The last two years have been marked by a complex and difficult economic scenario for entrepreneurs in Chile. However, in these challenging and pandemic times, it has also been demonstrated how women in our country see entrepreneurship as a real and necessary option to generate income, allowing them to have the possibility of managing their own time and family spaces, improving their quality of life.
According to the study “Female entrepreneurship in times of pandemic” published by CADEM, the Ministry of Women and the Ministry of Economy, 53% of women entrepreneurs created their business during the pandemic and 60% declared to be very or very interested in entrepreneurship.
As part of the International Day of Women Entrepreneurs, we recommend five businesses led by women and winners of the Foundation’s Impulso Chileno program, which provides financing, training and mentoring to promote the development of their businesses:
Tissé
After one of her daughters was diagnosed with atopic dermatitis, Karina Riquelme, a nurse by profession, decided to start a natural cosmetics business, which she named Tissé. Karina explains that it was very difficult to find a product on the market that would alleviate the symptoms quickly and improve their quality of life, “Because of this need, we began to look for different alternatives and solutions to create a product that would not only help my daughters, but also many other people”.
Her business has been so successful that she already plans to export her products to the Mexican market. On her Instagram page, which already has more than 59 thousand followers, she shares testimonials from her clients, tips for good skin maintenance and detailed explanations of the properties of her products. Her knowledge in the health area has allowed her to better accompany the requirements and queries of her clients. She delivers to all of Chile and you can buy through www.tisse.cl.
Marina Foods
With the desire to create her own business and take advantage of seaweed, a natural resource of her area in Coronel, Loreto Navarrete created Marina Alimentos, with which she proposes to easily and quickly incorporate cochayuyo (seaweed) to the daily diet. She offers frozen cochayuyo bases and sofritos, flours and sea salts of different varieties, so that her clients can prepare a healthy dish in a quick and easy way.
When he started his business, he was able to extract and process 5 kilos of cochayuyo. Today, after winning several funds for entrepreneurs, she can process about 30 kilos, which has allowed her to increase her sales and even exhibit her products in a showcase of a multinational company. You can contact her and try her products on her Instagram profile @Marina_alimentos:
Jardín Herbolaria
Tiaren Gacitúa grew up in Yungay and says that from a very young age she has been linked to the world of plants, a passion she inherited from her mom. In 2015 she started working in Concepción doing gardens and did studies in construction where she learned to use AutoCad, which has allowed her to do good landscaping work.
In 2019, after the social outbreak and in the middle of the pandemic, he decided to make his passion his business and created Jardín Herbolaria to sell wholesale and retail, indoor plants, outdoor plants, fruit trees, ornamentals, substrates and pots. It has a nursery in the Campanario sector of more than 750 m2 with a great variety of products. For quotes and advice you can write to WhatsApp +569 5640 2116 or through their Instagram account.
Bendita Fe Ice Cream
From Pirque, entrepreneur Claudia Sepúlveda, through Bendita Fe, delights thousands of customers with her handmade ice cream. She currently has more than 12 flavors and two types of products: lactose-free, where the star is the “Ferrero Pistachio”, and water-based vegans where the red fruit and raspberry stand out. Bendita Fe delivers throughout the Metropolitan Region, Valparaiso Region and in the town of Pichilemu. Orders can be placed through their Instagram account (@helados_bendita_fe) or directly to Whatsapp +569 7716 7889.
BlancaMarti legume bars
Blanca Martinez was inspired by her athletic children to create her business, as they were always looking for products to recover energy after their competitions. Blanca says that as a good mom, she made vegetable bars with chickpea flour, quinoa, nuts, sweetened with honey, which she called: “Blanca Marti Delicias que encantan” (Delicious Delights that delight).
The good reception of her bars motivated her to sell them in her area, where they were a great success. She declares herself a nature lover, so she is concerned about making her business sustainable with environmentally friendly packaging, and also gets involved with her community in Vichuquén, buying raw materials, in order to increase production, marketing and local labor. She opened the restaurant “BlancaMarti” with cafeteria in the community of Llico and sells her products from Arica to Punta Arenas. In Santiago, you can find his bars in “Ruta Outdoor” (Antonio Bellet 292).
