Delivered a pamphlet, created new poster to be distributed in Cuenca, and started a brochure about SJB as a pueblo.  Most importantly, Andrea created a carrying capacity study for Dave to understand what he can handle.

Dave needs to pick a logo and add it to the poster and pamphlet, and should remain in contact with Sol Com for when it is time for expansion. He also needs to find certification for the guides and his homestays.

Centro de Bordados

7 JULY 2009

Team Esperanza

Client: Centro de Bordados

Executive Summary:

The Centro de Bordados is a clothing embroidery store in Cuenca begun in 1989 with funding from Switzerland.  It offers clothing, bags, greeting cards, and an extensive catalog of designs.  The center has previously experienced success in the domestic and international markets, but in recent years their sales have gone down dramatically.

In an unsuccessful attempt to increase their exposure, they distributed over 2,000 pamphlets throughout Cuenca. The building was donated thus the Centro incurs no costs as a result, which allows the project to continue despite very limited business.

Forty members continue with the project, but almost zero purchases are made on a normal basis as they receive only 2-3 customers per month in the store due to a less than strategic location in an industrial part of Cuenca.

They do have a customer in Florida who places large orders around the holidays.  Due to the fact that most orders come from abroad (U.S. and Canada), the women wish to seek out a place in the international market while still maintaining availability for customers within Ecuador.

Previously the Centro de Bordados was a member of the Latin American branch of the World Fair Trade Organization called INFAT.  They have a website (centrodebordados.com), however it lacks the ability for customers to make purchases online.  Also, they will need a new brand name as CBC is already copyrighted in Colombia.

APF Progress:

Team Oportunidad

Oportunidad met with the Centro de Bordados, and conducted an APF 1 needs analysis with Centro de Bordados.  They also left them with instructions to fill out the PLC and GRE to be picked up by the next group.  Unfortunately this was not done by Impacto or Esperanza, due to unawareness that it needed to be done.

Recommendations:

Oportunidad concluded that Centro de Bordados really lacks international exposure, and that a documentary film on the women, their culture and heritage as related to their work could increase their product value and demand.

Team Impacto

Impacto met with Centro de Bordados, gave a presentation on what Fair Trade is, and provided them with an application to become certified Fair Trade.  They recommended 10,000 Villages as a possibility, which was well-received as Centro de Bordados itself had previously attempted to initiate contact with 10,000 Villages but received no response.  Impacto wrote a second letter on behalf of Centro de Bordados, and are still waiting for a response.  They also concluded that getting a new logo is a priority for Centro de Bordados, for that reason they  came up with 3 examples for Team Esperanza to present on the APF3.  Impacto also brought some photos of examples of a more modern style of embroidered clothing to show Centro de Bordados as a possible way to revamp their clothing and attract young and foreign customers.

Recommendations:

Research the possibility of Fair Trade certification in Latin America, specifically with the World Fair Trade Organization.  Provide Centro de Bordados with information on Paypal registration.  Bring more pictures of clothing examples offered in stores in Cuenca.

Team Esperanza

Logos:

We met with two women from Centro de Bordados and came upon some new insights.  Firstly we received the logos from Impacto and emailed them before the APF to Centro de Bordados´email so that they would have our contact information.  At the APF, we presented the 3 logos made by Team Impacto and received their feedback.  They liked the rough ideas, but apparently have a pretty specific idea in mind of what they would like for the logo.  They would like to work from the basic form of one of Impacto´s logos, but they want to incorporate two images they showed us on a pamphlet: an embroidered Ecuadorian woman and the letter C on their current logo with the special needle and thread design of the letter.  We inquired and they do have digital images to work with, and requested that they send them to the email from which we sent the logos.  We followed up with a second email requesting the images, and have yet to receive a response.

Fair Trade:

We brought information on the Latin American division of the World Fair Trade Organization (IFAT) to present and complete with Centro de Bordados to get them moving towards membership.  However, in the course of our APF we discovered that Centro de Bordados actually already was a member of IFAT for 2 years until 2003.  Due to economic reasons, they ceased paying their membership fees and are not interested at the moment in reinitiating that relationship.  They told us that it was expensive and that back then their products were too high of price and quality to compete with cheaper goods coming in from places like Southeast Asia and China.  We emphasized again the value 10,000 Villages might provide as they do sell quite a bit of higher-quality and higher-priced items.   They feel a bit helpless in regards to this connection, and requested that we assist in that especially given our English language ability.

