Sonia is the epitome of style. Red fit shirt, hair styled just right. And a smile that can sell anything. Her story is a fight to constantly learn, to push into new markets, and to always keep growing.
In 1972, a friend of Sonia's gave this budding seamstress a gift of 50 yards of fabric. With this generous gift, Sonia launched a small sewing business, continually selling what she made and buying a bit more each time. By 1998, she owned 8 sewing machines and had paid for her three sons to attend university.
She continues to take business classes, sewing classes, and is learning how to use the internet. Sonia's looking to expand her market for the clothes she makes, but needs a loan to get some flyers, web advertising, and additional materials. The last loan she received was from Procredit and while she borrowed 6,000 Cordoba, she had to repay 15,000 Cordoba after 10 months. This is the microfinance industry here.
Sonia's brilliant smile can sell her all the clothes she wants, but until capital is much more affordable, things aren't going to change.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Educacion de Negocios
Today's the day where everything comes together. The day where after months of learning at school and working hard to get ahead in class... we finally realize everything that we've learned. And the best thing is, is that it adds real value to local businesses here.
I sat in the advanced seminar with a group of 15 dedicated business owners who have been to our seminars since we started 3 years ago. They started when we began with an initial seminar and began learning how to figure out brainstorming, fixed and variable costs for their business, and how to network with new clients. It's amazing how much more productive a business can be when it figures out what it's fixed and variable costs are- it can learn when to take on a new client, how many products it needs to sell to meet costs, and how to come up with innovative product ideas. Rob Nash and Rick Harris's classes finally came in handy!
In this group, we had some very outstanding businesses. A few made bread, others made clothes, some were involved in advertising, and others dabbled in a few general areas. Regardless of what area they chose, they were confident to speak their mind and were very proud of the businesses they had each built from scratch themselves.
Our first session today was a review of 5 mini cases. Chris Yuko and Cameron Carter taught a mix of breakeven analysis, operations (flow charting for their business), and beginning marketing. The business owners not only sat captivated by our seminars, but also seemed to remember a lot of what we had taught them before.
The next was negotiations, taught by Lynsey Hathcock. Thanks to a class by Bill Davis, Lynsey taught the class how to negotiate against each other and pitted one team against the other in a battle to see who could win the best negotiation. It's funny how all this works in a different cultural setting- they look at business more as maintaining relationships rather than making cut-throat deals. Perhaps this is something the US could use more of.
After, Bentsen taught some more financial concepts, helping business owners figure out the time-value of money. It as as if Rob Nash was teaching himself. The business owners took real life examples if they were to get a loan today, how much they would have to earn in the future to pay it back given the fact that money is worth less over time. What seems like a good deal up front, might not actually be profitable once you spread it out over time.
Finally, we ended the seminar with a consulting session where we each broke out into small teams and worked on an individual business. It was great to really walk through a business from start to finish, helping them identify which products were the most profitable, what their target market was, why people bought their product, and how they could actually expand what they did in a scaleable way.
After everyone packed up, we headed up to Wake Forest's new property to toast the trip off to a great start while overlooking volcanos and the lake in Managua. Watching the sun set, sipping some flor de cana, and talking about vision's for the future...couldn't get much better than that!
I sat in the advanced seminar with a group of 15 dedicated business owners who have been to our seminars since we started 3 years ago. They started when we began with an initial seminar and began learning how to figure out brainstorming, fixed and variable costs for their business, and how to network with new clients. It's amazing how much more productive a business can be when it figures out what it's fixed and variable costs are- it can learn when to take on a new client, how many products it needs to sell to meet costs, and how to come up with innovative product ideas. Rob Nash and Rick Harris's classes finally came in handy!
In this group, we had some very outstanding businesses. A few made bread, others made clothes, some were involved in advertising, and others dabbled in a few general areas. Regardless of what area they chose, they were confident to speak their mind and were very proud of the businesses they had each built from scratch themselves.
Our first session today was a review of 5 mini cases. Chris Yuko and Cameron Carter taught a mix of breakeven analysis, operations (flow charting for their business), and beginning marketing. The business owners not only sat captivated by our seminars, but also seemed to remember a lot of what we had taught them before.
The next was negotiations, taught by Lynsey Hathcock. Thanks to a class by Bill Davis, Lynsey taught the class how to negotiate against each other and pitted one team against the other in a battle to see who could win the best negotiation. It's funny how all this works in a different cultural setting- they look at business more as maintaining relationships rather than making cut-throat deals. Perhaps this is something the US could use more of.
After, Bentsen taught some more financial concepts, helping business owners figure out the time-value of money. It as as if Rob Nash was teaching himself. The business owners took real life examples if they were to get a loan today, how much they would have to earn in the future to pay it back given the fact that money is worth less over time. What seems like a good deal up front, might not actually be profitable once you spread it out over time.
