Patricia Hernandez
Thanks to a unique JA Americas entrepreneurship program, Patricia Hernandez and her family have enough business income to see them through the global pandemic. But it took living through the most difficult year of her life—three years ago—to propel Patricia to start her successful family business.
In 2017, 30-year-old Patricia and her husband, Antonio, lost their son, Juan, to a congenital heart condition. He was only 19 months old. Awash in grief, an opportunity appeared: the JA Women for Development program, which trained women to develop entrepreneurial skills, start a business, and apply for microcredit. Although JA in every other region of the world offers programs only to young people ages 5 to 25, JA Americas recognized a need to address the lack of opportunities and subsequent poverty facing women in Central and South America. In 2010, JA Women for Development launched. This year, the program celebrates a decade of training women entrepreneurs, which has resulted in thousands of new women-owned businesses in the region.
““We were not alone. Together, we not only built our businesses, but also built a network of entrepreneurs. All women. All learning. All intent on being successful.””
Armed with a degree in communications, but not a drop of entrepreneurial experience, Patricia signed up for JA Women for Development, welcoming the opportunity to focus on something outside of her own sadness, which she recognized was “beginning to sap my strength and inspiration.” Within six months, with the support of the program’s business mentor, she had mastered the fundamentals of a startup business.
Patricia then met with her parents, siblings, and in-laws and developed a business plan for a family venture called “In Guatemala,” which would feature products from local artisans. Her mentor, Laura, gave Patricia advice on how to gain the trust of Guatemalan artisans and, according to Patricia, “her advice and the endorsement of the program proved critical in negotiations.”
Patricia notes that the program didn’t only offer entrepreneurial support. “Emotional aspects were addressed, too,” she says. “It was exactly what I needed.”
Having now moved past the critical two-year anniversiary that often separates companies that will succeed from those that won’t, “In Guatemala” is spending the pandemic as an online shop (at in.gt) that, this year, ramped up its offerings to provide essential services. The site offers face masks, health-care items, food, apparel, gifts, books, furniture, and other household items as a lifeline during lockdowns and serves as a source of revenue to the artisans featured on the site.
As Patricia built her family business, she also expanded her family (see is second from the left, below). Sophie is two and a half, while Camilla recently celebrated her first birthday.
