One
of the issues that really peaked my curiosity this summer when I was in
Cuba was the need for small business training for Cuba's relatively new
small capitalists, including small farmers, as to how to run a small
business from the financial, customer service, price setting and labor management point of view.
Some time ago as colleague Julian Cope, an accomplished undergraduate student at Swanee University, doing a splendid and "tasty" research project on Cuba's new "farm to table," "private restaurants" or paladors, informed me, Cuba permitted its citizens to operate small businesses such as taxis, landlords for the tourist industry, small farmers, and a multitude of numerous other small businesses to help ease its community's financial constraints and provide services to the people. In this vein, I visited Finca Marta this summer, (2017), "an agroecological dream farm" in Artemisia, founded and managed by agroecology, sustainable agriculture in Cuba long time advocate, Fernando Funes Monzote. He named this beautiful farm after his mother Marta who passed away recently, and was also an agroecology advocate in Cuba. .
When I and our small delegations of young foreign researchers like Julian Cope and Katrin Kusy of Austria, now a graduate student at ECO Sur in Agroecology, and several of our Cuban colleagues met with Fernando, I thought we were going to here a talk about sustainable agriculture and agroecology and the scientific difficulties of farming sustainably, but no, Fernando, who holds a Doctorate in Agroecology ( the science of farming sustainably) from the Netherlands, talked extensively about the difficulties of managing a farm, staff, tourism, workers, marketing his product, and how to make a profit!!!!!! I was surprised!
My first thought was some organization needs to fund Fernando for a "Harvard MBA" so he can get all his questions answered. He has mastered the scientific knowledge and know how, now all he needed was some business skills and he will have the whole kit and caboodle!!!!!!A lot of his concerns appeared quite honestly about how to make money, how to market his produce, how to price his product, labor management, managing interactions between labor and the burgeoning agro-tourists who were so interested in visiting and even volunteering or interning at the farm.
The farm has a restaurant also with food made from the farm, but we had to visit the farm to learn this. Business training could help Fernando or farm managers to create a website and other marketing tools which would highlight "the agroecological restaurant" with clear information about what is available as far as meals at the farm, the advantages of eating agroecological!, costs, times and how to reserve a spot!!!
Also, the cost of visiting the farm was absolutely free! Yet, I noticed there is a fundraiser for the farm!!!!!! Most tourists I trust would be absolutely delighted to pay a fee or even at least have the opportunity to give a donation to the farm upon visiting it. It is a beautiful and amazing place obviously and those who visit here I can only imagine would be happy to support how they could. It could even be just a voluntary donation, but I would suggest a set fee and negotiate from there. A la Cuban style there could be a stated sliding scale suggested price based upon the nationality of the visitors with Americans and Canadians paying the most, next Europeans and Australians , then Asians, Middle Easterners and Latin Americans and then Africans and Indigenous peoples or just leave the price suggested and accept donations.
Fernando was also very generous with his time. The second time I visited with our delegation, he spent over three hours with us!!!!! And he was so apologetic to me that he did not have time to spend with us the first time we came!!!!!!! This is truly Cuban style and there is truly no price for this kind of honest hospitality and collegiality. I an everyone who visits Cuba especially from the US truly appreciates this more human way of living and running a business. While I would like Fernando to earn the kind of money he and all need to make the farm profitable as its value truly is, there would be indeed something truly priceless lost if Fernando would not be able to sit down with his guests as well as he likes to do!
Nonetheless, later, when I reflected on my experiences with other Cuban small business owners, like my various landlords, taxi drivers, other small farmers, and artists, I realized they and we, their customers, could really benefit from their having some small business training, much like I got at the Kaufman Center in Kansas City when I started a small landscape consulting business! It was absolutely nonpolitical and so very helpful.
