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In-Brief

Escuelita Chic for future Puerto Rican female entrepreneurs

The Arepa Chic restaurant, a Puerto Rican social enterprise that seeks to empower women from low-income backgrounds who are heads of household, begins a new phase with Escuelita Chic, a program which will train future businesswomen who wish to manage micro-franchises of the business, now in carts.

During the training period, the women will receive a salary of $10 an hour while they are trained in business administration and in the preparation of delicious stuffed Puerto Rican arepas, which will be sold in carts throughout the island.

“We are going to have our Escuelita Chic, in which we are going to be providing training on business plans, accounting, marketing tools, seed capital, permits, product quality control, empowerment and self-care workshops. In this way, women and femme people who do not have previous experience will have the tools to become entrepreneurs,” said Gineshka Bisslik, manager of Arepa Chic.

The trainings will start in October at the Arepa Chic restaurant, in Caguas, which includes the central kitchen where the dough for the arepas and the ingredients for the fillings are prepared.

“We’re starting the franchise process. We will have 16 points of sale around the Island with the 16 businesswomen that we will recruit. They will go through an evaluation process. We’ll be training them, with pay, for about two months and those that pass the evaluation will be chosen and finally they will have their carts,” said Bisslik.

There are two alternatives for future entrepreneurs: buying the Arepa Chic micro-franchise, which would start at about $15,000, or renting the cart with an option to buy.  For those who wish to buy, financing will be provided with the Jesús Obrero Cooperative. 

Those who wish to apply to participate in the Escuela Chic can call 787-704-2222 or send a message to [email protected].

The requirements to apply to the Escuelita Chic are: be a woman or femme person; have the desire to be an entrepreneur; have about eight hours a day available for training; be the head of household or an independent woman with low-income.

The Arepa Chic restaurant, located one block from Caguas’ Palmer Plaza on Ruiz Belvis street, is also recruiting female staff for the positions of kitchen helper, handywoman and arepa-makers.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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