Something different in mind here in Ecuador :)
I’ve been in Ecuador for two weeks now working with a company that has an organic flower farm located about an hour north of Quito. The company is called Organic Blooming and they grow Calla Lilies on about six of their 900 acres of land. It’s a very small and basic operation. About five people work the land and they often have to transport their flowers to the main road by donkey. When I first arrived in Ecuador, I thought I was going to help the farm grow their revenues through improved production and sales, as well as to figure out alternative sources for their unused land.
As it turns out, the two entrepreneurs here had something completely different in mind. Instead, I am helping them start a completely new business that will have the name “U.S. Blooms”. It relates to e-commerce and the flower industry, but unfortunately, I can’t share the details of our business model as we are currently in “stealth mode”. I can generally mention though that I am spending my time assisting the entrepreneurs in forming partnerships with local flower growers, negotiating the logistics involving shipping perishable products to the United States, and developing an e-commerce website. The latter involves working with a web development team in India, identifying strategies relating to Search Engine Optimization, and working with a web hosting company in the United States. Other activities include helping them identify and train a call center for customer service inquiries, as well as getting their new business incorporated and registered within the United States. And finally, once the site is launched, I will need to assist them with their sales and marketing efforts in the United States.
It has been a lot of fun helping the entrepreneurs start a business from scratch (something I had never done before) and I am benefiting from the experience tremendously. Both entrepreneurs are very kind and hospitable, and are ensuring that I am enjoying my time here in Ecuador. I have noticed many differences related to doing business here in South America versus the U.S., but the one that stands out on a daily basis is that everything here is muy tranquilo (very mellow). While I was prepared to work typical start-up hours (> 80 hours a week), they expect nothing more than a 9 to 5 schedule. I like it down here.