Source: http://worldcityweb.com/home/MIA/publications/magazine/38/775/

A Club in Name Only

by WC

A new firm helps Latin American executives plug into Miami’s business scene.

Santiago Rodrguez Villamil understands his customers. After all, he had to move a family from Uruguay to Miami while simultaneously opening the offices of a new company.

“I’ve been through it,” said the Uruguayan. “You have to get connections put in place. And I’m not just talking business-wise but also life-wise.”

Rodrguez Villamil transplanted his wife and four young children to Miami earlier this year so he could open International Business Club.

International Business Club or IBC for short is not really a club. Rather it is a company that offers a one-stop office for Latin American executives who find themselves on business in Miami on an irregular basis or who are relocating to South Florida but don’t have their permanent offices in place yet.

IBC can help with marketing, translations, secretarial services and legal issues, including immigration. It has a pool of lawyers, certified public accountants, tax specialists and others upon whose expertise clients can draw.

“We can also help on a more personal level,” said Rodrguez Villamil. “We can help get your kids in school, guide you on shopping. We even have a mortgage company working with us.”

Club “membership” ranges from $49 for bare bones services to $149 for a corporate package. For a general fee of $99 a month, customers can use the company’s Miami office, its workspaces, videoconferencing services, meeting rooms and business machines. IBC’s address becomes a business and mailing address for the clients. And customers have access to a Miami phone number and the ability to make and receive calls using voice-over-Internet protocol.

“Were not looking at multinationals that have the money and resources to open their own offices here. We are targeting people in Latin America who want a U.S. presence. Most of these are business people who come to Florida two or three times a year,” said Rodrguez Villamil. “Frequently, these are trips that combine business and logistics with shopping and sightseeing.”

For the latter, IBC not only greets the executives by name when they show up in the office but it can arrange tour packages, concert tickets and even restaurant reservations, although customers pay extra for the concierge services.

The company predicted that the U.S.- Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement, or DR-CAFTA, will boost the number of executives traveling back and forth between Florida and Latin America. “Then once we’re in place and established with those executives, we start to become attractive as a resource for U.S. companies, too,” said Rodrguez Villamil.

Customers not only have access to the facilities and services of IBC, but they’ll also be able to use what the company promises will eventually be a network of offices throughout the Americas. Miami is the first and Panama is slated to become the second. An office manager is already in place in Panama City laying the groundwork.

Even more, he added, the arrangement offers tremendous networking opportunities for executives. He predicts that executives who start out using IBC’s facilities on a temporary basis until they can set up their own South Florida offices might wind up retaining the “membership.”

When the office opened in July, its goal was 1,000 members.

“The main benefit is access to a workshop once a year. The first is in 2007 on business negotiations,” said IBC’s Miami boss, who also works as a consultant with CMI Business Group, a Cambridge, Mass.-based entity that offers executive education training and workshops.

IBC is a supporter of entrepreneurship and qualifying micro-businesses in Latin America will be given free access to IBC’s services at no charge, said Rodrguez Villamil.