Carrying on her family’s traditions.
Abigail is a wife, mother, grandmother, artesian, and entrepreneur. She creates beautiful pieces of embroidered shirts, dresses, and more. The designs are inspired by nature surrounding her little community in the Mayan community of Oxkutzcab. Her husband is a farmer, as was his father before him. They work hard every day of the week, supporting their family. As Abigail told us, “Family is the real treasure in this life.”
Abigail usually travels to other communities to sell her embroidered clothes at the more populated markets. Unfortunately, about two years ago, Abigail was robbed on one of her trips to the market, and some evil people took all of her inventory, worth over $2,000 in revenue. This event seriously hurt the already stressed finances of her family during the pandemic.
Abigail was very discouraged at this time. Shortly after this tragic event, she heard about Mentors International and the possibility of receiving business mentorship in her community. With much hope, she enrolled in the program and became dedicated to her personal and professional development from her first session. Despite being unable to read and write well, Abigail understands numbers and amounts well. Abigail makes keeping daily financial records a priority for her.
As the lessons progressed, Abigail regained her self-confidence and began to develop new strategies to offer her products without exposing herself to becoming a robbery victim again.
With the help of her mentor, Abigail searched for new suppliers to improve her production costs and increase her profit. Soon after, she began receiving more orders for garments and hired two more people to work with her to be more efficient in production and reduce manufacturing times.
Abigail earned back what was stolen in less than nine months. New customer orders are becoming more consistent. She keeps detailed control of her income and expenses. She invests heavily in her business to position it as a premier embroidery shop with high-quality materials and customer service in her area.
Abigail feels that learning from Mentor International’s program gave her back her desire to grow her business and helped her regain emotional peace of mind and security. Today she wants to continue growing her business to help more people and create more sources of employment. Above all, she wants more customers to discover her excellent traditional products.
