wonderful streets…

An American friend who’s been living down here for three years was telling us some investor horror stories the other day…

One was about a new apartment building in Belgrano where the developers sold each apartment twice pre-construction, then skipped town… That was a year ago and the place is tied up in intense litigation and probably will never be finished…

While Argentina has great value in real estate, like any place, there is risk involved. You’ve got to do your homework. Make sure you’re dealing with reputable people…

I’ve recommended the Argentina Owner’s Manual in the past and continue to do so, as it’s a great way to instantly get reputable contacts in the country… Just because people speak good english does not mean that they necessarily share your business values…

 That said, our experience here has been a very good one. The more time we spend in Argentina the more we like it.

We arrived back in BA this morning… It feels great to be back!

Here’s some of what we missed in the US:

- The coffee. (This is going to sound very snobby, but, the French have a name for American coffee which translates to ’sock juice’. After enjoying Argentine coffee for months, cafe americana tasted awful… even in nice restaurants, you order espresso and they give you some diesel fuel in a small cup…)

- The food. (We went to some of our favorite restaurants back in Florida, and despite a few exceptions it was disappointing…)

- The excitement. (We missed the daily adventure that comes with the language, cultural, and geographical complications we face in BA.)

- The prices. (It’s tacky to talk about prices, but, we were shocked to find how fast money disappears in the US comparitively…)

We could go on, but you get the idea. We enjoy life down here…

But it’s not for everyone… We talked to a couple of Latin Americans in south Florida, who had been to BA, loved it, but had absolutely no desire to live here. They appreciate the lifestyle, the culture, and the many things that the city has to offer… but their main complaint was the business environment. They say there’s a different set of values in business. What people say and what they do can be entirely different things…

We have not experienced this ourselves. People have kept their word in our dealings… That’s because these people understand how important ethics are to a lasting and successful business. Sure, you can screw someone once or twice, but that’s it… Then you’ll no longer have the opportunity to do business with them, or their contacts, again… Especially in this internet age, word gets around, fast… Reputation is important in South America. If you’re careful and deal with the right people you can reap the substantial opportunities that exist down here.

To find some good contacts, I recommend the Argentina Owner’s Manual from International Living. It doesn’t cost a lot, but could save and make you a lot of money if you’re thinking about doing business in Argentina.

We talk a lot about real estate in this blog. But the fact is that real estate is merely a side business for us, a hobby, a distraction…

Our primary businesss is publishing. And part of the reason for coming here is because Buenos Aires is a Latin American publishing hub.

Widely-influential newspapers, in the spanish-speaking world, like the Clarin and La Prensa are published here. Oxford University Press recently opened a new office. So did Google (they’re sort of publishers), their third largest.

We’ve come to do the same thing… on an immensely smaller scale…

We’ll be publishing investment advisory information for Latin American investors… To that end we’ve been looking for Argentine investment analysts and writers…

However, we’re getting involved in a new project, one in which English will be the primary language. So, if you are, or know of a savvy, young, go-getter, wordsmith who could use some work in the Buenos Aires area, then please get in touch with me.

Just leave a comment on this thread and I’ll be notified [unless you've commented on this blog before, it won't be public]. Let me know what you bring to the table.

Cheers!

One of my business mentors, Porter Stansberry, had this to say about my ‘Rolling With the Punches’ post. And I think he couldn’t be more right… 

“Will,

“Had to reply to this comment: “From our limited experience, being successful in business is as much about rolling with the punches as it is anything else…”

“Not true.

“Success in business is driven by a knowledge of what to sell, how to sell it and how to produce it cheaply. The guys who are geniuses at business are all marketers at heart — they know what people want. How they come to know this doesn’t matter. Maybe they guessed. Maybe they just got lucky. From experience I’ve found that really great marketers are all in denial about what they do…they’ll tell you, “No…I never got in to this business to get rich. I just knew if I wanted this (product/service) I guessed others would want it too…”

“They’ll tell you that after their 12th product has sold a million units.

“Now…if you’ve got a head for marketing, there’s only one more hard part:  Finding a way to efficiently sell your idea. The key here is to figure out how to be capital efficient. Let’s say, for example, you’ve got a great new idea for a restaurant - like hey, why not deliver pizza to people’s homes? I’m sure lots of folks who owned pizza restaurants thought about this, but only one guy (Dominoes) figured out how to franchise the idea and how to market it nationally (through the movie, E.T.). No matter what your idea is, if you can’t get 1,000 people to pay you at one time for your product, you’ll never get rich doing it. That’s why seminar businesses are so tough - it’s hard to get more than 1,000 folks to a meeting.

“Last — producing stuff cheaply. Here’s where your quote comes into the story.

“Producing anything is all about rolling with the punches and being persistent. Just like getting an education. You’ve kinda have to let it happen to you. Fortunately 99% of people in the world think producing something is succeeding in business. That’s why all you’ve got to do is roll with the punches to get this part done — an army of people are happy to follow your lead.

“That’s my daily unrequested advice column. Hope you enjoyed it –”

–

Porter is one of the most successful people I know. And of course he’s right… I was taking the most important part of the equation for granted, that I’d figure out exactly what and how to sell here in Argentina… (I don’t want to lead you astray dear reader, which is why I’m publishing this follow-up post…)

In my case, this means financial publications that Latin American investors would be willing to pay for. I have to understand what their wants and needs are specifically. What keeps them up at night… This research is being done. But, it is the most important thing we’re doing right now because if we get that wrong all the other production work will be for nothing…

We took a needed break from looking at real estate today… and instead focused on what we’re really supposed to be doing here… building a spanish-language publishing business before our employer decides to give-up on us…

The business has a lot of moving parts, so there’s much to think about and strategize, especially when the country you’re working in is Argentina. And especially when you can barely speak any Castellano (what they call spanish round these parts)…

So, we have plenty of work ahead of us. But we think we’ve found a talented writer (completely by accident) who can help us with our editorial needs. And Buenos Aires is sort of a Silicone Valley of Latin America. There are tons of cheap web designers and coders available… so our website is coming along nicely.

