Small business and tech in Colombia
I’m Ceila Flores, Marketing Designer at ProActive, daughter of Founders Michelle and Lawrence. I’m very proud to represent our family business across our social media accounts. For the past six months, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit family, work from and explore my grandparent’s home country of Colombia. While there, I observed with my designer eye and family business in mind and learned a lot about how small businesses are growing and using technology in Bogota, Colombia.
I observed small businesses of varying sizes and many industries: restaurants, design firms, retail stores, health care providers, real estate agents, and more leveraging technology to reach new customers and communicate with current customers. In speaking with several family members who live in Colombia, I learned that many small businesses operated only in person before the pandemic, using little technology. But all of that changed when social distancing made in-person meetings impossible.
Overnight Colombians, known to be very friendly, sociable, and love gathering, had to find new ways to communicate with their clients and keep their businesses afloat. Small businesses that operated using almost no technology turned to platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp to find and communicate with customers and used Nequi or Daviplata to receive payments.
Most people are familiar with Instagram and WhatsApp but may not know they have many features specifically created for business owners. WhatsApp is an especially popular way to communicate between businesses and clients throughout South America and Europe. When a customer messages the business’s number, WhatsApp sends automated greeting messages, quick replies, away messages, and business profiles. These can be used to direct a customer to a website, social media profile, or other important info.
Instagram has a similar automated message feature as well but is primarily used to share photos and videos of products and services. Leveraging these platforms helps small businesses meet clients where they are and bring in new business. Many small businesses display their Instagram profile name and WhatsApp number on the outside of their business or use a QR code on posters or business cards. While we would not recommend WhatsApp as a secure way to transfer client data, many platforms offer similar services (as always, talk to your IT service provider before trying out a new piece of technology).
With Nequi and Daviplata, small business owners can receive cashless payments straight to their bank account, most similar to Zelle or PayPal, except some applications like Daviplata (Davivienda Bank) only connect to a particular bank. With fewer people carrying cash or even credit cards, these offer an alternative payment method, ensuring small businesses don’t miss out on a sale. These applications have changed the game for previously cash-only businesses that could not afford to buy a traditional POS system.
A small business not using much technology is not unique to Colombia. We see it here in the United States as well. Many small business owners find learning to use and implement new technology daunting and often worry about its costs. As events like the pandemic have shown us, technology cannot be avoided. Leveraging technology may be why your business survives challenging and ever-changing times. The reality is technology will continue to become more and more integrated into our small businesses. We hope these reflections and observations have shown that small business owners all over the globe are adapting as best they can to changing times.
