Fear of taking risks
Is it worth starting a business in Brazil?
It can be, if you go in knowing the numbers: 29% of MEIs close within 5 years, most often from lack of planning and of cash control.
bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published
It's worth it for those who go in knowing where the holes are. Brazil has bureaucracy, high interest rates and many people going under. It also has a huge market, support programs and one of the most entrepreneurial populations in the world. The right question isn't "is it worth it?", but "is it worth it the way I'm planning it?".
The numbers help answer. According to Sebrae's "Business Survival" study, about 29% of MEIs (individual microentrepreneurs) close within five years; among microenterprises, 21.6%; among small businesses, 17%. In other words: most survive. And among those that closed, Sebrae found more people who had opened because they were unemployed and had less experience in the field.
The practical path
- Know why companies close. In Sebrae surveys, the most cited villains are lack of planning, not knowing how much working capital is needed or who the customer is, and poor cash control. None of these is bad luck: all can be worked on before opening.
- Write a simple business plan. It doesn't need a hundred pages. It needs to answer: who buys, for how much, how much it costs to deliver, how much you need to get through the first months. Sebrae has free templates.
- Choose the right format. MEI, microenterprise or limited liability company have different costs and limits. Talk to an accountant before opening, not after.
- Consider the timing. In 2026, business delinquency hit a record: Serasa Experian recorded more than 9.1 million companies with defaulted debts in June, most of them micro and small businesses. That calls for caution with expensive credit and with selling on installment.
- Use the support that exists. Free Sebrae courses, credit programs such as Pronampe (for those who already have a company with a track record), city halls' entrepreneur service desks.
- Also decide what not to do. Don't take an expensive personal loan to open. Don't use your emergency fund. Don't quit your job without a few months of breathing room.
No one can promise it will work. Whoever promises is selling something.
How Bairo went through it
Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez chose Brazil before he knew it: ever since he was a boy, in Colombia, he said he would live here. He says he built businesses in the country with a salon, a hair-treatment course, a cosmetics brand, events and digital printing. Some worked, others didn't. A partnership pushed him out of his own business. An investment in someone else's company, he says, left him broke.
Even so, he never answered "it isn't worth it." His answer was to learn what each attempt left behind, until he reached the one he calls the seventh, the one that worked.
The Method step
Before deciding whether it's worth it, apply step 3 of the Seventh Attempt Method: prove it small, with the 14/20 rule. In 14 days, have 20 conversations with people who could pay for what you want to sell. If no one commits to anything, you've saved money and gained information. If commitments appear, the answer to the question starts coming from customers, not from the news.
Discover the Seventh Attempt Method