Finally, we ended the seminar with a consulting session where we each broke out into small teams and worked on an individual business. It was great to really walk through a business from start to finish, helping them identify which products were the most profitable, what their target market was, why people bought their product, and how they could actually expand what they did in a scaleable way.
After everyone packed up, we headed up to Wake Forest's new property to toast the trip off to a great start while overlooking volcanos and the lake in Managua. Watching the sun set, sipping some flor de cana, and talking about vision's for the future...couldn't get much better than that!
Business Visits
Hola. We’ve made it to Managua safely and have had a great trip so far. We started the trip with a weekend at the beach where we participated in numerous team building exercises. Today we broke off into three small groups: consulting, microfinance and small business visits.
I was a part of the small business trips where we went and spoke with numerous business owners in the area. They had all either previously been to the seminar or will be joining us tomorrow. One woman has owned a water distribution plant for 17 years and has been to both the seminar last spring and December. She showed us all of the ways that she had incorporated what she had learned at the seminars into her business. She also proudly displayed her Wake Forest certificate in the entrance of her plant. It was very satisfying to see that the seminar has had such a lasting effect.
Another woman we visited with is sending her son to the seminar tomorrow. She owns a candy company and distributes her products all over Central America. She told us how just a year ago she had such serious health problems that her doctors told her medicine would no longer work for her. She spoke about her passion for her business and her desire to serve her community through both her company and her church. While we have only spent a day here in Managua I already have a strong feeling that we will learn just as much from this community as they will learn from us.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Empresas Especiales
It all starts off with some fascinating women, people believing in their dreams, and a little bit of working capital.
One of the best parts of Project Nicaragua is that we work with a dozen businesses throughout the year and then follow up with them during our visits to Nicaragua. We've seen their business plans, we've tallked with them via video conference and now we finally get to see them and their businesses in person!
Our group split into two teams and got to visit three pretty outstanding businesses each. My group went to visit Eliesser a stovemaker, Sonia a seamstress, and Yasmin a watermaker.
Eliesser makes customized stoves and only advertises in the yellow pages. He makes these beautiful stainless steel stoves that people order to produce industrial goods for cooking. Eliesser is known for high quality stoves; however, he doesn't know what his competitors charge for stoves, but simply charges twice what it costs him to make a stove. Not a bad way to live life. He wants to purchase a machine that buffs the stainless steel; however, is it worth saving him time, when perhaps his time isn't that costly to begin with?
Sonia is a seamstress who makes custom order clothes. She takes orders from companies and also takes orders from vendors that sell in the market. All her clothes are from her design and they are very high quality clothes. However, she needs two new sewing machines to make higher quality clothes. The clothes she sells in the market, she sells for around 18 cordoba (less than a dollar) and it costs her 16 cordoba to make. Essentially her profit is 2 cordoba...pretty much nothing. Markets in Managua are selling clothes illegally brought in from El Salvador, so how can she make a profit when competing in this unregulated market? She wants to make uniforms for school, but can't afford the capital investment of buying clothes up front before anyone has ordered them. How can we help her meet 2 months of capital needs so her business can grow? Is she willing to take this risk that might seem relatively small to us, but might seem like her life savings to her?
Yasmin is the last visit of the day. She makes bags and bottled filtered water and is branching into the coke/flavored water products. She makes and distributes over 45,000 bags of water a day. After 20 years of operating, she's looking to expand in a big way. She recently branded her bagged water and is trying to develop a logo that identifies different products within her brand- Poche- named after her daughter when she couldn't pronounce her name at age 4. Yasmin is in the process of getting her business certified- this means passing health standards, revamping wall heights, and changing the chemical processes involved in creating each business.
Yasmin recently implemented a coke product with a logo that looks exactly like Coke. It's funny trying to figure out if there is a copyright law that they might be breaking. Or if rules like that simply aren't followed. She decided to forego chemicals to clean her water and is boiling it to decrease the environmental impact. Could she market this to eco-friendly tourists/hotels here? Does the sustainability factor mean a marketing advantage?
After all the business visits today, these things are clear:
1) In a machismo society, these business women have more self-confidence than I've seen in a long time. They have this purpose, this sense of giving back to the community, and it's clear why microfinance works wonders abroad. Giving women access to capital is a key pillar to success.
2) Today we learned not to let emotions cloud business decisions. Yasmin made some mistakes in the past when she was passionately involved with what she was doing and realized in retrospect that she was too close to the decision. So, how can you grow a business and follow up carefully on all decisions when you might be emotionally invested too?
3) How do we apply business concepts in a socialist world where business owners are not simply stand alone pieces of a community, but integral pieces that depend on each other for everything? How can these business owners sell to their friends, make a profit, and gain a competitive advantage when their competitor is their neighbor?
Being here I couldn't be more thankful for everything I have.
One of the best parts of Project Nicaragua is that we work with a dozen businesses throughout the year and then follow up with them during our visits to Nicaragua. We've seen their business plans, we've tallked with them via video conference and now we finally get to see them and their businesses in person!
