Finding the balance between managing a business and bringing up a family is not simple. Even more so when the activity is farming, which requires long hours of work and constant attention. But Cindy López had no doubts: she prefers being her own boss growing vegetables in the small Colombian town of Zipacón, where she lives with her husband, because that way, she can organize her time better and spend it with her family.
Her home-grown coriander, potatoes, peas, squash and zucchini plantations have expanded. Whenever she needed financing, Bancamía, the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s institution in Colombia, has granted her loans. The first, for COP 1 million (just under EUR 300) was to rent the land, and subsequent loans helped her made more improvements.
Cindy López and her husband in their orchard located at Zipacón (Colombia)
The success of Cindy’s business is the result of adding her hard work and agricultural skills to the financial training she needed to effectively manage the business. Financial education is part of the value offering that entrepreneurs receive, and which enables them to manage their productive activity better, to learn how to deal with inventory… “What I like most is that the Bancamía loan officer tells you how to manage the business and how we have to deal with the accounts”, she explains.
“What I like most is that the Bancamía loan officer tells you how to manage the business and how we have to deal with the accounts”
Thanks to this training, Cindy is planning her future so her business can continue to grow. “We already have our own little house and can spend more time with our family. We are planning on buying a smallholding for the land to be our own, so that our business can expand”.
She has it all planned out: she wants to carry on being independent and that can only be achieved “when you are your own boss”.
