Ximena González Chu-Han is a female entrepreneur who loves trying new things. In her dressmaking studio, using her intuition, she is always creating original garments and on the hunt for trends. That is why it is no surprise that her determination to grow spurred her to use the Somos FE app the moment she heard about it.
This mobile application has been created by Fondo Esperanza (FE), the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s Chilean institution, to make it easier for its entrepreneurs to communicate with one another, as well as to create new business opportunities and enable them to learn about other entrepreneurial experiences.
Ximena specializes in making plus-size clothing (XXL and XL); she finds the Somos FE app easy to use, declaring it even easier than Facebook, since “all you have to do is check the updates on posts”. But without a doubt what struck her most about this new tool is that it has widened her business perspective. For her and other users, it is a key channel for promoting and buying products, because knowing that the other users are all Fondo Esperanza entrepreneurs is guarantee enough. Indeed, Ximena has already received a number of inquiries about her products, so she is convinced of the potential of this “virtual meeting point” to extend her clientele.
She tells us that her experience as a buyer has also been good. At one point, she needed a honey supplier and the app enabled her to contact an entrepreneur who sold her ulmo honey (a tree native to the forests of southern Chile), even though they were more than a thousand kilometers apart from one another.
This seamstress from Quilicura now encourages other entrepreneurs with the institution to make the most of Somos FE. A digital tool that is generating a lot of positive experiences like Ximena’s, and that recently won the ‘PwC Innovation Award’ for its contribution to users’ development. As well as giving greater visibility to the work of small entrepreneurs, it also expands their support networks, which play a critical part in driving their businesses and improving their lives.