Paypal:

We brought an application and detailed guide to registering with Paypal to the meeting with plans to actually walk through the online application with them if possible.  Before we got into our presentation, however, the woman with Centro de Bordados stopped us and told us about how they had in the past attempted to create a facility on their website without success.  As she explained, they originally built their website with the purpose of offering online purchases, even gained a convenio with DHL for shipping.  They ran into the problem, however, that without a U.S. bank account they could not provide this service, as the banks needed to run the transactions through the U.S.  This type of challenge regarding online purchases was unforeseen by us, and we could not tell her whether they would be able to realize purchases with Paypal.  We promised to look into it.

Paypal Results:

After researching on Paypal´s website, it appears Paypal is not an option for Centro de Bordados in terms of banking transactions.  CdB has a bank account, but not with a US Bank (Banco Pichincha), nor do they have a card to go with it.  However, we think there still exists an opportunity.

The site showed various levels of service that Paypal offers by country, and the following what that under which Ecuador fell:

Send. Receive. Withdraw to a U.S. Bank Account, a card, or via a Check.

Send and receive payments in these countries. Withdraw from your PayPal account to a U.S. bank account or request a check from PayPal.

Judging from this, we think CdB can still create a Paypal account, and simply receive payments through checks from Paypal.  This might be a much more complicated method, and will require more meticulous bookkeeping and monitoring of purchases by CdB, but if it makes online purchases possible for CdB we feel it is worthwhile.  This will not only hopefully increase purchases, but also open Centro de Bordados up to a much larger market internationally and domestically.

We found a 384-page guide on setting up online purchasing, in English unfortunately, but very detailed.  We also have a basic summary of Paypal options in Spanish which we did not leave behind when we thought Paypal would not work but which now we feel might be of use to CdB in their decisions.  After looking over the options, we would recommend to Centro de Bordados that they utilize the ¨Pagos en el sitio Web: version estándar¨ option, with the ¨Buy Now¨ button feature.

The first step in setting this is up is to establish botones de pago on their website (https://www.paypal.com/ec/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=LrczD4YxQbak5YOVlxu-eWeEmZEluZ17v08aMbuPTFfrP29IDIqVTQAFkSS&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1fb6947b0aeae66fdb090c3508df63c7a078883ba93cc8aafe).  After completing this step they may register for an account with Paypal.

Website:

After reviewing the website we feel Centro de Bordados has a pretty nicely designed and organized site and reworking the structure won´t be very necessary.  Regarding the products offered on the site, the sweaters and handbags looked like they could appeal to the international crowd.  The cards were also nice, though more variety could be offered.  The women´s shirts in particular need reworking – more specifically the cut and fit of the shirts – if CdB hopes to appeal to the young and international market.

Goals and Objectives

1. Present specific information on CdB´s Fair Trade option and begin application with them.
2. Provide CdB with the means to start up a online ordering system on their website
3. Help CdB begin to think about how to revamp their product lines to increase sales
4. Provide CdB with a new logo that represents their business as they wish for their market to see them.

SolCom Follow-up

• pick up completed GRE/PLC
• follow up with them on the Paypal option
• follow up with 10,000 Villages communication
• present the revised logo
• assist with exposure to internationals in-country and out if possible
• perhaps a study on the current market and whether their products remain too high in quality and price to compete in INFAT stores

Casa Maria Amor

10 JULY 2009

Team Esperanza

Client: Casa Maria Amor

Previous Teams Analysis/Summary

Team Oportunidad

When Team Oportunidad met with Casa Maria Amor they had the following desired outcomes: 1. Interest in knowing more about CrediCapaz 2. Business plan training, how to start new projects 3. Training on human resources, specifically working in teams and group unity 4. How to raise funds specifically by finding donors and writing grant proposals 5. Publicity, especially advertising the laundry service with a focus on tourists   6. Open a child care center run within the group organization 7. New training program with organic gardening.

After they had their meeting with the ladies, Team Oportunidad was able to come up with several recommendations for Team Impacto. When it came to CrediCapaz they recommended that Team Impacto completed a workshop or a presentation to further explain how it works. They also recommended that Team Impacto worked on workshops on how to write business plans for their new projects. When it came to the Lavanderia Team Oportunidad had several suggestions. They said that they are having a hard time promoting the Lavanderia, but they thought that increasing promotion wasn’t a priority because the ladies are already having a hard time keeping up with demand. That’s why they recommended thay Team Impacto look into how they can increase capacity.  Finally Team Oportunidad suggested that Team Impacto worked on a business Outline for a child care center ran by the ladies.

