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,

Can you perhaps combine the import/export business with the school… you could for instance teach business skills, craft skills, etc…. whilst also running the import/export side to generate funds…

Thank you for the reply, SteveC. Yes, that’s a good idea. I think I was mentally limiting myself to education in those areas where I have direct experience, but your post brought to mind a particular local craft that’s something of a dying art. Hm… Thinking...

Actually, someone I discussed my general ideas with suggested this type of school in the IT industry (training people in programming and taking work orders from around the world), but I know so little about that industry (at this point, anyway).

Thanks again for the ideas,

Some general thoughts...
Sure, All three are viable - but each is a mystery at this point. How I look at new opportunity like yours is - "Sure, each has potential. But each has potential to fail or succeed. The key to business success is doing well the 70% compulsory (non-innovative) things every business needs to do to get by, and being excellent at the 30% of the business that makes the business the #1 in its category." Think Best Practices (not necessarily complicated or expensive), Get In the Groove - there are comparable companies doing what you suggest - benchmark them analytically, keep objective score and be Specific about why you are different and better. Its all fun til you lose money and waste your time(!) Commit to being an authoratative voice in your industry, have something to tell your prospects and customers.
I work with 50-100 startup companies a year and all of them have to tighten their story before they are going to be profitable. Take what you know, today, and start your Business Plan. Your Business Plan should be your best friend - you and it are going to be doing a Lot of talking(!) If you can't articulate your intentions and business metrics in a BPlan, you probably aren't going to be able to communicate to very important partners in your business.

Hope this helps - sounds exciting to be at the start of your company(ies)...

I am very interested in your ideas, I do believe there are many chances in these fields. If you do some unique things, you have more bigger successful chance.
If you want to do your business, i like to cooperate with you, I have some resources.
You can reach me at Joejzh@gmail.com