This is a great resource fro anybody considering involvement any kind of involvement with the DR and am glad I found it. However, it's been more useful in creating more questions for me than anything else.
I'm considering buying a small business in the hospitality industry on the North Coast around Puerto Plata.
But after reading some of the articles here, the place is sounding more like a socialist hellhole than a tropical paradise.
The last thing I need is to invest in a business with good faith and end up as a welfare hostage to the employees. The story about the gringo (caribee?) who ended up really "buying the farm", after a dispute with some drunken reprobate he employed, was really particularly creepy.
Now, I'm starting to have second thoughts and more questions.
Do I need to carry a heater or, at least, have a body guard if I run a business that takes in cash?
What could happen if one of the employees becomes disgruntled about something? There are many who make a career out of being the "bad thing" that happens to good people. A business is vulnerable enough even in the US. It sounds like in the DR, things are rigged against the business even more than here.
What is the average hourly fee for a competent attorney and accountant?
Can they be trusted? What about corruption issues - which, for most Latin American-Caribbean countries - is standard operating procedure. How dependable are the cops ..and how much could they cost?
Americans aren't real popular anymore in most parts of The World. Is this a factor in the DR too?
Thanks
I'm considering buying a small business in the hospitality industry on the North Coast around Puerto Plata.
But after reading some of the articles here, the place is sounding more like a socialist hellhole than a tropical paradise.
The last thing I need is to invest in a business with good faith and end up as a welfare hostage to the employees. The story about the gringo (caribee?) who ended up really "buying the farm", after a dispute with some drunken reprobate he employed, was really particularly creepy.
Now, I'm starting to have second thoughts and more questions.
Do I need to carry a heater or, at least, have a body guard if I run a business that takes in cash?
What could happen if one of the employees becomes disgruntled about something? There are many who make a career out of being the "bad thing" that happens to good people. A business is vulnerable enough even in the US. It sounds like in the DR, things are rigged against the business even more than here.
What is the average hourly fee for a competent attorney and accountant?
Can they be trusted? What about corruption issues - which, for most Latin American-Caribbean countries - is standard operating procedure. How dependable are the cops ..and how much could they cost?
Americans aren't real popular anymore in most parts of The World. Is this a factor in the DR too?
Thanks