Izmir Business Club

Posts 1-1 of 1

Kenneth Grubb
The company name is only visible to registered members.

I'm Just an American Getting His "Turkish MBA"
I received a message in Xing from Torsten Lang, with some excellent questions. They "cut to the chase" as we say in the US, that is, they define exactly what your purpose is. The questions are Torsten's, the answers are mine. So here are my answers:

1. what you do?

I own a company which has the largest English-language directory of Turkey on the Internet. Our site is much larger than our closest competitor, Yahoo! (yes, Yahoo!), at http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Turkey/. We have far more links to English language websites than the Yahoo directory. Yahoo is are main competitor, but we are far ahead of them when it comes to Turkey.

We also have more hotels listed in our directory (http://www.turkeycentral.com/Hotels/ than any other site on the Internet. On our site, the links go directly to the hotel website, and not to some reservations company. We are the biggest, and the best. But nobody knows about us yet.

We are a big small fish.

We also run a forum which is growing in popularity. Our forum is not like a lot of the local forums, like those expat forums in Istanbul, Bodrum, Kusadasi, or Fethiye, with a lot of posts like "ha ha, me too!" or "lol!" or posts about what happened at the local bar. Our forum is more informational, to help foreigners understand, visit, and live in Turkey. Our forum is the most popular part of our site (http://www.turkeycentral.com/forum), and is always either number one two in Google when someone searches for the search term "Turkey forum." In our forums is the Turkish property forum. I am sure we have the best collection of information about foreign purchases of property on the Internet there.

The directory on the main page (http://www.turkeycentral.com) is our main purpose. We wanted to have a directory of Turkey for all Turkish web sites with English content. We have a lot of marketing to do so that people learn about us. Generally, if it's about Turkey and in English, it can be found in the Turkey Central Internet Directory. So that's what we (I) do. This is my whole life.

2. What you would like to do (business ideas?)

We want to be the first place, the only place, English-speaking or other language-speaking people need to go, to find anything they want, and everything they need in Turkey.

Unfortunately, we're not making much money at it. We took some chances and they have not turned up in a positive way. But still, we would like to expand the site. We have already set up local sites and connected various things for various locations in Turkey. For example, if you go to http://www.turkeycentral.com/izmir, you'll find the Izmir page. There is a general information page about Izmir there, but also there are links to our Izmir forum, an Izmir map, our Izmir Internet directory of English-language web sites, and our Izmir photo gallery. It is the same for all places in Turkey, but we have a LOT of work to do.

(We just changed servers as of this writing so everything is not working perfectly, we're working on it. but we will have info pages on every popular destination in Turkey.)

At the beginning of next season, I and a new partner/investor, a British soldier who is also retiring in Turkey (and who is bringing in some money, thankfully) will be traveling the Aegean coast and to other destinations to write articles, take photos, and make map markers (for the various maps we have about different parts of Turkey) of the important places foreigners need to know (I already bought a global positioning system [GPS] for this purpose). A lot of the new money will be used for this trip, and for marketing.

3. what you would be interested in to do or know?

We need support, investors, sponsors, a team to make this work. We can't find anybody who is willing to share the risk with us. So all of the money and risk is with us.

If nobody helps us, we will do it anyway, from our own money. We are also looking for a people or companies like this:

a) Able
b) Willing
c) Competent
d) Trustworthy

We can find A and B, but not C and D. Or we can find B and C, but not A and D. Or you can imagine any other combination. But we cannot find anyone or any company with all four attributes. This is our main problem. Many Turkish companies we've worked with are able and competent, and say they're willing and trustworthy, but we always end up being disappointed. Or, as usual, they don't pay us what they owe us, even after we have given them paying business.

I hope that answers your questions. I've talked with lots of other foreign businessmen here in Turkey, they have the same problems. I believe this will change, I believe in Turkey and the Turks.

So please understand. I don't blame the Turks. There is a different business logic here at this point. Turkish businesses are often not transparent like US or European businesses, and the business environment here is very adversarial, not cooperative. A lot of the companies are owned by families, and the owner has had to put up with a lot of problems to make his or her business successful. They do what works here, in the Turkish business environment. I learned some years ago to stop trying to use an American business model here. It doesn't work.

They call this "getting your Turkish MBA."

I think things will change with the new generation of Turkish businessmen and women... I salute Turkey, I love Turkey. I don't mean this as criticism of Turkey, it's just the way it is here. I am the foreigner, it is up to me to adapt to you, not for you to adapt to me. I am working on my "Turkish MBA."

I opened a discussion topic in our forum called "How do Do Business in Turkey." I would appreciate your information about how foreigners can do business here and learn about the way things are done in Turkey.

