Nicholas Sales

5 Secrets about Business in Brazil

Co-Founder
The Brazil Business

Updated

10 October 2011

When you first start doing business in Brazil people will tell you the same story about taxation and contact network every time. Here are the 5 secrets that you most likely did not hear about.

Here are 5 facts that Brazilians don't want you to know and that they might not even be aware of themselves. This knowledge will definitely give you leverage in your next encounter with the Brazilian business.

1. Import taxation is easy to understand

Bet you heard that Brazilian taxation is complicated and nobody can give you real numbers when you ask them. Brazilians and foreigners alike seem to confuse labor intensive with complicated.

Importing to Brazil is time consuming and labor intensive but the taxation itself is easy to understand and calculate.

2. Contracts have little value

Brazil has a malfunctioning justice system for private allegations. It's not uncommon that even simple private allegations are kept in the justice system for 3 - 5 years without a final verdict.

Even though you have the possibility to submit a private allegation outside Brazil, you will find it difficult to enforce the outcome in Brazil.

3. Brazilians are leaking confidential information

You can quickly build trust with Brazilians and if you spend enough time listening it's not uncommon that at the end of your first meeting you already start to pick up confidential business information. At that point they don't see you as a business partner but as a friend.

This information leakage is most common between junior management and can make meetings on such level valuable even though you are not talking directly with the decision maker.

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4. Yes might mean almost for Brazilians

It's common to hear about Asian cultures that you shouldn't take a Yes for an answer. Almost the same can be said about Brazilians. When you ask a Brazilian if he can do a certain job or meet a deadline he might reply Yes but it might not implicate that he can do the entire job or have everything ready until the deadline.

When speaking Portuguese you can notice that Brazilians almost never use the word "Sim" that means Yes, however they have many different words and sounds to replace Yes.

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5. Brazilians are less likely to buy from foreigners

As long as you are not selling electronics from Paraguay, small and medium businesses that normally don't interact in international sales will have the perception that foreigners are selling more expensive products than the local vendors.

If they understand that they were wrong about the price point they will find any excuse to turn down the offer including questioning the service and maintenance provided from abroad.