by: Federico Fernandez, Real Estate Consultant
I have always admired entrepreneurs who, often with limited funds, have built successful businesses that grow as they wouldn’t have imagined in their beginnings. The merit is double if the businessman is an immigrant who, in some cases, initially didn’t even speak the language of the country where he/she got established. Of these, there are thousands of cases throughout history.
Some of them very notorious and of enormous proportions financially speaking. But this time I would like to focus on our community.
In an article published in El Financier on April 10, 2013, the case of Mandarina Tropical Juice Bar is exposed. This is the first case I know of where a business started in Tamarindo found success as a brand and even expanded into franchises in other costarrican territories. The owners of this business, immigrants, established as a goal to get their formula of a Juice Bar and healthy food establishment into the cities and other areas of Costa Rica. The result up until now is 12 restaurants under a standardized franchise format scattered in malls in the central valley and other coastal locations and important growth in sales projections of 15% for 2013.
Tamarindo is a community whose economic activity completely turns around tourism. There are a lot of businesses directly related, such as restaurants, hotels, cafes, hostels, shuttle services, tour operators, sailing charters, property managers, etc. There are also other complementary businesses in town, including drugstores, beachwear stores, real estate agencies, postal services, etc. I would say the variety of goods and services offered is such that several residents find all they need in town. Some of them don’t even have or require cars and rarely travel to more cosmopolitan areas like Liberia or San Jose to satisfy their needs.
There are marked high and off seasons to consider in a business’s cash flow, and perhaps this has affected a lot of beginners. However, it is my opinion that someone with a good idea or enterprise in an attractive niche who is well organized and prudent whilst doing business could find a great opportunity to make a living in this wonderful environment.
Tamarindo is a great place to live and work. Many of us chose this place to get established and have done well finding what, to me, is most important: happiness.