Posts Tagged ‘Prague’

Prague Business Services


2012
05.25

Need to do some business in Prague and looking for some contacts? I’m an entrepreneur who lived in Prague for 15 years and know a lot of people and places where to place free advertisements, and perhaps I could help you. Please contact me if there is anything you would like to accomplish in the Czech Republic. I own a translation agency and have thousands of Czech translators in my database. You can also read my reflections of the Czech Republic for my insight into the character of the people. My favourite way of finding customers for my various business ventures is through search engine optimization, so the following text will be just an endless ramble serving the purpose of getting this page near the top of google in appropriate keywords. Endless rambling, although it could still be interesting and insightful reading, from the perspective of someone who has lived in the Czech Republic during its transition from its suppression under a centrally controlled communist regime to western style capitalism. Please feel free to contact me with any request you might have concerning the Czech Republic, because I enjoy dabbling in any business venture. Or perhaps I could just help you out.

 

I actually like venture capitalism. It is interesting to operate a Prague or Czech Republic business, or any business for that matter, because it is a creative way to earn a living. Through such venture capitalism and Prague or Czech Republic business dealings, not only does it give me an opportunity to meet Czech business contacts, but I can often learn something new. That, after all, does make life more interesting than just going to some job in a business, being told what to do, and doing the same job from one day to the next. Getting involved in a Prague based business service or as many Czech businesses as possible, or in any other country for that matter, is also a way one can secure their own survival. With the world financial crisis and occasional economic downturns, I prefer to spread my survival net on a broader basis than simply to depend on a single employer, who can make me redundant one day and force me to scramble for work.

When I first moved to Prague and the Czech Republic, one of my first venture business concepts was import and export. I was seeking products to import to or export from the Czech Republic. It gave me the opportunity to meet many business people and contacts, travel around the country, and learn many things. Every country offers certain skills, has certain resources, supports many kinds of businesses, and through free and fair trade we can all benefit. On the other hand, too much trade and import and export, not only with the Czech Republic, can be a bad thing because it just ends up burning more fuel and harming our increasingly fragile environment. For this purpose, I would suggest an international tax per kilometer on all import and export goods and which would go towards protecting nature. However, many import and export business services can be provided through the internet, which would not have any negative consequences on the environment. Another positive effect of import and export services, or any cross border business transaction, not only those with the Czech Republic, is that it gives the opportunity to spread wealth around the world. But such foreign business transactions and trade should be fair, if you take into consideration how native people around the planet were exploited of their natural resources to generate profits for the greedy venture capitalists who have little qualms about their unethical business practices. There are too many of us on this planet and things have gotten to the point, not only in the Czech Republic, where we should work towards an equitable world order serving justice and fair treatment for all. A world body should be set up to manage trade and cross border business dealings, not only concerning import and export services with the Czech Republic, but all countries, to ensure that weak countries and poor people around the world are not exploited. If a region of the world is economically depressed, the local inhabitants will naturally have lower wages, which should attract business investments. This can be a good thing, but not when such business investments take advantage of the desperate nature of the locals. Some sort of international rules should apply across all borders, not only concerning business transactions and import export services with the Czech Republic. It is good that the lower wages in some regions of the world attract business capital, because this can create translation and other jobs or work, whereby those employed locals will spend their money and spread the wealth locally. But it is important that the people are treated fairly and have similar minimum standards of decency as we enjoyed in the rich west. The Czech Republic was economically poor after the fall of Communism. Between the world wars the Czech Republic was the sixth most industrial country in the world. The Czech people can be hard working, creative and industrious, but the cold war and Russia’s fears of the west led it to take control of Eastern European countries following the end of the Second World War. The Russians wanted to create a buffer zone against the west, which had attackedRussia throughout history. Because the communist system is centrally managed and bureaucratic, it is not as efficient as a capitalist system, where people are free to experiment with different business concepts and work for themselves. Countries, like the Czech Republic, which were enslaved under this bureaucratic, centrally controlled system, were repressed and could not develop as quickly as business services operating in the west. After the fall of communism, investment capital flooded into the Czech Republic, import and export services boomed, and the Czech Republic climbed out of the repressive regime to slowly catch up to the west. This is a natural process if we allow for free and fair trade through fair import and export services, and fair investments. If wages are lower in a certain country, the goods and services such people produce are less expensive, and become attractive to people from richer countries. They buy these goods and services through import and export, employing these people, and in this way wealth is distributed around the planet. But the Czech Republic has the advantage that it is nestled neatly into the heart of Europe, right next to Germany,Austria, and many countries of the rich west. It follows that the Czech Republic, of all the post communist and repressed countries, would climb out of its poverty faster than other countries, such as the Ukraine. Tourism also plays a large role in helping theCzechRepublic catch up to the west. Prague is a beautiful city, and when tourists come to visit, they are just spending their money, whereby tourism is a great form of business in general. Import and export services can be good to help poor countries catch up to the rich west, but import and export implies that something needs to be exported. Usually poor and undeveloped countries can export little more than their raw resources. It takes time to build up an industry. Which is why tourism, not only to the Czech Republic, is a great business because locals are just receiving money for practically nothing. The tourists have to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, visit sites, pay for transportation, and then they leave. Most of this expended money is then distributed locally. The hotel needs to hire local staff, the restaurant buys local food. So countries which are not like the Czech Republic and geographically located so close to the rich west will find it takes longer to catch up to the rich west. Especially if they are locked in a war with their neighbours. This is one of the greatest reasons whyAfrica is suffering so much. The Czech Republic fell far behind the west because it was forced to operate under a repressive regime which did not allow its people freedom to experiment with venture capitalism and various import export ideas. Tourism was repressed as well. But the Czechs are peaceful people. This fact, together with the country’s close proximity to the rich countries of Europe and the industrious nature of the Czech people made it inevitable that the country would climb quickly in its wealth towards catching up with the west. This same principle applied to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia, and the three Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. All these countries have benefited from foreign investments, venture capitalism, increased business services and import and export services. Poland, Hungary and Slovakia even formed a trading block with the Czech Republic to support a good business environment. All these countries enjoyed peace and benefited from their close proximity to the rich countries of western Europe. Romania and Bulgaria are now coming into the loop and beginning to catch up as well. But countries which are locked in war end up spending precious financial resources towards destruction rather than investing it into needed infrastructure and creating a healthy environment for businesses to operate in.

