Business Consulting

Company formation firms register your business. Business consultants work a step earlier, on whether the opportunity is real and how to reach the market.

Indonesia rewards that homework: it is a huge consumer market, but spread across 17,000 islands with fragmented distribution and investment rules that change.

The consultancies here offer market entry strategy, feasibility studies, competitor mapping, and finding and vetting local partners. Some also help with hiring, office setup and relocating executives. Talk to one before you incorporate, not after.

Where to start: Ntara Consulting covers market analysis, feasibility work and partner sourcing, and can carry a project through to PT PMA setup and executive relocation. Your own country's chamber is often the cheapest first call: EKONID offers market entry and business partner searches, and BritCham, EuroCham and the Indonesia Australia Business Council run briefings and introductions for members.

Checking a partner or a market: before you sign with a distributor or joint-venture partner, the due diligence firms in Security & Risk can investigate them, and IndoRisk also lists political risk and market entry advisory. Once you are ready to incorporate, the Legal & Business Setup firms handle the PT PMA, and Tax & Accounting firms take over bookkeeping, tax filings and transfer pricing.