In the south of Chile, surrounded by the rainforest that characterizes the Los Lagos Region, and located just at the beginning of the southern highway, is the home of Priscilla Ramos. From this corner of the world, the entrepreneur bakes every afternoon different varieties of bread, cakes, pies and kuchen, which she then offers for sale in her business “Al buen pan de Ralimó”.
“My day starts early. I have a nine-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son who has ASD (autism spectrum disorder). That’s why I like to dedicate my mornings to them. I send my daughter to school and do stimulation activities with my little one,” says Priscilla. After lunch, she dresses in her apron and gloves, takes her hair and gets to work to complete the next day’s orders.
A personalized vanilla and chocolate cake, a red fruit kuchen with pastry cream, and an orange cake. While she starts working on her pending preparations, the entrepreneur tells us about the origins of her business: “I started about four years ago. I was five months pregnant and my husband Jonathan and I had just moved to Puerto Montt, but he was unemployed and it was very difficult for us to generate income,” she recalls.
It was Jonathan, who knew Priscilla’s talent in the kitchen, who suggested the idea of making bread and offering it to the neighbors in the Ralimó Alto sector, where they live. “I started making small loaves of bread, then I incorporated small cakes, in individual format. As I saw that my products were well accepted, I expanded my offer”, says the entrepreneur.
Since she started her business, Priscilla has worked in her home kitchen using mainly homemade tools. As the demand for her products increased, she decided to seek support to strengthen her business.
Searching the internet, she found the Luksic Foundation’s Impulso Inicial program, which supports entrepreneurs with small machinery, instruments and tools throughout the year so that they can boost their businesses. “I applied and received a stand mixer. It has been of enormous help, because it has allowed me to speed up and increase my production, as well as to create new ideas”, the entrepreneur emphasizes.
Currently, “Al buen pan de Ralimó” offers all kinds of preparations: multiseed whole wheat bread, olive, garlic and tomato bread, salami bread, merken and oregano bread, apple empanadas, walnut kuchen, sponge cake or leaf cake and yoghurt cakes, among many other options. “I’m always trying to innovate to give my customers something different so they don’t get bored,” says Priscilla.
She recently incorporated personalized cakes to her menu. “It’s what I like to do the most. When my customers give me an idea, a desire, for me it becomes a personal challenge: you have to do it, and you have to do it well,” says the entrepreneur.
Although her business started out of necessity, today Priscilla proudly says that it has become her passion. “My dream is that ‘Al buen pan de Ralimó’ can continue to grow. Starting a business is scary, because you don’t know if it’s going to work, but thank God everything has turned out well. I love being an entrepreneur, putting love into all my preparations and making the customers who trust me happy”, she says with emotion.
We invite you to follow and get to know Priscilla’s entrepreneurship on her Instagram account!
For more information about the work and types of support provided by Impulso Inicial, you can visit their website www.impulsoinicial.cl.