Our group split into two teams and got to visit three pretty outstanding businesses each. My group went to visit Eliesser a stovemaker, Sonia a seamstress, and Yasmin a watermaker.
Eliesser makes customized stoves and only advertises in the yellow pages. He makes these beautiful stainless steel stoves that people order to produce industrial goods for cooking. Eliesser is known for high quality stoves; however, he doesn't know what his competitors charge for stoves, but simply charges twice what it costs him to make a stove. Not a bad way to live life. He wants to purchase a machine that buffs the stainless steel; however, is it worth saving him time, when perhaps his time isn't that costly to begin with?
Sonia is a seamstress who makes custom order clothes. She takes orders from companies and also takes orders from vendors that sell in the market. All her clothes are from her design and they are very high quality clothes. However, she needs two new sewing machines to make higher quality clothes. The clothes she sells in the market, she sells for around 18 cordoba (less than a dollar) and it costs her 16 cordoba to make. Essentially her profit is 2 cordoba...pretty much nothing. Markets in Managua are selling clothes illegally brought in from El Salvador, so how can she make a profit when competing in this unregulated market? She wants to make uniforms for school, but can't afford the capital investment of buying clothes up front before anyone has ordered them. How can we help her meet 2 months of capital needs so her business can grow? Is she willing to take this risk that might seem relatively small to us, but might seem like her life savings to her?
Yasmin is the last visit of the day. She makes bags and bottled filtered water and is branching into the coke/flavored water products. She makes and distributes over 45,000 bags of water a day. After 20 years of operating, she's looking to expand in a big way. She recently branded her bagged water and is trying to develop a logo that identifies different products within her brand- Poche- named after her daughter when she couldn't pronounce her name at age 4. Yasmin is in the process of getting her business certified- this means passing health standards, revamping wall heights, and changing the chemical processes involved in creating each business.
Yasmin recently implemented a coke product with a logo that looks exactly like Coke. It's funny trying to figure out if there is a copyright law that they might be breaking. Or if rules like that simply aren't followed. She decided to forego chemicals to clean her water and is boiling it to decrease the environmental impact. Could she market this to eco-friendly tourists/hotels here? Does the sustainability factor mean a marketing advantage?
After all the business visits today, these things are clear:
1) In a machismo society, these business women have more self-confidence than I've seen in a long time. They have this purpose, this sense of giving back to the community, and it's clear why microfinance works wonders abroad. Giving women access to capital is a key pillar to success.
2) Today we learned not to let emotions cloud business decisions. Yasmin made some mistakes in the past when she was passionately involved with what she was doing and realized in retrospect that she was too close to the decision. So, how can you grow a business and follow up carefully on all decisions when you might be emotionally invested too?
3) How do we apply business concepts in a socialist world where business owners are not simply stand alone pieces of a community, but integral pieces that depend on each other for everything? How can these business owners sell to their friends, make a profit, and gain a competitive advantage when their competitor is their neighbor?
Being here I couldn't be more thankful for everything I have.
Nicaragua Begins
There's nothing like the sight of our classmate dancing in a sombrero while singing a Nicaraguan national song with a Nicaraguan business student. He's smiling ear to ear and dancing around, while everyone is captivated by the national pride that follows. 4 hours of sleep, 6 hours of travel, and one faculty member missing a plane, and we're finally at the start of our journey.
Yesterday, a group of 15 business students arrived in Managua to begin our small business seminar and consulting week. After settling in, we began our journey by rooting for Wake Forest verse Clemson at a local restaurant. While trying some of the local cuisine, we were energized by the close Wake Forest win and set off in high spirits to begin the night.
For dinner, Ajay arranged a meeting with 5 local business students here in Managua. These students come from all over Latin America to receive a great business education and we were so lucky to have them interested in partnering with us. Whie we definitely bring a lot of enthusiasm and dedication ourselves, partnering with a local group will make this project more sustainable and effective. It's one thing to come down twice a year and try and make a difference. It's another to make this project bigger than ourselves and try and involve some local students.
After a long day on the road, we were excited to settle in and prepare for a few days of an exciting cultural exchange and business experience!
Yesterday, a group of 15 business students arrived in Managua to begin our small business seminar and consulting week. After settling in, we began our journey by rooting for Wake Forest verse Clemson at a local restaurant. While trying some of the local cuisine, we were energized by the close Wake Forest win and set off in high spirits to begin the night.
For dinner, Ajay arranged a meeting with 5 local business students here in Managua. These students come from all over Latin America to receive a great business education and we were so lucky to have them interested in partnering with us. Whie we definitely bring a lot of enthusiasm and dedication ourselves, partnering with a local group will make this project more sustainable and effective. It's one thing to come down twice a year and try and make a difference. It's another to make this project bigger than ourselves and try and involve some local students.
After a long day on the road, we were excited to settle in and prepare for a few days of an exciting cultural exchange and business experience!
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