China

It's all about China these days, isn't it? Recently, the US House of Representatives have signed off on a bill that will allow president Obama to impose import tariffs on goods from China since China seems to be "manipulating its currency."

China is the biggest exporter in the world. It also has one of the largest populations in the world, if not the largest. So one thing a business will not lack is potential customers. But it seems there are many barriers to doing business in China. Language is one of them. If you don't speak Chinese, you are already at a disadvantage, although, many Chinese speak fairly good English. The other thing is raising enough capital to compete in China. Even well established companies like McDonalds are only now beginning to do business in China. Right now, there are only about 800 McDonalds restaurants in China. A very modest sum when you consider the billions of people who live in the country. But McDonalds has the financial infrastructure to accomplish what a small business cannot in a country like China.

More than food and beverage type businesses, it arguably would be more profitable to get into China's export business than any other sector. For one thing, labor is dirt cheap. But identifying them, and getting good consultants and manufacturers, etc, is very challenging. (There are supposedly a lot of unscrupulous charlatans in this market who take full and total advantage of foreign investors and most of the rip offs happen online.)

It's very very challenging, and for most small business people who are not Chinese, this may be a market better left untapped. But for others, a great opportunity.