Team Impacto

When Team Impacto met with Casa Maria Amor they had two main goals: 1. To run an informational/diagnostic session on CrediCapaz 2. To perform a micro-business workshop. After they completed both of these activities, they had several suggestions for Team Esperanza.

After they completed both the diagnostic of their community savings group, and their information session on CrediCapaz, Team Impacto offered Zach’s services to help them improve their savings system. They thought this was the right way to go, especially since we are not experts on this subject. Therefore they did not leave us with any other suggestions on how to proceed in this subject.

On the other hand, Team Impacto did leave us with some suggestions when it came to the Lavandería. After running a diagnostic of this business, Team Impacto thought that they needed help when it came to marketing. That’s why they suggested that we help them come up with marketing materials, and a basic a marketing plan.

Finally Team Impacto also performed a micro-business workshop. For this workshop they used the Lavanderia business as an example. They suggested that we give the ladies of Casa Maria Amor a hard copy of the workshop, they also suggested that we go through the workshop with a different business.

Executive Summary

Based on Team Impacto’s suggestions we had three main goals for this meeting: 1. To come up with a basic market strategy 2. To work on marketing materials 3. To perform a micro-business workshop.

Since the most important part of our APF work was to develop a marketing strategy, we decided to prepare some marketing material before going into this meeting. Basically we developed a rough draft for both a flyer and a poster. Our intention was to get some feedback from the ladies. For this reason the first thing we did when we got there was to give each lady a copy of both the poster and a flyer and asked for their suggestions on both the design and the content of the flyer. This activity ended up being very productive, and we got all the information we needed to come up with a basic marketing plan. We discussed promotions with them for the coming months, which included a frequency cards for customers, a prepaid card, and some other promotions celebrating the birthday of the Lavanderia. They also gave us a lot of suggestions on the content of the flyers and posters, and we promised to have them revised by the end of the week.

On the second part of our meeting we went through a mico-business workshop with the ladies. Since more than half of the ladies attending hadn’t been in the meeting with Team Impacto, we figured this was a good idea. For this activity we worked with a Panaderia business on of the ladies is planning to open.

Goals/Objectives

Short-term:

1. To increase the amount of customers that come to the Lavanderia.
2. Come up with a frequency card for customers, and help them implement them.
3. Finish the flyers, and posters which include all the promotions they want to implement for the Lavanderias birthday.

Long-term:

1. Be able to retain a higher percentage of their customers.
2. Come up with a pre-paid card, and help them implement it. For this matter it is necessary to think of how the ladies are going to divide the profits from these cards.

Needs Analysis

Lavanderia

1. They need a logo for the Lavanderia.
2. Marketing material.
3. Marketing plan.
   1. Establish a schedule of promotions for the following year.
4. Finally we need to go over their inventory system to make sure it is as efficient as it could be.

Micro-Business Workshop

1. From our meeting, it seemed as though more ladies wanted to express their own business ideas and work on them. So we think it would be a good idea to go over this workshop with smaller groups. This would give each lady a better chance of voicing their ideas, and it would be easier for us to stress the importance of this workshop.

Current Progress

Lavanderia

1. The revised flyers and posters are already done (we just need the ladies final approval)
2. We have some defined promotions for the next month.
3. Currently working on the logo.

Underlying Problems

1. Lack of marketing material

Work Plan

Lavanderia

1. After all the groups leave Ecuador, SolCom should continue to work on the promotions and make sure the ladies are applying them in the right manner.
2. They should also work with the ladies to come up with a more defined marketing plan. Which included promotions not only for August but also for the rest of the year.

Final Thoughts: After we left this meeting, we were amazed by how engaged and motivated these ladies were. For the most part they weren’t afraid to speak their mind, and thanks to that we got some very useful commentaries. We do recommend that in the future the ladies be split into smaller groups. We recommend this because we did notice that some ladies where speaking more than others, and maybe intimidating other ladies. So by splitting them up they will all have the same opportunity to speak their minds. Finally we recommend that SolCom makes sure that before the frequency cards are implemented all the ladies understand how the system works.