Things have a way of coming together when you’re relaxed and persistent…

From our limited experience, being successful in business is as much about rolling with the punches as it is anything else…

It’s very encouraging at this international conference… the success of our partners in emerging markets like Romania, Poland, and Russia, places similar to Argentina… Of course there are big differences but the Eastern Europeans have overcome numerous obstacles that we as Americans can barely imagine… the unreliability of the postal service and vendors, and the dishonesty of business partners. But they are well rewarded for their efforts. With much less competition and a fresh enthusiastic market they can make some serious money quickly. And they can take a significant percentage of market-share… something unheard of in the US except by very large companies. The future looks very promising for these companies and I hope we can duplicate their success in Argentina.

 Which reminds me that we will be looking for bi-lingual writers and marketers in BA in the coming months. So, if you know of anyone please contact me through this blog.

 Cheers!

This morning we met with our legal council here in BA, an Irish-Argentine who went to the London School of Economics, to discuss the pitfalls of hiring and firing in Argentina. Sure enough, it’s as I feared. They follow the European system of ‘employee rights’, “the worst part of the system” as he put it. What that means is that even if you hire someone part-time, or on a freelance basis they can sue you for benefits and other perks if you pay them on any kind of regular basis. If you hire someone full-time you have to give your left kidney to get rid of them even if they’re stealing from you.

As in much of Europe this makes employers more hesitant to hire… voila, less jobs and slower growth…

When our American colleagues were in town we discussed how rounds of firing are healthy for a business and motivating for employees. It’s a crude fact, the mention of which makes Europeans cringe. But of course, when you see someone else working less hard than you and getting paid as much you feel like you either need to work less or go somewhere else where you’ll be better acknowledged and compensated… It’s a vicious cycle that I’m sure leads to the demise of many companies (and then there are no jobs for anyone!). When the dead weight is cut it’s an acknowledgement to those who stay that their work is appreciated and valuable.

If you think it’s all about going out to fancy restaurants, lounging in cafes, and enjoying the low prices down here… then my friend, you’d be mistaken. There’s real work being done, hours spent chained to a computer… researching… looking for employees… making deals… etc etc

And yes, we think we’ve even made a small breakthrough in working on this semi-silly little blog… If you look to the top left you’ll see a new link to sign-up to have the blog entries emailed to you. Yep, we now have the ability to build an email list. For those of you in our business you know that when you can do that you can have an online business.

So, my point is that I think theoretically one could use this WordPress blog format to create a money-making website and eletter. The great thing is that with this you can almost completely cut-out the tech people and do everything yourself with a professional look and feel. I just might try it with a financial eletter, but we’ll see. Oh, and do sign-up if you don’t get enough email already…

Last night we had dinner with Argentine tour guide/consultant Maria O’Connor (Irish-Argentine obviously) and a Californian who is buying some property out in San Martin, Argentina. We had some stimulating conversation and of course came around to the subject that always comes up when a couple of Americans dine with an Argentine… why Latin America is so screwed up!

Maria told us what it was like to be in the thick of Argentina’s 2001 financial crisis. She was a real estate agent at the time. On the eve of the crisis she and most everyone else were still doing deals, buying houses, signing mortgages and lease agreements etc. They just couldn’t believe what they were being told might happen would indeed happen… the reprocussions on their money, their livelyhood, were just too great to consider. They couldn’t believe it. So, when it hit, it hit hard. Suddenly, their money and their property was worth 1/3rd what it was before. For Maria it had a silver-lining. She didn’t get paid for about 7 months, so, she decided to go into business for herself. Now, she is owner of her own thriving tour business: www.sharingargentina.com

Because of the devaluation Argentina is a great value for foreigners. But it probably won’t last forever. In the 80’s Buenos Aires was one of the most expensive cities in the world. Argentines would come to Miami and buy truckloads of clothes and electronics. There was a saying then that the wealthy in Argentina vacationed in Europe, the middle-class vacationed in Uruguay, and the poor… they vacationed in Miami! But, those days are long gone. Will they come again? Maybe. The Argentine economy has grown a break-neck 8% a year for the past 4 years. But who knows where in the cycle we are. There is some foreboding about Argentina’s current policies in the financial press. But that press seems to be spearheaded by political rivals hoping to dethrone the Kirchners, a husband and wife team (the Clintons of Argentina), who are expected to stay in power for years to come… Anyway, we think about these things as we consider purchasing some real estate here in Buenos Aires. We’ll keep you up-to-date on that issue as we get more serious about it…

Why did we come here? In part it was a lifestyle decision, but the main purpose was to give our employer, a newsletter publisher, a foothold in the Spanish speaking market. But it has yet to be determined whether or not this market is even viable. Afterall, most wealthy Latin Americans learn English anyway when they become serious investors. But regardless of that, I think there’s definitely an opportunity for an investment advisory service positioned as an advocate for the Spanish-speaking investor… That’s one of the approaches that we’re exploring.  There are many hurdles to overcome, legal and logistical, and many others we have yet to discover…