The Commerce, Industry and Tourism Ministry, Colombia Productiva, along the Unit for the Victims and Propais, launched “Escuela de Comercializacion” (Marketing School) for Micro-businesses, a project that seeks to provide 7,000 victims’ population micro-businesses with access for training, assistance, as well as digital marketing implementation and sales boost tools.
The Marketing School is part of the Government’s “Economia para la Gente” and “Compra lo Nuestro” strategies, and it was developed based on the Propais’ Business Strengthening Program for Microbusinesses experience.
The Commerce, Industry and Tourism Minister, Maria Ximena Lombana, explained: “To date, through ‘Economia para la Gente’, we have supported more than 425,000 micro-businesses with resources of $1.38 billion COP, with technical assistance services, training, capitalization through productive assets, access to financing and support in commercial management. The Marketing School is one of the contributions that we make from the Ministry to keep supporting micro-businesses of the armed conflict forced displacement victims’ population, so they continue along the path of reactivation and growth.”
The initiative has an investment close to $1,000 million COP and will serve the victim’s population in seven regions: Centro, Antioquia, Caribe, Sur, Pacifico, Meta and Choco.
Colombia Productiva’s President, Camilo Fernandez de Soto, explained: “Supplying digital tools for micro-businesses growth is very important. According to DANE, 69.4% of these businesses don’t use Internet for their development, and 89.9% don’t use computers or tablets for this purpose. Through the Marketing School, the victims’ population that owns micro-businesses will have access to three training levels, which will link them with the digital marketing world to strengthen commercial skills and increase their sales.”
To participate, micro-businesses must have been in operation for at least six months, the beneficiary must be registered in the Single Victims Registry (RUV) and be classified in the manufacturing, craft, fashion, agro-industrial, commercial and/or service sectors. Victims can register by going to www.colombiaproductiva.com/escueladecomercializacion or by reaching the WhatsApp number 3196489433.
The Marketing School will have three levels
The school will develop in three levels. The first is “Semillero Digital”, where 7,000 micro-businesses will get digital marketing courses in a short-video format distributed by WhatsApp or YouTube. On the other hand, these small businesses will be linked to Compra Lo Nuestro, the largest social network and business directory in Latin America.
In level two “Empresarios Orquidea”, 2,800 micro-businesses will receive personalized assistance for a business improvement plan design and implementation, and these ventures will be linked to a collaborative business group in their region. They will also receive additional training on the HP Life platform, and they will take part in the Propais magazine program “Red-@ctivate.”
In level three “Empresarios Esmeralda”, 700 micro-businesses will receive support for their local markets’ promotion, business plans appliance technical assistance, fairs and events access, social networks and digital catalogs promotion support, and marketing material such as stickers and tags with the “Compra Lo Nuestro“, and “Unidos por las Víctimas” labels to add brand value to their products and businesses.
The Unit contributes with its training experience
The entity stresses its commitment and willingness to ease victims’ population access with programs for their enterprises, promoting creativity and innovation. It also wants to apply an intervention model to strengthen enterprises through operationalization, as well as taking advantage of institutional offer and international cooperation.
According to Ramon Rodriguez, the Unit for the Victims’ Director, the Marketing School program is quite important, since it promotes actions to help the victims’ micro-businesses to increase sales through digital marketing and work-group dynamics.
“This alliance will allow the victim population to gather tools to facilitate marketing strategies appliance. All these to expand markets, generate employment, and remain as engines within the country’s economy,” said Rodriguez.
He assured that being part of this program has many advantages, because through their endeavors, victims can ponder and transform what happened during the conflict, taking ownership of their life’s project reconstruction process, and contribute to a solid and sustainable reparation.
On the other hand, the gender approach will be developed by assigning an additional prioritization score of 2 points on a scale of 10 within the selection. Furthermore, a workshop will be held by each level to promote women participation and empowerment in their micro-businesses.
“Supporting women beneficiaries and empowering them facing their daily work in productive and family activities will have a positive effect, because this will improve their life’s quality along with the betterment of their loved ones,” said Maria Castrillon, Propais’ Manager.
About “Compra Lo Nuestro”
This is the largest social network and business directory in Latin America. It is led by Colombia Productiva, the country’s Commerce Ministry, and the IDB, which connects companies, and speeds up their digital transformation and their connection with Colombian clients.
More than 82,476 companies and businesses in 32 departments have registered on the www.compralonuestro.co platform. And 3,083 of these have adopted the “Compra lo Nuestro” label, an official Colombia’s Government badge to identify the industry’s products and services.
Through “Compra lo Nuestro”, businesses can access free services such as barcodes and electronic commerce free access to marketplaces such as Amazon, Mercado Libre, Linio, and eBay among others. They can also purchase announcements where anchor companies announce their supply needs, and get business and digital maturity diagnostics, among others.
