The Entrepreneurial Challenge

I've be meaning to write this entry for a week or two now, but as so often happens down here, things kept coming up. I hope in the meantime, you enjoyed my guest blog entry on MPI-Ecuador's daily life blog, although admittedly it was much more light-hearted than most of my blogging. My last two or three weeks have been very busy to say the least and almost completely occupied with our microfinance program.

It all started several weeks ago when Mark and I met with the Center for Innovation and Business Development at the local university, ESPE. The center focuses on aiding entrepreneurs and teaches a class about basic business planning, which seemed perfectly aligned with the goals of our microfinance program. In cooperation with our community financial cooperative, COAC Esperanza y Progreso del Valle (Hope and Progress of the Valley), we agreed to organize the 40-hour class to start mid-September, continuing over a 2-week period.

As evidenced by MPI's community surveys this spring, our community contains literally hundreds of people wanting to start small businesses. The two biggest obstacles facing these potential entrepreneurs were found to be start-up capital and a need for reinforcement of their entrepreneurial skills. Fortunately, this small business class were overcome both of these issues. First, it would cover entrepreneurial characteristics, formulation of business ideas, marketing, production, administration, and the creation of a business plan. Secondy, we convinced Esperanza y Progreso del Valle to give micro-loans to successful participants of the class. As such, class "graduates" would attain all the necessary skills and capital required to create a small business.

Over the course of the next week and a half, I worked in conjunction with the co-op, recruiting participants for the class. After fighting the heat of the afternoon Ecuadorian sun (which I now miss since the rainy appears to have begun), walking countless miles around the community, and even battling several mean dogs whose teeth luckily were stopped by my shoes and jeans, I finally helped secure about 20 people for the class.

The first day of class was last Monday and ran smoothly. The President and manager of the co-op came for an opening ceremony along with Mark, the MPI-Ecuador Director. The professors were engaging and professional, driving the students to actively participate and demonstrate their creativity, both of which are rare in the Ecuadorian education system. The class participants were diverse in a variety of ways: men and women, ages 19-47, college graduates to those who hadn't completed primary education. My hope were high from the beginning that they would intermingle well and learn from each as well.

However, set-backs appeared the second day. Three of our participants in particular seemed very nervous the first day. All three of them hadn't made it to high school and seemed to have trouble reading and writing. Even after spending the first day trying to encourage them, understandably they all seemed intimidated by the class. Sure enough, the second day two of them didn't show. After having my phone calls repeatedly ignored by them, I disappointedly got the message.

Even so, all in all the remaining participants are very dedicated, eager to learn, and optimistic. The third participant I mentioned above has remained in the class and has, in fact, progressed greatly. Oscar in now confident speaking in front the class, takes detailed notes, and seems comfortable interacting with even the most educated of the participants.

The biggest strength of the class is how much it engaging it is for the participants. Every day the participants partake in at least one hands on-activity to practice what they have learned. This has varied from brainstorming sessions of business ideas, a production simulation of three envelope companies to a fruit salad seminar teaching about costs, depreciation, and investment choices. With only a few days to go in the class, I am confident that many of the participants will at least leave strengthened by what they have learned. Several will likely start up a small business quickly. One couple, Alfredo and Jenny Caiza, has already formulated a detailed version of the business they want to open, which has changed as they have learned from the course. Although their success after the culmination of the class will depend almost entirely on themselves, I know they will be successful based on their achievement in these two weeks.