It taught us how to set a price based on our costs, how to estimate our costs, how to make a profit and how to decide how much profit one should be making by looking at ones competitors and the market in your particular enterprise, how to value our time, and so many other nuts and bolts of primarily the financial, management, and marketing aspects of running a small business. Cuba's small businesses, farmers and their customers really need training like this so there can be some sense to how the business is operated, how employees are managed and accountability to us, their customers as well as their government which is in a severe economic crises.
https://www.gofundme.com/finca-marta-story
https://www.facebook.com/fincamartam/
Some time ago as colleague Julian Cope, an accomplished undergraduate student at Swanee University, doing a splendid and "tasty" research project on Cuba's new "farm to table," "private restaurants" or paladors, informed me, Cuba permitted its citizens to operate small businesses such as taxis, landlords for the tourist industry, small farmers, and a multitude of numerous other small businesses to help ease its community's financial constraints and provide services to the people. In this vein, I visited Finca Marta this summer, (2017), "an agroecological dream farm" in Artemisia, founded and managed by agroecology, sustainable agriculture in Cuba long time advocate, Fernando Funes Monzote. He named this beautiful farm after his mother Marta who passed away recently, and was also an agroecology advocate in Cuba. .
When I and our small delegations of young foreign researchers like Julian Cope and Katrin Kusy of Austria, now a graduate student at ECO Sur in Agroecology, and several of our Cuban colleagues met with Fernando, I thought we were going to here a talk about sustainable agriculture and agroecology and the scientific difficulties of farming sustainably, but no, Fernando, who holds a Doctorate in Agroecology ( the science of farming sustainably) from the Netherlands, talked extensively about the difficulties of managing a farm, staff, tourism, workers, marketing his product, and how to make a profit!!!!!! I was surprised!
My first thought was some organization needs to fund Fernando for a "Harvard MBA" so he can get all his questions answered. He has mastered the scientific knowledge and know how, now all he needed was some business skills and he will have the whole kit and caboodle!!!!!!A lot of his concerns appeared quite honestly about how to make money, how to market his produce, how to price his product, labor management, managing interactions between labor and the burgeoning agro-tourists who were so interested in visiting and even volunteering or interning at the farm.
The farm has a restaurant also with food made from the farm, but we had to visit the farm to learn this. Business training could help Fernando or farm managers to create a website and other marketing tools which would highlight "the agroecological restaurant" with clear information about what is available as far as meals at the farm, the advantages of eating agroecological!, costs, times and how to reserve a spot!!!
Also, the cost of visiting the farm was absolutely free! Yet, I noticed there is a fundraiser for the farm!!!!!! Most tourists I trust would be absolutely delighted to pay a fee or even at least have the opportunity to give a donation to the farm upon visiting it. It is a beautiful and amazing place obviously and those who visit here I can only imagine would be happy to support how they could. It could even be just a voluntary donation, but I would suggest a set fee and negotiate from there. A la Cuban style there could be a stated sliding scale suggested price based upon the nationality of the visitors with Americans and Canadians paying the most, next Europeans and Australians , then Asians, Middle Easterners and Latin Americans and then Africans and Indigenous peoples or just leave the price suggested and accept donations.
Fernando was also very generous with his time. The second time I visited with our delegation, he spent over three hours with us!!!!! And he was so apologetic to me that he did not have time to spend with us the first time we came!!!!!!! This is truly Cuban style and there is truly no price for this kind of honest hospitality and collegiality. I an everyone who visits Cuba especially from the US truly appreciates this more human way of living and running a business. While I would like Fernando to earn the kind of money he and all need to make the farm profitable as its value truly is, there would be indeed something truly priceless lost if Fernando would not be able to sit down with his guests as well as he likes to do!
Nonetheless, later, when I reflected on my experiences with other Cuban small business owners, like my various landlords, taxi drivers, other small farmers, and artists, I realized they and we, their customers, could really benefit from their having some small business training, much like I got at the Kaufman Center in Kansas City when I started a small landscape consulting business! It was absolutely nonpolitical and so very helpful.
It taught us how to set a price based on our costs, how to estimate our costs, how to make a profit and how to decide how much profit one should be making by looking at ones competitors and the market in your particular enterprise, how to value our time, and so many other nuts and bolts of primarily the financial, management, and marketing aspects of running a small business. Cuba's small businesses, farmers and their customers really need training like this so there can be some sense to how the business is operated, how employees are managed and accountability to us, their customers as well as their government which is in a severe economic crises.
https://www.gofundme.com/finca-marta-story
https://www.facebook.com/fincamartam/
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