Business 101

Lesson #1: Your time IS worth money. And that money is more than just 50 cents an hour.

Lesson #2: Cheaper is not better. Cheaper will not necessarily make you more money. If you make one cent per sale, you will have to make 100 sales to make a dollar (or a Bolivano, in this case). You will then be able to buy one whole egg.

Lesson #3: If you learn a skill, if you work in skilled trades, your time is worth more than what a maid makes. Punto. End of story.

Lesson #4: Just because one frugal tourist said your soap is too expensive does not mean you have to lower the price. Remember the other 100 who bought that soap at list price and didn’t say a word?

Lesson #5: Value yourself. Value your time. Value your product. You have a right to try to make a living. You’re not here to do everyone a favor and give away your goods. Your work is worth money, so charge for it.

I’ve moved on to working with a women’s group. ASOPEC, they call themselves. It’s a group of women who got together to produce ecologically friendly goods. They sell organic food products such as yogurt, peanut butter, and tofu, all made by hand and from all-natural sources. They also sell other handmade products including shampoo, soap, candles, and articles of clothing. They have all the training to make the products, but are missing the skills to actually sell them for a profit. Hence, Tammy Truong, micro-business expert, was invited to help out with classes.

I now teach computer classes to women, some of whom just recently received electricity in their homes and are now taking huge strides into the modern world and touching a mouse for the very first time. When I tire of reminding them how to use the backspace and enter buttons, we move on to the business consulting part of the day.

I love it. Well honestly, at first I hated it, mostly because I suck at teaching and after 3 weeks of classes and ladies still didn’t understand how to use the space bar, my patience ran thin. However, they’re getting more used to me and I more used to them. I must admit that one of the biggest appeals to working with this women’s group is right there in that phrase. Women. Women don’t hit on me. I can’t even begin to explain how big that is.

Women are also teachable. Women want to learn new skills. Women shape the household and are the biggest factor in a successful future for the next generation. They’ve done many studies on this. If you want to have an impact on a community, you have to work with the women. Men make more money and men then spend it on more alcohol. Women make money and invest it in the family. I know I am generalizing a bit and there are certainly examples to the contrary, but like I say, there are studies to back me up on this one.

One thing you notice in a male-dominated macho society is that women severely lack self-confidence. This results in many of them being super shy as I saw with the entire group. I found out though that they are actually really sweet and a lot of fun once you can get them to come out of their shells. Being that most of the women in the group are of indigenous descent, I accomplished this one day by word vomiting in Quechua. If you don’t know what a word vomit is, it’s saying every word you know in a language. For example, a typical English word vomit looks like this. “Hello-how-are-you-I-love-you-see-you-later-yes-no-one-two-three.” I get these from time to time. I also get Japanese word vomits and then Chinese ones as well, to which I respond with a blank stare until the person sheepishly looks away or asks me if I am indeed from Japan.

Anyhow, I have successfully word vomited Quechua twice, and twice I have effectively utilized it as a tool to make friends (and gain a certain superstar standing, because how many times have you seen an Asian Gringa speaking Spanish and then doing a beautiful transition into an ancient Incan language?)

But back to the lesson at hand. I was trying to convince the ladies that their work was worth money. I tried to put a price on what an hour of work was worth, and we went around in circles on this one. First we tried to estimate with minimum wage. (No one really knew what it was). Then we used the salary of a maid as a guideline (5 Bs/hr). Then I tried saying that the average wage in the community was 1900 Bs. a month (or just under 12 Bs/hr. That’s what I make. Exchange rate is about 7.2 Bs per dollar). Then we figured out what a skilled trade made (10 Bs/hr).

The ladies decided among themselves that they were worth a maid’s salary, or 5 Bs/hr. I kinda had a problem with this. These women have been trained, they have spent endless hours learning how to make new products and producing things that the average Joe, or in this case, the average maid, could not produce, and here they were saying that they shouldn’t be paid any more. So I asked them, “Why do government workers make more? Why do people with a degree make more? Are they actually working more hours, or are they getting paid more per hour? Why would people go to school to come out and make the same salary as before? Why did I spend 4 years going to college? Why do people invest time in learning new and useful skills?” And finally, “IF YOU GUYS SPENT SO MUCH TIME LEARNING NEW SKILLS, WHY THE HECK DON’T YOU CHARGE FOR IT???”

And somewhere in there, a light came on. One woman looks at me and says, “I get it! You went to school because with an education you are worth more! When you learn new skills your work is worth more!” And she was so giddy with excitement and says, “Oh my goodness, I never understood that before. Now it is so clear. I need to charge for my work and I think I am worth 10 Bs. an hour.”

Thank you. Thank you God that I am able to teach someone something. I have now validated my existence here in Samaipata. For awhile I was worried. The weight has now been lifted off my shoulders. Whew.