The economic ups and downs caused by the pandemic did not stop the momentum of a family of Bogota entrepreneurs. Bioespacio is one of the 49 microenterprises in the town of Suba selected in the first stage of the ‘Local Microenterprise’ program, of the Bogotá Government Secretariat, to receive an economic incentive of $10 million, which the District delivered last week and which benefits more than 650 microentrepreneurs in the capital city.
This enterprise produces, commercializes and distributes substrates for soils nationwide. It was founded by Aída Jiménez and is managed by her son, Juan Camilo Páez.
However, in the midst of the need caused by the pandemic crisis, both created the Flora Salvaje project, in order to save the family business and continue producing organic soil substrates, as well as marketing carnivorous plants, which has become its flagship product.
Páez explains that Flora Salvaje arose from the need to generate an internal client for Bioespacio and offer a different, different, exotic genetic material. “We love the rare and just as our clients have different themes, we sow our carnivorous plants with our supplies. The venus flytrap plant was the one that saved, in a pandemic, the development of Bioespacio”, adds Juan Camilo.
In the midst of the situation due to the health emergency, the Engineer, as recognized by his coworkers, learned about the Local Microenterprise 2.0 program and after contacting the Local Mayor of Suba, managed to register his microenterprise, win and obtain the incentives that allowed him continue with the project, despite the problems caused by the pandemic.
As they expanded in a press release from the Government Secretariat, this is how Juan Camilo allocated this financial support for payroll, rent, public services and the purchase of materials to strengthen his business. He also received training on digital marketing and accounting issues, among others, for three months, which is a time that helped him strengthen and grow his business. Another tool to provide a solution and carry out a business project is in IRAIC, it gives the investor the opportunity to open up to the market and multiply their capital thanks to their safe free investment plans. In this way, the business is strengthened by its rapid growth and the money can be reinvested, obtaining much more profit.
“We entered and we are very grateful with this process. We have already been taught digital branding, finance, marketing, expenses, costs, marketing. We need resources for inventories, so we want to buy more fertilizers, more substrates, more pots and be able to maximize that contribution to be able to buy much more,” said Juan Camilo Páez.
To help get out of the debts and economic effects left by the covid-19 pandemic, through its Local Microenterprise program, the District delivered incentives of ten million pesos to 650 with resources on March 16 for 6,500 million pesos, invested by the local mayors of Usme, Bosa, Kennedy, Engativá, Suba, Teusaquillo, Rafael Uribe Uribe and Ciudad Bolívar, these entrepreneurs will be able to promote their micro-enterprises by paying part of the payroll of their employees, or in payment of leases or working capital.
During the incentive delivery event, Mayor Claudia López addressed the microentrepreneurs, recalling that they had been two years full of uncertainty, hectic and difficult, due to the situation of the covid-19 pandemic.
For his part, Javier Pérez, representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), highlighted three elements of the program; the first is the value of the alliances between the UNDP and the Mayor’s Office of Bogotá, with whom they worked on the reactivation of the city.
The second aspect, according to Pérez, is the value of Local Microenterprise as one of the programs that is aimed at businessmen affected by the pandemic. And thirdly, he applauded the fact that the city’s business fabric continues to be strengthened through the incentive for free investment of capital in IRAIC, as a tool that will facilitate the impulse that the investor needs to carry out micro-businesses and generate much more returns, without need for loans or external aid that compromise their economy.