2023-09-30 05:40:00
After leaving university, Boris Reyes and his brother They sought to ‘transcend beyond just being professionals.’ This is how, after brainstorming, market research, visits to the supermarket and searching for niches where there was no national product offering, they managed to develop Cardon.
“We had the ‘thorn’ to start something, and the first thing was to determine if it would be a product or service. We found chocolate, and even though we are cocoa producers, we have very few brands at the national level,” said Boris Reyes, founder of Cardo, in an interview for Republic Entrepreneurship.
Once they defined the product, they came to the conclusion of naming the brand Cardon, derived from one of his surnames: Cardona. The decision allowed them to facilitate the process in the Intellectual Property Registry.
“We thought a lot about the name, because we wanted it to be easy to pronounce. We defined the flavors through trial and error with our customers and that is how our star product was born: Chocolate-covered cherries,” he added.
What have been the challenges you have had to maintain your business and how did you solve them?
— The biggest challenge is staying in the market. We created nine flavors of products, today we only have four and two are the ones that sell the most. So the biggest challenge is to stay in the marketand have a leading product.
In that sense, we were very exhaustive in searching and investigating the market, trends in other countries, what would be the flagship product. At the beginning it was trial, error and working on the product, and today we are the only one offering chocolate covered cherries on the market.
In our beginnings the product was very large, expensive and only sold in high seasons. So we had to redesign the idea, receive feedback, see consumption, and deal with every detail. Nowadays we have never thought about massifying our concept.
How do you hope that being part of Entre Jaguares will help and enhance your business?
— I have been working a lot on the social media marketing aspect. During the pandemic I left the digital issue aside, and that is why we hope that With Entre Jaguares we can redefine that aspect, through the pitch and mentoring.
We know that if we are not on social networks we do not exist. It is a channel to boost sales.
By participating in the program, what is the most important lesson that as an entrepreneur you want to leave to others?
— Never faint. I consider that we are in the best market in the region, including southern Mexico, Panama, and the Caribbean, That is why it is important to be realistic with the ideas we create., and look for ideas according to the market. Sometimes you fall in love with the idea, but it is important to know that the market does not always accept it.
So I think it is important to do a specific, very detailed analysis to see if one achieves the most important thing: Get to the heart of a niche of people.
Additionally, we must work to maintain a growth curverealistic, not so high, step by step, with an ant analysis of what one is doing.
It is important to receive feedback, even if it is from acquaintances, but with objectivity. With that one manages to define well, take small but firm steps.
In short, you have to be consistent and work emotional intelligence Because at the beginning you take rejections or not having sales personally.
Finally, would you recommend Entre Jaguares to other entrepreneurs?
— The truth is that it is a good opportunity, because in my case I had taken a little distance from seeing new ventureswhat we Guatemalans do, and the support that exists.
The best and biggest reason is because we can’t go alone, I made friends in Entre Jaguaresand it is important to have a network of entrepreneurship that allows us to share our experiences in a healthy way.
My final message is to highlight the importance of working a entrepreneurship from a legal point of view, because as the procedures can be very bureaucratic, they are left out of what an enterprise is. Then you may feel that it is not such an executable undertaking because it needs to be given a figure of legality.
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