Chile

Chile is a long, thin country at the tip of Latin America that is widely considered one of the best countries in the region to do business. Across several indicators in the World Bank’s Doing Business Report, Chile beats out the regional competition. In 2018, Chile ranked 55th in the world on the World Bank’s Doing Business report, coming in just after Mexico, which ranked 49th. However, in recent years, Chile’s business-friendly reputation has slid from 34th to 55th which has been subject to some controversy.

Still, Chile is undoubtedly one of the most influential economies in the region, despite its small size. Chile’s population reaches just 17 million people, but the country is extremely centralized. The capital, Santiago, is home to 7 million people, or one-third of the total population. By comparison, São Paulo, the biggest city in Brazil, has over 21 million inhabitants – more than the entire country of Chile.

Chile’s overall GDP was US$247B in 2016, 28% of which is made up of exports. Chile is the world’s largest exporter of copper, and it also exports lithium, fish, and wine. While Chile’s overall GDP appears small beside giants like Brazil (US$1.8T) and Mexico (US$1.1T), its population is more than ten times smaller. When measured per capita, Chile’s GDP is the second-highest in the region after Uruguay.

Chile also boasts robust institutional stability, quality higher education programs, and the lowest rate of crime in Latin America. Despite high levels of bureaucracy in some areas, the government runs smoothly and efficiently, with relatively low levels of corruption. Chile ranked 26th out of 180 countries surveyed by Transparency International in 2017, right after France and Uruguay, who are tied for 23rd. By comparison, Argentina ranks 85th and Brazil ranks 96th.

It costs approximately 25% less to live in Chile than in the United States. Rent in Santiago is 83% lower than in New York or San Francisco. In fact, the cost of living in Chile is on par (though still slightly lower) with Tupelo, Mississippi, one of the most affordable cities in the US.

Still, Santiago struggles with high levels of pollution and traffic, like many other Latin American cities, and Chileans work some of the longest hours in the world for relatively low wages. The Chilean work week is the 6th longest in the OECD, after Mexico, Costa Rica, Korea, Russia, and Greece.

Business opportunities in Chile

Real Estate

Chile is fast becoming the easy-going place for businesses and has already been turned into a lucrative destination for overseas investors. Marching along with this is the demands for real estates in Chile. Working as a real estate agent that deals specifically with office space, and maybe homes and apartments in and around the city centers close, would probably be one of the fastest ways to make money over the coming years.

Rock Climbing Gym

Health or fitness gyms are one of the commonest and popular ventures around the world. People love to become members of gyms of these sorts. A rock climbing gym is a business of different taste and unlike traditional gyms. In a country rich in mountains, people traditionally longing for climbing as a favorite pastime. Away from the traditional gym facilities and activities, there are loads of peoples love to come to a gym that organizes climbing events and imparts training on climbing. Chile has rooms for climbing activities and so for gyms. Well, rock climbing gyms are a bit capital intensive but assurances are there to reach the break even point within a year or two. If you yourself are a climber then this business forecasts immediate success. If not, you can either partner with some experts or hire someone to oversee the technical aspects.

Apps Developing

If your computer literacy is rich specially in the software region, this would be a highly rewarding line to dig yourself in. Even though it offers a lot of competitions, still rooms are there to occupy owing to the ever increasing uses of electronic devices that requiring these Apps. The uses of cell phones, tabs and computers are on the rise and there are scopes for upscale applications, particularly in the fields of Travelling, Health & Fitness, Home remedies, Entertainments, Street traffics, Safety & Security, Education & knowledge etc. to work for. Along with usual apps developing programs, you can impart training or organize training courses sharing your know-hows on this as a different business wing.

Online Store

As in everywhere in the world, trading online is a trendy but thriving business. More and more people are going online to meet their shopping needs starting from household merchandises to office supplies. Busy traffics and city life forcing people to shop online as it does home deliveries of merchandises ordered. Everything from grocery to luxury is just clicks away now a day making shopping easy. Indeed, online or virtual stores are going fifty-fifty with Physical stores. You can store a wide range of merchandises or concentrate in specific merchandise to sell. With a very responsive and user-friendly web store loaded with trendy products and commitment of prompt deliveries, this going to be a business that won’t fail in this digital age.

Social media marketing

Another profitable venture on the digital platform is SMM, being cream small business ideas in Chile. You would experience individual fan pages of individual entities in different internet based social Medias like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter. With the virtual world gets going, individuals, business and corporate bodies find it no less important to maintain presence on these platforms. In these they inter-act with their visitors, clients, customers and organize various events to help grow businesses. The businesses and the corporate houses outsource these responsibilities to some individuals or firms through contracts to manage their pages effectively and fruitfully. As in everywhere, it’s too a business that has a good prospect in Chile. If you are fit to this and have some reasonable contacts in the Chilean business and corporate world you should try this. You should have an office with computers and peripherals and high speed internet connectivity to organize a venture of this type. You may also need some visualizers to handle some photo editing and digital designing jobs for your customers as and when necessary.

Tour Operator

Latin America is historically a favorite tourist’s destination owing to its scenic and variant natures. Throughout the year, Chile too experience influx of tourists. It has some extreme areas or spots like Plaza de Armas, Torres del paine national park, San pedro de Atacama, Valparaiso that attracts tourists round the year from around the world. So to say, tourism has become one of the key sources of income for Chile since 2005. Arranging tour plans, tourists guide services, transporting tourists to and from different destinations, arranging tickets would no doubt pay back well. You may even sell air tickets armed with agreements with the GSAs of different airlines on the basis of commissions.

Vehicle Rentals [Human Hauling]

Chile experience notable volume of visitors throughout the year. Since Chile is fast becoming a comfortable business destination, visitors from the business world are coming more and more here in Chile, along with its traditional tourist visitors. These peoples need transports. There are businesses already moving people but not enough in view of the growing numbers of visitors. If you can buy cars or other suitable human haulers you can rent out these for money. If you don’t own any of these, still you can handle this business by developing and managing a network of vehicle owners who have transports remain idle for most of the day. Use these vehicles on profit sharing basis or on the basis of mileage used.

The businesses above can either be small or big in size. It’s better to begin with small scale with less headache and capital involvement. In the course of time you yourself would gauge the progress while gathering experience and knowledge. Depending on the progress you expand it gradually to a feasible size. Some other small business ideas in Chile are not taken for discussion as following businesses are preferred in our choice.

Downloads

Share this page:

Signup to our GlobalBizz newsletter

Don't miss out on business benefits and receive our free newsletter.

* indicates required