Panama is a great place to start a business. It’s easy, everyone uses the dollar, and you can tap into a well-educated English-speaking workforce. That last point is crucial if you want to start a tourism-based business—and you should.
One look at Cotacachi, Ecuador’s famous leather street, and I knew—“I’m going to need a bigger closet…” Turns out I wasn’t far off the mark! The gorgeous, buttery leather handbags, wallets, backpacks, briefcases, and jackets were as inexpensive are they were irresistible. Heck, I almost bought a saddle…and I don’t even own a horse!
When Elizabeth Ballard Slagle and her husband swapped Florida for rustic Panama five years ago, they wanted to extend their youngest son’s childhood and give him a different perspective on the world. She and Larry—an ex-bartender—run a restaurant called Big Daddy’s Grill in “downtown” Boquete.
“If I’d known just how capable I was, it would have saved me a lot of doubt and angst,” says Californian Vicki Johnson, a tireless self-starter who’s been mixing business with pleasure at the southern tip of Chile’s beautiful Lake District for the past 35 years.
Its growing economy, political and social stability, negligible taxes, and everyday safety make Uruguay an outstanding country in which to do business--not to mention its enticing culture and quality of life.