Please understand, I didn't come here to get free links to my website, so if these are deleted, I certainly understand... I'm just trying to explain what I'm about and what I'm trying to do. So if the link doesn't get deleted, the topic is here:
http://www.turkeycentral.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1075

I'll be happy to post my comments about business in Turkey here as well.
This post was modified on 21 Oct 2008 at 06:55 am.
- 21 Oct 2008, 04:30 am
Kenneth Grubb wrote: > I received a message in Xing from Torsten Lang, with some excellent > questions. They "cut to the chase" as we say in the US, that is, > they define exactly what your purpose is. The questions are > Torsten's, the answers are mine. So here are my answers: > > 1. what you do? > > I own a company which has the largest English-language directory of > Turkey on the Internet. Our site is much larger than our closest > competitor, Yahoo! (yes, Yahoo!), at > http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Countries/Turkey/. We have far more > links to English language websites than the Yahoo directory. Yahoo > is are main competitor, but we are far ahead of them when it comes to > Turkey. > > We also have more hotels listed in our directory > (www.turkeycentral.com/Hotels/ than any other site on the Internet. > On our site, the links go directly to the hotel website, and not to > some reservations company. We are the biggest, and the best. But > nobody knows about us yet. > > We are a big small fish. > > We also run a forum which is growing in popularity. Our forum is not > like a lot of the local forums, like those expat forums in Istanbul, > Bodrum, Kusadasi, or Fethiye, with a lot of posts like "ha ha, me > too!" or "lol!" or posts about what happened at the local bar. Our > forum is more informational, to help foreigners understand, visit, > and live in Turkey. Our forum is the most popular part of our site > (www.turkeycentral.com/forum), and is always either number one two in > Google when someone searches for the search term "Turkey forum." In > our forums is the Turkish property forum. I am sure we have the best > collection of information about foreign purchases of property on the > Internet there. > > The directory on the main page (www.turkeycentral.com) is our main > purpose. We wanted to have a directory of Turkey for all Turkish web > sites with English content. We have a lot of marketing to do so that > people learn about us. Generally, if it's about Turkey and in > English, it can be found in the Turkey Central Internet Directory. > So that's what we (I) do. This is my whole life. > > 2. What you would like to do (business ideas?) > > We want to be the first place, the only place, English-speaking or > other language-speaking people need to go, to find anything they > want, and everything they need in Turkey. > > Unfortunately, we're not making much money at it. We took some > chances and they have not turned up in a positive way. But still, we > would like to expand the site. We have already set up local sites > and connected various things for various locations in Turkey. For > example, if you go to www.turkeycentral.com/izmir, you'll find the > Izmir page. There is a general information page about Izmir there, > but also there are links to our Izmir forum, an Izmir map, our Izmir > Internet directory of English-language web sites, and our Izmir photo > gallery. It is the same for all places in Turkey, but we have a LOT > of work to do. > > (We just changed servers as of this writing so everything is not > working perfectly, we're working on it. but we will have info pages > on every popular destination in Turkey.) > > At the beginning of next season, I and a new partner/investor, a > British soldier who is also retiring in Turkey (and who is bringing > in some money, thankfully) will be traveling the Aegean coast and to > other destinations to write articles, take photos, and make map > markers (for the various maps we have about different parts of > Turkey) of the important places foreigners need to know (I already > bought a global positioning system [GPS] for this purpose). A lot of > the new money will be used for this trip, and for marketing. > > 3. what you would be interested in to do or know? > > We need support, investors, sponsors, a team to make this work. We > can't find anybody who is willing to share the risk with us. So all > of the money and risk is with us. > > If nobody helps us, we will do it anyway, from our own money. We are > also looking for a people or companies like this: > > a) Able > b) Willing > c) Competent > d) Trustworthy > > We can find A and B, but not C and D. Or we can find B and C, but > not A and D. Or you can imagine any other combination. But we > cannot find anyone or any company with all four attributes. This is > our main problem. Many Turkish companies we've worked with are able > and competent, and say they're willing and trustworthy, but we always > end up being disappointed. Or, as usual, they don't pay us what they > owe us, even after we have given them paying business. > > I hope that answers your questions. I've talked with lots of other > foreign businessmen here in Turkey, they have the same problems. I > believe this will change, I believe in Turkey and the Turks. > > So please understand. I don't blame the Turks. There is a different > business logic here at this point. Turkish businesses are often not > transparent like US or European businesses, and the business > environment here is very adversarial, not cooperative. A lot of the > companies are owned by families, and the owner has had to put up with > a lot of problems to make his or her business successful. They do > what works here, in the Turkish business environment. I learned some > years ago to stop trying to use an American business model here. It > doesn't work. > > They call this "getting your Turkish MBA." > > I think things will change with the new generation of Turkish > businessmen and women... I salute Turkey, I love Turkey. I don't > mean this as criticism of Turkey, it's just the way it is here. I am > the foreigner, it is up to me to adapt to you, not for you to adapt > to me. I am working on my "Turkish MBA." > > I opened a discussion topic in our forum called "How do Do Business > in Turkey." I would appreciate your information about how foreigners > can do business here and learn about the way things are done in > Turkey. > > Please understand, I didn't come here to get free links to my > website, so if these are deleted, I certainly understand... I'm just > trying to explain what I'm about and what I'm trying to do. So if > the link doesn't get deleted, the topic is here: > http://www.turkeycentral.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1075 > > I'll be happy to post my comments about business in Turkey here as > well.

Izmir Business Club

I'm Just an American Getting His "Turkish MBA"