Business Overview
Pulperia Marisela was founded in 2016 by Marisela Galvez Cardona and like many people in Honduras, she struggled to find a stable income through work due to the lack of economic opportunity pervasive around the country. She figured starting a pulperia, otherwise defined as a small convenience store, would provide her family access to a more stable income. Pulperias, although the most common businesses in rural communities, still provide a more steady income which can be an asset to families. Typical commodities sold consist of eggs, beans, rice, corn, cooking oil etc.
Pulperia Marisela - Suyapa, Honduras
Economic Challenge
Pulperia Marisela has identified various economic difficulties that accompany the maintenance of a small business in Suyapa, Honduras and they are as followed:
- Seasonal Employment: A major cash crop in the community of Suyapa is sugar cane, but due to its seasonal nature, it causes fluctuation in employment rates. Therefore, during the off-season, the lack of economic cash flow causes major disruption to other small microenterprises in the area.
- Loan Capability: Due to the local Caja Rural being in the primary stages of creation, it lacks the capacity to fulfill a substantial loans for small microenterprises such as Mrs. Maricela Cardona’s pulperia
- Climate Change: Climate change is a major overarching challenge that disproportionately affects small business owners whose microenterprises relies on agricultural products. With increasing temperature and decrease in annual rainfall; there is a shortage of production in basic grains that circulate the communities like corn and beans which causes an increase in pricing and therefore less consumption.
The Business
Marisela is a persistent entrepreneur who has worked ambitiously to ensure the prosperity of the Pulperia Marisela since its founding in 2016. But despite her tireless efforts, Marisela still lacks a formal education and training in business which causes barriers in navigating certain decisions. In this instance is where business brigades can play a vital role in guiding Marisela through turbulent business proceedings. With topics ranging from financial literacy to inventory pricing, business brigades collaborate with business owners like Marisela in order to equip her to better manage her business in a cost effective manner. Additionally, Marisela collaboratively engages with volunteers so both parties may offer pertinent decision making perspectives and thought processes that can be implemented to strengthen the business.
Competitive Advantage
Throughout discussions with Marisela regarding her microenterprise, we had the ability to discuss her main strengths and competitive advantages her pulperia has over competing “pulps”. The main strength identified is that Marisela and her family all collaboratively are able to tend to the store, making it easier to manage and provide better service as 
customers don’t have to wait to be assisted. Additionally, another major advantage is her location. Marisela is situated in a zone, that does not have many competitors and is located directly next to the school which can be tapped into as a strong customer base interested in purchasing goods such as snacks, etc. But Marisela believes she can grow this customer base to serve more adults as well if she were to purchase a freezer. This opens up a new realm of goods to sell such as meats, like chicken, pork, or beef. With this increased inventory, she believes she can attract other people in the vicinity. As of now the only freezer she possess is one that can store cold beverages, which although is a great asset, true to Marisela’s determined nature, she believes she can offer more!
Obstacles
Despite many strengths Marisela has also identified some weakness within her business as well. One being the inconsistencies in monitoring the pulperias financials. Marisela tries to utilize and record all transactions in the “income books” on a daily basis made in the store. This in return helps her determine the profit her pulperia makes daily. But, unfortunately, due to the varying number of people maintaining the store on a given day, it is difficult to ensure that every attendant is monitoring the books and transactions. Although grateful for the consistent support from her family, it does prove difficult to track the progress of her microenterprise when she is missing data regarding transactions. Regardless, the business has proven its’ potential to continue its prosperity, but another likely challenge is not having the means necessary to recognize it’s diverse utility which is not being utilized to its fullest.
Next Steps
The tasks thatPulperia Marisela has prioritized are:
Page Last Updated:March 24, 2020