20k$ what to do with that ?

rochele1

New member
Feb 8, 2011
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hi folks,

i thought that might be interesting to discuss what kind of business a foreigner can do with 20k$ in santo domingo ?

in fact i need help
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
5,966
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I am sure this will be an interesting thread. You don't say if that is $20K US or $20K DOP, but let's start it off:

With 20K you could become a street vendor

Let's see how far downhill this goes from here.
 

jrjrth

Bronze
Mar 24, 2011
782
1
0
~Why don't you let me hold the $20K for you whilst you are deciding what type of business you would like to venture into!!!! It will be in safe keeping while you are trying to set up shop....or cart....lol.................

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrreally ....
 

GinzaGringo

Member
Sep 29, 2010
382
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That's tough, if you don't know Santo Domingo well enough to know yourself how to blow the 20 large, you're probably in trouble from the get go. Hey, as long as it's cash you are alright playing with (and loosing) whatever, invest in what you like and know.

Are you a book person? Open Santo Domingo's first and only good bookstore. Are you into real estate? Look for a speculation property, an undervalued lot somewhere with potential for sweat equity. Is tourism your thing? Approach a financially struggling hotelier in a touristy area and be his white knight investor, for a stake in control and ownership. Colmado yo! Buy some servers and rent a space and talk to Mr. Dr1.com and his buddies.

If this is 20k DOP, you can basically do nothing. Actually, US 20k or Euros would evaporate pretty quickly, too.
 

LTSteve

Gold
Jul 9, 2010
5,449
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38
If you have $20,000USD I would put into into a bank account. Check with the major banks in SD. They are paying higher interest for a long term commitment than the banks in the US or you and I could go to the casino and parlay that into nada.

S
 

windeguy

Platinum
Jul 10, 2004
42,211
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If you have $20,000USD I would put into into a bank account. Check with the major banks in SD. They are paying higher interest for a long term commitment than the banks in the US or you and I could go to the casino and parlay that into nada.

S

This was going to be my original answer. Then you could get about $2,000 equivalent in pesos in annual interest after you converted it to pesos and would still maintain your principle. Almost any other decision and your money will disappear very quickly.
 

dv8

Gold
Sep 27, 2006
31,266
363
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20k dollars in SD will buy you next to nothing. a decent empanada cart with supplies? yes. but a business? no.
it will only and only work if you have some fantastic mind blowing idea but then you would not be asking us, right?
one of my fav sites ICHC was started with little money but some computer skills and an idea, that turned out to work. created in january 2007 for next to nothing sold in september the same year for 2 milllion dollars.
 

Jumbo

Bronze
Jul 8, 2005
1,503
94
48
Amazing how fast your nest egg disappears when money is no issue for OBGYN's. Might i suggest take your 20k and spend it on getting your wife (GF) and child back to your home country where you can make a decent living penetrating computers to support your family instead of going broke in the capital.
 

frank12

Gold
Sep 6, 2011
11,847
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There's not much you can do with 20k, but if you live here then you have some options to make a little money.

1.) Put the money into cd. Banks are paying around 10% right now, maybe more. If central bank has re-started their cd program, put your money their and collect the interest.

2.) if Central Bank is no longer doing CD's then, there are a few reputable places still paying 10%, maybe more. it could be a little more now but not sure. However, be careful with which finance bank you choose. A few, like my family's bank in Bonao and La Vega have been in business quite a long time and match whatever Central Bank is paying plus they allow you to compound your interest. Central bank doesn't allow you to compound interest.

3.) The benefit of allowing your money to compound will be, of course, if you don't need the money right away, it will grow every month so that each month, you're collecting a little more.

There's a lot of things you can do with it. the problem is that 20k is not much, that's why a bank CD is probably your best bet. Just remember, whoever you choose, research them thoroughly. if the bank doesn't absolutely require that you prove where the money is coming from and a letter from your bank confirming your long standing dealings with them, be supsicious. They could be another fly-by-night finance bank. If you can't put the money in Central Bank, then choose someone who's been in business for at least 20 years in the same location.

FRank
 

mart1n

New member
Jul 13, 2006
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It depends on what you are capable of doing. If you?re real good at something put your money in what you know. What are you capable of doing? To start a business at something you don't know is a good way of giving away your money. The only business suitable for you is something your are very familiar with. A road side stand is no good for a blind person
 
May 29, 2006
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How about small laundromat start-up?

