About this role
Small Business Development Advisor
Project Description: Are you a business-savvy creative ready to make an impact in the arts? A community in Ecuador is waiting for you.
Launched in 2007, the Saraguro Women’s Artisan Cooperative sold their beadwork at the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for several years, gaining confidence that their work appealed to international buyers. They created a catalog for wholesalers and used sales proceeds to support their households, proving that their traditional beadwork is both culturally significant and economically viable. The cooperative remains committed to preserving this ancestral art form among younger Indigenous women. To successfully tap into new markets, the cooperative members seek business and marketing strategy training.
As a Small Business Development Advisor, you will develop the basic business and digital marketing skills of cooperative members. Together, you will establish processes to track sales and gain a deeper understanding of customer interests. Your collaborative efforts will improve livelihoods and protect the area’s cultural identity for generations to come.
Required Skills: Bachelor's degree in business, administration, marketing, entrepreneurship, or business education. AND Two or more years of experience working at a startup/social enterprise or running a small business.
Living Conditions: The Volunteer will live independently in an apartment in an urban area in Ecuador’s southern highlands. The five Indigenous communities where the women’s groups are located near the town's center, making travel on foot, by bus, or by bicycle possible.
Activities: Build an inventory system to track sales and observe consumer habits. Assist in establishing quality standards for work and ongoing training. Build a simple budget for tracking expenses associated with running a business. Document art pieces through digital photography and provide basic photography training. Develop a multilingual website that tells the cooperative’s story, feature the available work, and facilitate online sales. Develop a social media strategy to expand national and international reach. Conduct simple market studies on customer profiles and recommend strategies for maintaining and expanding the customer base. You may also work on additional projects that meet the community’s interests and priorities, such as teaching English and community-level tourism projects.
Training: After a 1-week orientation on topics such as health and safety, you will move to a town in the southern highlands of the Loja province where you will collaborate with artisans and entrepreneurs to assess needs and develop a work plan in line with their established goals.
Peace Corps/Ecuador will equip you with Spanish language resources, and you may work with a local tutor who can help you build basic language skills to connect with the community.
Job Highlights: Share your expertise to support entrepreneurs and business owners in Ecuador to identify growth opportunities. Strengthen Spanish language skills through daily collaborations and interactions. Gain international experience developing business solutions and a deeper understanding of South American culture