Bloomfield Hills Spanish Program

Posted by JFrias on Mar 20, 2009 in Blog | Comments Off

Birmingham Spanish Program

Posted by JFrias on Mar 20, 2009 in Blog | Comments Off

Conversational Spanish

An introduction to the Spanish language through practical, real life conversations. Lessons will be taught through speaking, listening, reading and writing. Text: “Easy Spanish Step-by-Step” by Barbara Bregstein. Joaquin Frias, MBA, from Madrid, Spain, is the founder of Spanish International, which works with companies and professionals interested in learning Spanish.

TUESDAYs  beg. 4/7 7:00-8:30pm

8 sessions $138 (ends 5/26)

To register call (248) 644-5832

Click here

spanish language center in metro Detroit

Posted by JFrias on Jan 30, 2009 in Blog | Comments Off

Dear Spanish language enthusiasts,

The purpose of this post is to present a new business to educators, students and investors. First, let me tell you a little about my background. A native of Madrid, Spain, I completed my MBA at Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio and shortly after relocated to Detroit. While working for corporate America, I saw a great opportunity for Spanish language education, which led to the founding of Spanish International, LLC. For nearly six years now, I have taught Spanish for corporations, community groups, and individuals. Additionally, I am on faculty at the University of Detroit Mercy.

As my client base and interest in the Spanish language has continued to grow, in spite the challenging economic climate, I have decided to open Spanish International – Spanish Language Training Center. This will be metro-Detroit’s first and only location devoted solely to the highest quality instruction of the Spanish language. My goal is to create a contemporary center that offers intensive and rigorous training in an upbeat and friendly setting…. a place where people look forward to coming not only for the language skills they develop, but for the social enjoyment as well. The initial target market will be adults, however, tutoring and special programs will also target school age students.

The second stage objective is to develop Spanish International into a franchise system to meet the growing need for high quality Spanish language training throughout the country. If you are interested in being part of this exciting venture from the ground level and are either as an educator, student or investor, please contact me and I would love to meet to discuss this opportunity.

Saludos,

Joaquin Frias

Founder/Director

Spanish International

248 703 9434

jfrias@spanishinternational.com

making it in mexico- business customs and practices

Posted by JFrias on Jul 22, 2008 in Blog | Comments Off

What U.S. firm hasn’t given Mexico some thought? A surge of businesses have considered the possibilities, and many have actually entered the pool. Some start gingerly with small transactions and pilot projects, while others aggressively plunge in with hefty investments right from the start.

Still, Mexico is not the ideal market for every product-let alone for every company with exporting objectives. To succeed, you need to appreciate that Mexico is a culturally unique market. To master this market requires patience, research and lots of understanding.

Becoming sensitive to Mexican social customs and business etiquette is a small but vital aspect of cross-border deal-making. We offer some tips.

Open for Business

In Mexico City, business hours are generally 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., with time out for a lengthy lunch between 2:30 and 5:00 p.m. In the north, particularly in Monterrey, work hours conform more to U.S. practice. Factories also tend to get started earlier.

Breakfast, usually beginning at 8:00 or 8:30 a.m., has become a popular meal for business meetings and lasts no more than one hour.

When inviting Mexican contacts for a meal, keep in mind that a breakfast is a setting for getting down to business, whereas a lunch is more of a social event. Because lunch is the main meal of the day, it tends to be much longer, social in nature and quite filling. At times, an important business lunch can last into the early evening.

Dinner is generally a lighter meal eaten after 9:00 p.m. and is not considered an appropriate time for business.

What’s in a Name? Plenty!

Mexicans usually have three names. On a business card, these are presented in the following order: first name, paternal family name and maternal family name. In addressing someone, you should use the paternal family name. For instance, Sr. Pablo Gomez Ortega would be addressed as Sr. Gomez. Increasingly, Mexicans are abbreviating their maternal family name. In such cases, the name would appear as Sr. Pablo Gomez O. In other cases, the maternal name is dropped altogether.

Take the lead from your Mexican contacts before switching to a first-name basis.

Mind Your Meeting Manners

Rule No. 1: Slow down. Most first-time visitors to Mexico try to crowd in too many appointments per day. As a rule of thumb, make no more than four appointments a day.

Rule No. 2: Don’t get down to business immediately. “Small talk” is important. It shows that you’re not in a hurry and that you are interested in your Mexican host. It can also lead to a long friendship and business relationship.

Mexican companies, many of which are family run, are extremely hierarchical. Decision-making is not usually delegated. Make sure that you get to know the real decision-maker in a company.

Do Business in Spanish

English is not widely spoken in Mexico; those who live in the northern states are more likely to be bilingual.

Mexicans prefer to conduct business in Spanish. If you do not speak Spanish proficiently, travel with an interpreter. Here are some suggestions on how to work with an interpreter:

* Meet with your interpreter before your first business occasion. Review technical phrases you are likely to use.

* When speaking, face the person you are addressing, not the interpreter.

* Use short sentences; give the interpreter time to translate.

* Abbreviate your presentation; meetings take considerably longer when they must be translated.

Your Contact in Mexico

Selling directly to the Mexican market requires a great deal of effort and works best for companies that have a limited number of potential customers. Only a small, but growing, volume of U.S. exports move this way as most Mexican retailers and food service companies are not set up to import directly.

Using a broker may be the easiest sales method – the U.S. supplier won’t have to worry about logistics and red tape and payment is ordinarily handled like any other domestic transaction with the customary legal protection.

