Interview with SEBRAE and Açai! February 27th

To finish up our day of interviews we stopped at one more place: SEBRAE.  SEBRAE is a government sponsored firm in Brazil that specifically helps small start-up companies to achieve success.  We went in and begin talking to one of the SEBRAE workers.  The lady there gave some fantastic advice to us, and gave me a lot of information that would help me with my essay.  The lady, Lediane, explained that the biggest problems that entrepreneurs in Brazil face is a lack of planning (not having a business plan) and government bureaucracy.  In the first year at least 27% of small business close  most likely due to this lack of a business plan.  Besides internal problems that many companies face, Lediane explained that external problems such as   complicated laws and high taxes can stifle these businesses.  For instance, just to open businesses have to wait at least 3 months.  And to close businesses have to wait twice the time, 6 months to close.  At the end of it all I walked away with a better and more correct picture of what entrepreneurs had to face here in Brazil.  Doesn't sound like a walk in the park!
Afterwards to celebrate our work we ended up stopping by an Açai place.  Apparently this açai place is famous for their big bowls of the dessert.  And so the tree of us got big bowls of Açai 'ice cream'.  It was pretty amazing!