I am honored to feature this blog written by my friend and fellow international entrepreneur, Taj Almutkassi (@TajAlmutkassi). Taj is Sudanese and well versed in international marketing. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado, USA. -Becky
Arab countries “Middle East and North Africa” are experiencing new era. A lot of changes are going on political, social, and in economic fabric. Take Libya as an example; death of Gaddafi all over the news.
What that means for entrepreneurs, small & big businesses? After 42 years in power, Gaddafi left Libya –one of the richest countries on the world- in miserable condition. People of Libya are very happy to get rid of Gaddafi and have their country back, but they inherited a broke country. And this is where the opportunities are.
Libya needs help in every and each aspect of life, infrastructure, education, research and development, health, consumable goods, .. you name it.
As it inherited tons of problems, the new government inherited tons of money. Some European countries already got their share “billions of dollars” on big government projects. USA officials did several visits.
Why are you waiting? Whatever is your business is, start now. If the US market saturated, Libya’s market is widely open, safe investment, quick return, and virgin market starving to death for American goods and services.
Do your homework now, do your search, instead of spending your summer this year in Hawaii or Mexico, book a ticket to Libya and start your business.
Taj Almutkassi
720-620-6836
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Thank you for sharing this Becky and Taj Almutkassi. The biggest obstacle for doing as you suggest is in knowing how to get started. Perhaps you will join ECO and share with us how to enter Libya and other international markets? At any rate, it is great to hear your thoughts and I will tweet this post far and wide.
Linda,
Thank you so much for your comments. I see where you are coming from. It is always difficult to invade new markets, especially international markets. But, there are different ways to make this risk reasonable with minimum cost. When I think of Libya; I see a country with strong ties to USSR (Russia) for the past 35 years. Lately, Libyans started to experience the western world – a lot of Libyan students came to the US for high education in past 3 years-. Libya is a fresh virgin market, believe me in the next 5 years you will see a business revolution. I cannot emphasis this enough; the perception of the American products and services is huge in the Middle East.
Back to your question: as any new business the start should be a market research. It shouldn’t be a comprehensive detailed research that took years; NO just primary research to see what you get and how you can position your business there. I’m confident the American business will be more than welcome there. It might be a good idea to start with a trade show (a collective effort, few companies can go there with simple demonstration) this will distribute the cost, test the market, the acceptance, and visibility of the business. This can be individual (it is not difficult to coordinate this type of event) or through governmental body (Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, US Embassy, Libyan Chamber of commerce, etc.), a good proposal to those agencies will find a serious attention.
Taj,
Tmutkassi30@hotmail.com
Hi, Taj,
Thanks for your interesting take on the business opportunities related to the Arab Spring. I would guess that most people will wait to see who takes over these new governments. If the Moslem Brotherhood gains the upper hand in Libya, Egypt, etc., then these opportunities will no longer be viable.
Rgds, and looking forward to working with you on ECO!
Arlene
Arlene, thank you so much for your comments. I agree with you, the picture is not clear yet and there is a lot of uncertainties. There are two types of waiting, idle waiting and active waiting. If we use idle waiting as strategy the chance will pass by. On the other hand active waiting will be more suitable in this case. By active waiting I mean, let us start our home work, revisit our business strength and weaknesses, what advantages we have, and what we can offer. Furthermore, while waiting we can do extra research to explorer the opportunities and the threats. By the time when everything is clear; we will be ready to attack the market segment we selected longtime ago. I will not worry about who is going to takeover; whoever is coming will be the people’s choice; to survive he must work for the people. People needs education, health services, cars, food, economic welfare, clean environment, … etc. As entrepreneur, do we have something to offer to satisfy those unmet demands?
Thanks for your posts, Linda & Arlene! I would be interested in Taj’s perspective, but everything I’m reading & hearing is that the Moslem Brotherhood-type parties are not likely to gain power in these new/renewed democracies. For one thing, women are allowed to vote – at least they have in Tunisia & Egypt. Conservative governments would seriously limit women’s rights to self determination. I am optimistic for the North Africans and their hopefully bright future!