Setting up a small business

Good Luck! I can only give you some tips. We have a large compound in North eastern Brazil. My wife runs a very popular Sorvete Shop (voted best in the city) attached to her house.  She only operates it from 3pm - 10pm.

A lesson my wife and I learned at our Brazilian Coffee Shop in the United States aka AQUI BRAZILIAN COFFEE was to ALWAYS keep a retail / storefront operation connected aka part of your primary residence. Never lease etc. a separate building.

If you can, E-Commerce is great as long as you are not dealing in goods etc that have to be stored.

I have never seen any official etc. come by to check on her business, but I would be hesitant to deal in food with a short shelf-life.

My wife has an accountant for the business.

Roddie in Retirement

@roddiesho yes I have an online business selling coffee in canada and my wife in brazil sells baby clothing online as well. We both have full-time jobs.

Selling on ifood allows me to do it from home to order so no real food waste.

We are going to be based in sao paulo. However, we both want to live in the northeast of brazil (Alagoas). Places like Maragogi or Sao Miguel dos milagres.

We don't like city life much at all. We are only based in sao paulo because her job is there. Currently,  I am in canada.

Canadian food is a far reach and I would not put too much effort on the canadian portions of food because it would be hard to market here completely.

You would want to do brazilian dishes with a splash if anything lol. Northeast is even heavier on specific diets

@ Canforbra - I have visited Maragogi and Sao Miguel dos Milagres before and they are very nice boutique-style places. Not cheap if memory serves, but busy weekend destinations - only about a 3 hour drive from me.

I have lived for many years on the island of Itamaracá, just north of Recife (search Itamaraca Tourism for more info), and I have to agree with @Mikeflanagan, people in the NE tend to be very stuck in their food traditions.

We could not find anywhere that made good Indian or Thai curry, so we researched for months and found all the spices, other ingredients and British Indian Restaurant recipes that we needed. We started making dinners for friends, then they started asking us to supply frozen frozen meals for them.

We still do, at a nominal charge, but the point is that the local Brazilians did not take well to the new food, only the ones that were well-travelled... You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.

11/08/23   Canadian food is a far reach and I would not put too much effort on the canadian portions of food because it would be hard to market here completely.
   
    -@Mikeflanagan

It might be possible to whip up some poutine with local ingredients, so the material costs would be reasonably low.  Creating demand, though, would be quite a challenge.  😂

@Canforbra

Hello,

The youtube channel "Our Brazilian Life" has several videos on the topic.  This one may be most fitting:

https://youtu.be/3_Fvs0BE48Y?feature=shared

@Mikeflanagan

Hi, I will probably be in Sao paulo for a year or so before moving to the NE.

So the Canadian food would be sold more in Sao paulo,  which is a better place for international food.

@Canforbra

I spent most of my career in hospitality in the UK, and I would suggest it might be very hard to see a reasonable return on your the necessary investment, even for a very small catering venture, in just 1 year.

When in Brazil you are a Brazilian or a tourist. Need to determine which one you wish to be lol.

Good luck on your ventures. The Brazilian mindset is fixed when it comes to wants / needs

Personally speaking after 20+ years in Rio de Janeiro, all I would say is you are probably going to find it difficult to attract customers.

Our food is not desirable, nor unique.

One of the big attractions to gringos is Brasilian cuisine.......and Brasilians who have tasted both, always prefer their own. After all, the 2,000 member Brasilian association in my Canadian city doesn't cater their parties from Boston Pizza kkkkkk.

Major chains all eventually leave the market, accept for McDonald's in my experience.

Good luck.......but I doubt it'll pay your way......

@Mikeflanagan well to tell the truth the food is just a side hustle in a way for a short time. I am an archaeologist by trade and I would rather work in.

Work with primates or doing archaeology.  However, it is not as recognized in brazil as other parts of the world.

@Gasparzinho 777 sao paulo has a bunch of successful American themed hipster restaurants that do quite well.

Like I said.....Boa Sorte.......

When l was in Rio back in September l visited the local mall and food court. The restaurant with the biggest line by far was Burger King.  They had McDonalds too, but no comparison to the line at Burger King. The Starbucks was also  doing quite well. Yes it seemed to be mostly young hipster wannabes.

@KenAquarius yes well I was thinking a simple thing too like a food stand right by the mail university in sao paulo