Strategies for the micro business owner to turn the game around

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Whoever told you that having your own business means freedom lied. It means autonomy. And that autonomy charges you your freedom. For a while.

Are you willing to wake up before everyone else to clean your shop and start serving customers on time? To go to the market and fill the freezer while everyone is still asleep? To bet everything you have with no certainty that there will be money next month for food and bills? If so, congratulations. You have the spirit for it.

To run a business in Brazil you need courage. Courage here is not the absence of fear, it is acting with the fear still there. I will not lie. I am afraid. Very. And I firmly believe the pain of never trying is greater than the weight of defeat. Whoever never started will always be defeated. Not for losing an honest match against a better opponent, but for never having challenged themselves.

According to SEBRAE, the Brazilian agency that supports small business, more than 12 million people in Brazil have taken on the challenge of making a business work alone, with little money, no manual and no guarantee of success. Some by choice, others out of necessity. Most of them from a mix of the two. If you are reading this book, you are probably one of them.

The MEI, the individual micro entrepreneur status, was created in 2008 to give a legal structure to people who were already working for themselves informally. A simple company registration, with lean taxation, access to social security benefits and the ability to issue invoices. It is the smallest company format the Brazilian state recognizes, and also the most accessible.

Opening one is free and entirely online. No queue, no notary, no accountant. It is all done through the government portal. You need a verified government account and your ID documents, proof of address, an email address and an active phone number. Nothing has to be scanned, you only enter the data. Within minutes the system issues your company number and your certificate. That is it. You go in as an individual and come out as a company.

What you take on

Once it is open, you start paying a single monthly tax slip that covers social security and taxes. I know money gets tight sometimes and you have to choose between eating and paying the bills. A friendly word, though: never pay that slip late. The penalty is 0.33% a day. It sounds small, and grain by grain it fills the sack, reaching up to 20% a month. Imagine over a year.

As a micro entrepreneur you have a maximum annual revenue. That does not mean a fixed monthly ceiling, it means the sum of the twelve months cannot go over the annual total. And if one day you go over the limit and lose the status, do not take it as a punishment. Take it for what it is: proof that you succeeded.

Once a year, by the end of May, you also have to file the annual declaration. It is how you tell the tax authority how much you invoiced in the previous year. It costs nothing, it is done online and it takes a few minutes. Do not ignore it: whoever fails to file falls out of good standing, can have the company canceled and loses access to social security benefits. It is a simple obligation, and an obligation all the same.

There are two kinds of micro entrepreneur

1. The common one. It covers more than 400 economic activities, organized by the national activity classification, the code that defines what your company does and which sector it works in. Some people work with hair, confectionery, design, electrical work, photography and much more. Some even manufacture their own products. Whatever your field, there is a specific code for you.

2. The truck driver one. Created in 2022 for people who live on the road. Self employed cargo carriers operate under four exclusive transport codes and pay a higher monthly slip. It pays off, though. The revenue ceiling is up to three times higher than the common one.

It is not an end, it is a means

That city, state or country you always wanted to visit. That car or motorcycle that will get you off the crowded bus. The dream house where you plan to raise your children. The big business you always wanted to build. Registering as a micro entrepreneur is the first step towards making all of it real.

Most people believe they need millions to build a business. I think you can do a lot with little, as long as you have discipline, knowledge and goodwill. I wrote this book not with ready made formulas or miracle shortcuts, but with fundamentals that will hold your business up over the long run.

To organize that thinking I used chess as the structure. It was not by accident. Chess and entrepreneurship carry the same stigma: something for geniuses, the territory of exceptional minds, the privilege of a few. Both of those stigmas are false. Chess and entrepreneurship can be simple and even fun, as long as you have the humility to learn and the willingness to lose many times before your first win.