What kind of business would keep you interested? Do you speak a reasonable amount of Spanish? Would you be willing to work 50-60 hours a week or more to get it off the ground? For that kind of money, you could do business-to-business distribution. Many small business owners simply do not have the time or resources to get new products, but if you can find something they could mark-up more than 20% while making a decent profit yourself, you should be able to sustain yourself.

One of my first ventures was baking cookies in a very small commercial oven on a Pacific island. The oven I used was $1500, a Kitchen Aid Mixer for $350 and a $100 dorm fridge--less than $2000 total. After it took off, I was producing some 2000 cookies a day(200 cookies an hour from scratch for 10 hours), three times a week. I distributed the cookies to about 50 small stores on the island in boxes of 60. The stores made 5 cents a cookie and I made 8 cents a cookie after food costs. So at 6000 cookies a week, I was netting about $450 before expenses which was more than three times what the locals would normally make working full-time.
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If you can get products directly from someone who imports, you can start developing your own distribution business. Eventually, you can learn how to jump through the import hoops and find someone abroad who can fill barrels of product for you from say NYC and you can then vend them. I knew one guy who made a very nice living just selling Chinese knock-offs of American diapers. There are many products that if you can import, you can double your money on them. Another person I know sells spices to restaurants and now grosses well over a million in sales every year and they also started small.

In my experience, the more boring a business sounds, the more likely there is a profit to be made from it. It's also easier to find something that is needed and meet the need, rather than creating a new business and then finding a market for it.
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Another venture would be to import some cheap coin-op video games, just not gambling ones. In the US, the deal is you put the machines on a bar countertop and every two weeks or so, you stop by and split the coins with the bar owner. It accepts US bills which are not hard to come by. I know a bar owner who bought one of these(no splitting quarters) for $400 on Ebay and he says he gets about $5000 a year on it-- on ONE machine.

Working Merit Megatouch MAXX Ruby 2 Touchscreen Bartop Arcade Game | eBay

Of course, you'd need some kind of security agreement with the bars in case the machine is stolen or gets smashed...
 
Feb 7, 2007
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It would be much easier to invest 20k US in a business in the INTERIOR of the country (even Santiago) than in Sto. Domingo. We have had threads where people spend 5k US LIVING per month in SD< not talking even about opening up business. Some places you could look into: La Vega, Santiago, San Cristobal, La Romana.
La Vega - close to Santiago and economically doing OK. Very clean city and nice to live in.
Santiago - second capital and second largest city in the DR.
San Cristobal - 30 min drive to Sto Domingo, many people work in SD and bring money from there.
La Romana - clean and growing, large expat population with $$$, is becoming the center of the East coast.
 

will92

New member
May 4, 2011
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good point on the import business basically vending items for profit. I myself two years ago spent about $1,000 us on tickets to sporting events and flipped them for profit on stubhub.com didnt require much just buy tickets for big names like yankees redsox the day they where release and then wait till a couple of days before the game when the tickets where all sold out to resell them online basically scalping. Flipped those 1,000 to 2,000. Wish it was still like that still.
Anyways good advice to who wrote: "In my experience, the more boring a business sounds, the more likely there is a profit to be made from it. It's also easier to find something that is needed and meet the need, rather than creating a new business and then finding a market for it."
 
Nov 25, 2008
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your better off opening up a burger stand; don't have to pay taxes, rent is low if you have a street pull cart, make your own hours. All you have to do is do it a little different....how about this, use real meat in your hamburgers.
with 10k you can make more money on the street than with bank %
 

jrjrth

Bronze
Mar 24, 2011
782
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Your sure???? Every courthouse lunch counter in NJ is run by a blind person.

~When I was growing up at the Jersey Shore there was a hot dog vendor at the beachside with a hot dog wagon....BLIND and working by himself, and he knew the difference in the bills he was being given....Don't ask me how he knew but he did and was alway correct, we as kids would try to trick him "Being the little Fkrs we were" but we could never pull one over on him.....

~And Yes Belmont...they were "Dirty Water Dogs"....lol
 

BigLongBeach

New member
Feb 8, 2010
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hi folks,

i thought that might be interesting to discuss what kind of business a foreigner can do with 20k$ in santo domingo ?

in fact i need help

how about starting with what businesses/industry do you have experience in. If you are a chef/cook we arent going to advice you to open a architecture firm.

Santo Domingo is a Major city of course it has its campos and barrios but it's still a large city and 20k isnt much in the grand scheme of things.