However, in most cases this method offers the least rewards. Furthermore, the U.S. company has no control over where the product ends up or its arrival condition. It’s also difficult to build brand identity this way.

An alternative is to employ a Mexican distributor-either a distribution company or a Mexican food processor. The trade-off is more direct access to the market at the expense of time spent supervising distribution and the greater degree of payment risk. Be advised that good distributors are in short supply, so do plenty of advance research.

How much support will you need to provide a distributor? That depends on the contractual terms you work out. For instance, you may agree to provide funding for advertising and promotional work or you may consider extending payment terms to match the terms the distributor must provide its Mexican customers.

Another option is to sell through a Mexican-based agent. The investment in time and effort is great but the rewards are larger. This route makes sense if you have a significant export volume or an extensive product range.

It is probably wiser to contract with a company than to hire an individual to represent your firm. Mexican labor laws make it difficult and expensive to dismiss an individual.

Finding the distributor for your products in is not likely to be easy, and Mexico’s vastness implies that you may need several to cover all of the major markets.

The U.S. Agricultural Trade Office can usually provide a list of distributors. Also, compare experiences with other U.S. companies already distributing products in Mexico.

You cannot check credit ratings in Mexico the way you can in the United States, so make it a point to:

* Inspect warehouse facilities and delivery capabilities to be sure that they are able to meet any special requirements for bringing your products to market.

* Check references with companies that the distributor already represents.

* Ask retailers or food service outlets that are serviced by distributors to evaluate service in terms of reliability as well as timeliness.

Although most distributors will ask you for an exclusive to represent your products for all of Mexico, few can deliver on this. To cover the whole country, most need to subcontract, resulting in added markups that are passed on to consumers. Though cumbersome, it is best to have distributors for each of the key regions of Mexico.

Getting Paid

U.S. companies should sell only on the basis of cash or an irrevocable letter of credit when doing business in Mexico for the first time. As you develop rapport with your customers and they build a good payment track record, you may decide to move to a less rigid form of payment.

Due to high commercial interest rates, maintaining inventories can be costly. Therefore, payment terms can significantly affect company profits and also dictate the schedule by which your distributor will want to pay you. For instance, terms are a minimum 45-60 days for the major supermarket chains.

Promoting Your Product

Mexican consumers are greatly influenced by promotion and advertising, but personal contact is also important. While billboards, radio and television are very popular, in-store promotions, handouts, recipe cards and other forms of direct merchandising are important promotional tools, especially for new-to-market products.

U.S. Department of Agriculture

AgExporter. 11.2 (Feb 1999)

speaking their language

Posted by JFrias on Jul 21, 2008 in Blog | Comments Off

SELLING POINTS

Ease customers by speaking their language

7/4/2008

By Tom Richard

Hola, me llamo Tòmas. Those four words are all that I can show for my three years of studying Spanish. During those three years, I was wonderful at memorizing information; I studied hard and was able to pull out phrases at exactly the right time. Learning a foreign language was never easy. I certainly did not pick it up as well as others in my class, but I made it through three years with excellent grades.

As I look back on those years, I realize that I was never able to make the leap from memorizing the language to actually speaking it. When I needed to speak in Spanish, I would have to translate things in my head before I spoke. It is impossible to speak a foreign language fluently if you have to do that. This is the main reason I was never able to pick up Spanish.

It sounds strange to say somebody actually thinks in another language, but that is exactly what happens. Those who are able to speak fluently in another language are thinking in a foreign language as well. They see something and, rather than visualizing their native word first, are able to jump right to the alternate word.

Those who are studying a foreign language, and start to pick it up probably experience a moment where things just start to fall into place; an “Aha!” moment when the language is second nature and no longer an academic subject. This is the moment when foreign words flow naturally, and people are able to sustain an intellectual conversation with those who speak the native language.

Just as I never picked up fluent Spanish, many business professionals never make the leap to speaking their customer’s native language. Instead of sustaining an intelligent, fluent conversation, their words come out sounding memorized and regurgitated. To the customer, these rehearsed and canned conversations sound just as foreign and hilarious as I would sound if I tried to speak fluent Spanish.

Any businessperson can memorize things about his or her products, companies or competitors, but few are able to fully digest the meaning behind the words. Few are able to start thinking in the customer’s language. You must be able to see your product and yourself the same way the customer sees you. You must understand how your customers feel about the decision you are asking them to make and truly understand where they stand on an issue.

The only way you are going to be able to make the leap from rote memorization to fluent conversation is when you stop thinking and start feeling, so put the canned, purely academic language on the shelf. Once you make the leap from thinking like a salesperson to thinking like a customer your primary passion and focus will shift from selling to wanting to help others. That is right. You will stop wanting to sell for the sake of selling.

Sometimes your passion will be focused on the customer, and sometimes it will be a passion about what your product can do for others. In either scenario, your leap will be made when you stop memorizing and switch your passion from the desire to sell to a pure desire to serve and help the person with whom you are talking. It is only through embracing and cultivating a passion for the natives that you’ll be able to pick up their language. Once you make that transition and begin to think like the customer and are no longer translating things in your head, everything you see, hear, do and say is in the customer’s native language.

This is when you will be able to speak the same language and, just like anybody who speaks the native tongue, you will be well-received, taken seriously and you will be putting your customers at ease because you will be, literally, speaking their language.

welcome to our blog!

Posted by JFrias on May 9, 2008 in Blog | Comments Off

¡Bienvenidos! Muchas gracias for reading our first blog. To start, I would like to mentioned the educational organizations that Spanish International collaborates: