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CORFO - Government of Chile
At the beginning, we started with food, which was what people asked for, but with time we have grown, and we started with the bakery, which has gone very well for us.
We have continued to increase the variety of products -- not just cake but also tarts, cupcakes, and little cakes for cocktails.
An so we have also begun to specialize and expand in order to provide better service, entering into the field of
catering, canapés, events, marriages, baptisms, and with that focus we have continued to grow pretty quickly, doing what we love most.
Because all of this is really my passion. I love doing this, serving people - I love seeing people happy with the products or the service at an event, and so I feel really motivated doing this.
I applied for a "PEL" Local Entrepreneurship grant from CORFO about 10 months ago.
The program follows a complete process. First they came and made an assessment of my business model, then I took the courses, and at the end of the program came the purchases for my business.
I bought 3 refrigerators, I bought a machine to spread out the dough, an electric mixer, standing mixer, lots of additional baking pans, an industrial washing machine, all of these things.
The support was really excellent. Honestly, money is always welcome, but what I liked most were the classes and the business model assessment, which I thought was a really important part of the program.
Because even though it's the money allowed me to buy all of the machines and equipment that I really needed, I think that now I am even more aware that
the program has helped me to advance a lot, even more than I thought -- with time management, electricity efficiency, with a whole set of things that, since I didn't have them before, I didn't know that they could be so much better.
Having a website has opened doors for me, and the corporate image training helped me with a difficulty that I had for many years.
Because I started with food, and the main aspect of the business now is the bakery, and the name of the business has nothing to do with cakes.
So, the corporate image assessment from the program helped me to resolve all of these issues and let me find a structure that includes all of the things that I do.
The English classes were also very useful for me because a lot of foreigners come into the shop, and a lot of times they come in and need to communicate with us, and we can attend to them, so that was also very important.
And the last thing was the training on labor laws, which obviously, if I want to continue growing it's important that I understand them and can better manage them.
So, I am really happy, because honestly, it would have been difficult for me to buy all the things that I need, and this program opened doors for me to move forward, grow more quickly. And so I'm motivated to keep applying and participating with lots of enthusiasm.
I have always wanted to keep growing.