LNTM

Encuesta:	Bulletin
Location:	Gualaceo/Palmar
Date:	Monday July 13
Number of Encuestas:	12

Summary:

After interviewing several people both in both Palmar, and in Chorleleg we were able to come to these conclusions:

• Around 83% (or 10 out of 12) of the people we interviewed had never heard of bulletin comunitario before.
• Around 93% (or 11 out of 12) of the people we interviewed would like to have more access to information regarding important topics that could affect them as individuals.
• Around 75% (or 9 out of 12) of the people we interviewed said that they have access to internet.
• Out of these 9 people, 55% (or 5 out of the 9) said they don’t use the internet to look up information.
• When we asked people what are the most important topics for them, these were the responses for each option
  • Business 66% (or 8 out of 12)
  • Health 75% ( or 9 out of 12)
  • Technology 50% (6 out of 12)
  • Education 41% (or 5 out of 12)
  • Family Topics 33% (or 4 out of 12)
  • Community Information 16% (or 2 out of 12)
  • Agriculture 50% (or 6 out of 12)
  • Income Generation 41% (or 5 out 12)

• When we asked for additional topics they would like to see in the bulletin, the majority of the responses were geared towards the following:
  • Marketing
  • Tourism
  • Diseases
  • When we asked for ways in which SolCom could gain the trust of the community, the most common responses were:
    • SolCom should form an alliance with a local institution.
    • SolCom should transmit stability and trustworthiness.
    • SolCom should be socially responsible, and they should keep they word.
    • Give charlas informing people of what SolCom is.
    • Around 83% (or 10 out 12) of the people we interviewed preferred to have printed access to the bulletin instead of electronically.
    • Everyone we interviewed said they preferred if the bulletin was free.

Overall Thoughts and Recommendations:

After conducting these interviews we thought that the format of the bulletin encuesta isn’t very efficient. We believe that most of this encuesta should be rewritten. On a different note, we did notice that the answers for the topics people want to  see on the bulletin varied between the different regions were we conducted the encuestas. For example people living in Chordeleg seemed to be very interested in Agriculture, while people in Palmar seemed to be very interested in technology.

-Base de la comidas, hospedaje, guías, transporte

-Naturaleza,

-Sitios turísticos

-Organización de la comunidad

-Pagina Web

O

-Ayudas el Ministerio el turismo

-Red Com

-RFPST

-Peace Corp.

-MUCHO APOYO

-Universidades
                        D

-Falta de personal; capacitado en todas

-Las Áreas

-Recursos económicos, técnicos

-Mejorar las villas

-La gente no trabaja adecuadamente

-Capacitación

-Conformismo

A

-Naturaleza (clima, derrumbes)

-Que la política

-No los Apoye

Needs Analysis

Aspirations

Discuss and analyze the following aspects of the organization or business with the client and have them assign a number to prioritize their needs.

Services we Offer

Desired Outcomes: To finish painting the sign outside of the co-op’s shop, the sign for the road, and to give a charla on how to go about exporting goods from the co-op.

Activities: Painted the signs for the road, and painted the letters on the wall outside the co-op. We also gave a charla on exporting. This went over options for exportation (exportation organizations and fair trade sealants) and what to expect for relationships with exporting organizations. We emphasized the difficulties and the potential benefits, though highlighting the necessities of strong commitment-loyalty and increased product production. We made sure to note that products would most likely have to be produced and shipped in bulk, and that it was necessary to find the most cost-efficient manner of business so as to maximize profits. This would require meetings with individuals in Guatemala to discuss registration and other options (we provided contacts in Xela from export.com.gt).

Deliverables: The two signs, the charla information and contacts.

Analysis/Lessons Learned: The shop itself is quite small, but the women are very dedicated to improving their business, and so it is a matter of us providing them with any and all information we can about how to improve the business they have. (i.e. we know next to nothing about exportation, but have resources for research beyond what they do).

Recommendations: Make the touch-ups in red on the street sign, repaint the red on the wall outside, and paint the sides of the wall white. Follow up by asking if they have made any progress on exporting ideas, and find out what we can do to further help (additional contacts? More numbers? Ideas for products?).

Desired Outcomes: To create a pamphlet for publicity which we can bring to at scheduled meeting with them on Saturday, and which we can leave in area offices and tourist hot-spots.

Activities: Creation of the pamphlet.

Deliverables: The pamphlet should be completed shortly.

Analysis/Lessons Learned:

Recommendations: