Hello all,

I’m a newbie here, but I hope it’s all right if I ask a question. I’m wondering if anyone might have some thoughts on which business idea below would be best to start researching further, given my situation and goals. I appreciate any input!

Background

I’m seriously considering starting a business in a certain foreign country. My primary goal is to do what I can to help improve local people’s lives, with supporting cultural traditions (art, music, etc.) a close second. Ideally, though, I’d like to earn at least enough profit to cover my modest living expenses. I’d prefer to start off rather small, rather than drop all my capital on one thing.

Business Ideas

1) An import/export business—being a middlewoman helping local craftspeople export their goods. I know of a couple people who run small non-profits doing this, but I wonder if this is feasible as a larger (yet still not mass-production), for-profit (yet ethical) business. In the country I’m interested in, jewelry and clothing are some of the major exports. I’ve been thinking about the manufacture and export of a certain type of clothing that I already know there’s increasing demand for.

2) A private school. The idea would be to provide low-income locals with specialized education that they couldn’t afford at other schools (probably foreign languages or music, but possibly even e-commerce). It would have to be either strictly for low-income people or in a location with no other schools of this type, though, because I don’t want to cause problems for existing private schools by undercutting their prices. Naturally, the teachers need to be paid (part of the goal is to provide living-wage jobs), but if the students can’t afford to pay for lessons, I can’t see how this could be run for profit. We’d need donations, but if I did that I may as well just start a non-profit scholarship fund.

3) Something in the agriculture/food industry. Prepared foods have been one of the most profitable exports there over the last few years. I’ve also thought about investing in a farm with the idea of raising organic products. I already know there are some family farms looking for investors.

I have experience in #1 and #2 (including running a business abroad), but not in #3. I’m partial to idea #2, but I can’t see how to make it profitable and it’s also really bureaucracy-heavy.

If anyone has any thoughts or tips, I'd love to hear them.

Thank you for your help,