Day 15

We met with a guy named Hugo today and his trade is motorcycle repair. This is actually the house that sits right across the street from him. It is a pretty poor area and it is hard to believe that someone has actually built their house from scraps. Hugo's nickname is Macgyver because he is known for his ability to repair anything. Without a doubt he knows his trade but he doesn't know business. He was one of the individuals the BYU group helped. They painted the front of his house and helped him with some business cards and stickers he can put on the bikes he fixes in order to start building a brand. He has started construction on a shop adjoined to the side of his house but it isn't done yet so he keeps a lot of his tools, parts, and even bikes inside his house at night. He doesn't keep any records of sales or profits whatsoever. One thing that would definitely help him is if he could sell add-ons like oil or some basic accessories. A lot of time people have to go to other shops to get the parts they need because he doesn't have them and they don't come back. He still needs a lot more help, but I think we are making progess.

Aside from that, we visited with three other businesses today which is the most we have ever done in one day. It was a hot and long day. Luckily "La Fritanga Margarita" delivered again with some really good beef for dinner. I'm actually really upset that new my favorite restaurant in the world is located in Chinandega Nicaragua. The other businesses we visited were a refrigerator repair shop, a used clothes business, and a make-up/perfume type business. All these people are having some success. The fridge shop has been around for a long time and is an established business. Some tweaking could make it very successful we think. The other two little businesses are just getting started and actually came about from small loans from Cause for Hope. These ladies are making money and paying back their loans, they are keeping records and are investing in their businesses. They are just getting going but they are on the right track. I think they will be successful long term if they stay on the same trajectory.

Apparently some of the people in charge of Cause for Hope have got word about our networking list idea and it sounds like it is something they are going to implement in all the different offices. We've also been asked to try and come up with ideas for what is being called "business in a box." The idea here is to come up with ideas for small business that can be easily duplicated in multple cities without much training. Kind of a hard assignment, especailly because we learn in business school that an integral part of a successful business is that it is hard to duplicate. We think there may be an opportunity to formalize something similar to what the lady is doing with the make-up/perfume sales. We have a conference call via Skype to discuss this in the morning so I'll throw in a little cliff hanger here and say there will be more to follow about this little subplot later...