With a few thousand dollars and a dream, San Francisco native Michelle May travelled to Libya several weeks ago with a novel idea for a small business she was sure would be a hit: a yoga studio.
A Facebook page she started, “Libya’s First Yoga Studio,” quickly drew more than 1,000 followers, mostly young, hip Tripoli women seeking to get in shape and try something new. An associate told her that even if a fraction of those women attended classes, the business would take off.
But Ms May soon found to her disappointment that doing business in the new Libya required a lot more than enthusiasm and good ideas. In addition to bureaucratic hurdles, Libya’s business culture turned out to be indecipherable. She feared many people who offered to help her were actually trying to gouge her.
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