Doing business in Colombia

Visited: constant visits 2001 – 2004

Duration of visit: 60 days

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

• Learning that extreme caution is necessary when doing business with Colombians.
• Eloquent, convincing and well-spoken sales people.
• Notable skills in the art of falsehood.

I had the opportunity to visit Colombia on various occasions as a backpacker for business and later with my family. In this article I describe my working and business experience in Colombia between 2001 and 2004.

More articles about my trips to Colombia are available here:

I lived in Quito, the capital of Ecuador between 2000 and 2004, running a power toll company of European origin. In order to extend business, I decided to open a subsidiary in Colombia. Cali was chosen as the perfect location, due to high costs and complexity of Bogota hardware market.

I lived in Quito, the capital of Ecuador between 2001 and 2004, running a power tolls company of European origin. In order to extend business, I decided to open a subsidiary in Colombia. Cali was chosen as the perfect location instead of Bogota, which is characterized by its costly and complex hardware market.

During these years I spent several days in Colombia every month. Supervising operation, visiting the most important customers in Cali, Bogota and Medellin, attending trade shows and recruiting personnel, were the main activities.

Colombian people are gritty, optimistic, filled with positivity and enthusiasm. Besides that, they are incredibly eloquent, convincing and well spoken. I was always impressed with Colombian sales personnel. Well presented, organized, punctual, with clear goals and dozens of potential customers that would bring golden eggs to our company.

All good until, the invoices were due and it was time to collect payments.

“They will pay, don’t worry. Next week I will bring a check. The money is waiting for me. I am meeting the boss on Friday!” were some of hundreds of excuses that usually turned out to be lies, cheating or made-up stories.

Many Colombians are experts in falsehood and they are not ashamed of it. It is actually cultural. I couldn’t believe how one employee after another was cheating and stealing company money with the same tricks.

Cali or Bogota. It doesn’t matter.

I was extremely disappointed with this trait of the personnel that we were hiring and, from that moment on, I am always extremely cautious and distrustful of any Colombians I meet.