But proximity also plays a role. The Ukraine, not as geographically well placed as theCzechRepublic, is in a bit of a vacuum. It’s main trading partner used to beRussia, but once the communist regime collapsed, Russia had enough problems of its own during its transition to capitalism, in which case trade and export and import with the Ukraine collapsed and the country had to scramble for new business dealings with the west. The Czech Republic already had traditional business ties with Germany and other western countries, so its transition to venture capitalism was hardly as painful. I have faith thatRussiawill catch up to the Czech Republic and other wealthy countries, but it will take time. Another advantage of the Czech Republic is that it has a good social system. The transition to venture business capitalism and entrepreneurial services was hardly as brutal and painful as it was inRussia. The communists at the top – for they certainly remained in power (they just changed faces and appearance) – were not so concerned about the plight of their poor folks but mostly in embracing capitalism as quickly as possible so that they could catch up to the west. It was becoming apparent that communism and such bureaucratic, central and inefficient planning was failing against the west. The strategy of the communists was to expend as much of their resources on military might. They were not interested in supporting business, free enterprise, and imports and exports. Furthermore, they had to spend much of their economic resources repressing such countries as the Czech Republic in order to maintain their buffer zone against the west. But the principle of free market and business is that the ability to make profits creates incentive and rewards ingenuity. A centrally planned and repressive regime can never be as productive. In the west, as is now becoming apparent in the Czech Republic, 60% of government tax revenues comes from small and medium sized businesses. Small and medium sized businesses are the staple of success of capitalism. This is because it engages people on every level, if they so choose. People are free to experiment with business ideas, and successful ideas are rewarded with profits. The communists eventually realized they could not maintain the inefficient status quo and keep repressing countries like the Czech Republicforever, so they began to plan a transition towards capitalism. And those who would plan for such a transition would obviously be in a good position to prepare for it. The Communist in power, who had been repressing their own people and those of the Czech Republic, had access to financial resources and were embedded in the bureaucratic loop, so it is understandable that they would be the first to benefit from a transition to capitalism and business services. The poor at the bottom would have to wait decades to benefit from Reagan’s famous trickle down theory, when the filthy rich Russians could throw their money around and spread the wealth slowly to the rest of the population. Czechs care for their people and, while adopting new business services, opening the floodgates of foreign investments and working towards increasing trade and import and export services, they were careful to keep a cap on rents. In Moscow, which has become the most expensive city in the world, old grandmothers were simply thrown out of their apartment windows by mobsters and thugs who wanted to capitalize on extremely high rents. The Czechs, on the other hand, made it difficult for rents to increase too fast. The rent controls required that the tenants remain living in the flat, otherwise there was incentive to move out and rent the flats at a much higher rate to foreigners. This was often done illegally, but those profits should technically go to the owners of that Czech accommodation. Because the transition to a capitalistic and business environment was more careful and controlled than inRussia, Czech grandmas were fortunately spared the fate of being thrown out of their windows.

In any case, Prague was an interesting place to live in during this transition. I came to the Czech Republic shortly after “the fall of the wall”. Everything looked grey and bleak. People looked at me with a sparkle in their eyes as if I was a gallant saviour with money oozing out of my pockets and willing to help them out of their poverty. Or if I was not willing, they were certainly willing to swindle me out of my money in any creative way they could find. The Czechs felt robbed because of the repression they had to suffer under the Russians, and felt fully justified in swindling anything out of me, since I was so blessed to have grown up in the west. Where businesses and import and export services were free to operate, and where capital investments would be channeled in the efficient way that a free market economy can nurture. I couldn’t even buy bread in the Czech Republic without the cashier raising the price somewhat. But changes towards the better were inevitable, and it was interesting living through the transformation that the Czech Republic underwent and to witness the process in person. Or to be active in my own business dealings and take a crack at import and export services myself. The Czech Republic has gone a long way towards catching up to the west. Many large car manufacturers have invested heavily into the local industry and set up their own manufacturing bases there, which has inevitably supported many spin off industries. I am glad that the Czech Republic has been successful in adopting business services, but with development also comes stagnation. The transition to venture capitalism is complete, imports and exports are flowing, and business services are successful, but the transition and the old days of the “wild east”, as they used to say, are over, and it was time for me to move on to more interesting pastures. I’ve always wanted to travel, and one of the greater reasons I moved to the Czech Republicwas because of its central location in Europe so that I could travel around Europe. Unfortunately, my business kept me pinned to my desk, but since my business is primarily internet based, I devised a system whereby I could take my work with me, and now I can travel freely around the world at will. I would love to help develop businesses and support import and export trade in other poor countries of the world, and I am active on many levels – this makes life interesting for me. But I wrote this page because, through my translation service, I occasionally get approached about setting up business operations in the Czech Republic. Therefore I wrote this page with a focus on the Czech Republic and to help attract business partners who are interested in importing from or exporting goods to the Czech Republic. Hope you found my endless ramblings moderately interesting, and hope you have a nice day!

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