Business Overview

María lives in the community of Cañazas, located in eastern Panama. She and her family have lived in this community her whole life. Maria’s main source of income is selling her delicious empanadas, tortillas, and chorizo, in the community.

Maria Cecilia Montenegro - Cañazas- Tortí, Panamá

Economic Challenge

For the past five months, Panama has been under strict quarantine rules to avoid the increase of Covid-19 cases, which affected the economy and small businesses tremendously. Now that everything is going slowly back to normal, all the micro-enterprises are looking for tools to survive in these new circumstances. This is the case of María.

The Business

María lives in the community of Cañazas, located in eastern Panama. She has been living there all her life with her family. She always talks about how her family is united and work together.

Her business is selling Empanadas, Tortillas, and Chorizo sometimes. she has been selling these products for around ten months with her business partner María Tamayo.

Competitive Advantage

Within the community bank of Cañazas, there’s another empanada selling business, but they don’t sell chorizo and tortillas; besides that, María’s business sells to some local kiosk within the community.

Obstacles

Because this business is new, María doesn’t find or feel that she has a problem or issue. Still, she knows that her business administration and accounting knowledge are limited and not enough to see if her business is well.

Next Steps

The tasks thatMaria Cecilia Montenegro has prioritized are:

1: Develop a more substantial business structure

Stage 1 to be completed by the Business telebrigades

2: Improve the bookkeeping method.

Stage 2 to be completed by the Business telebrigades

3: Find ways to increase their income.

Stage 3 to be completed by the Business telebrigades

Page Last Updated:December 18, 2020