Creativity, Community & Client-first
How these three Belizean small businesses thrived in a pandemic era
In a blow that was felt around the globe, COVID-19 continues to strip away the livelihoods of many across nations. In the U.S alone, more than 50% of small businesses are in danger of closing their doors for good, according to the National Association of Independent Business. Belize has not been exempted from this reality, with the closures in March kick-starting the wave of lay-offs, from the highest government institutions to having street food vendors roll down their shutters indefinitely. However, with the unfortunate closures of Belize’s reliable small businesses, many popped up in place or were given new life. Whether it was the influence of stay-at-home orders, boredom or TikTok, several Belizeans have sought alternative income-earners from the comforts of their living room. Here are the three Belizean businesses that thrived during the pandemic.
Pop & Sip
According to their Instagram bio, this “female founded, female run” beverage company is powered by a coffee-loving duo headquartered in Belize City. Dora Guerra’s and Monica Gallardo’s company first ‘popped’ up in June 2020, well into the chaos that COVID-19 wreaked upon Belize. Focusing on cold brew coffee, the beverage company is the first to date that commercially sells Cold Brew to Belizean consumers on a large scale. Their signature drinks, Maya Mocha, Chai Spice and Classic, have sold out time and time again, a response that came as quite a surprise to the small business owners.
Guerra’s and Gallardo’s brainchild snowballed from a mere Father’s Day present for Guerra’s dad back in June. Known as “Tati” to his grandkids, Guerra’s father is an avid coffee lover, which prompted the idea of Cold brew as a gift for him. This later turned into the “Tati’s Classic Cold Brew.” Coupled with the need to have a business up and running during quarantine, this one-time gift turned into the popular beverage company it is today.
What is cold brew?
While many Belizeans may be fans of iced coffee (perhaps due to the tropical weather), cold brew requires a longer process that, according to Guerra, yields a much tastier result. The drink can brew anywhere between 14 to 24 hours, a vast difference in comparison to iced coffee which only needs a few minutes to brew then ice is added. The biggest difference, said Gallardo, is cold brew is much less bitter and less acidic than regular coffee, with a natural sweetness to it. The best part? Everything is sourced locally.
“All our flavors are from all-natural ingredients,” Guerra said. “Everything that has flavor like pumpkin spice or chai spice comes from natural ingredients mostly sourced in Belize, which is so much fun. It doesn’t have any syrups or artificial flavors.”
Branding
The brand’s authenticity also seeps into their receptiveness when it comes to its customer base. No strangers to start-ups, Guerra and Gallardo both have a scattering of mostly tourism-based businesses in Belize. One of them being Belize Food Tours in San Pedro, and the notable Monica Gallardo Photography, where she specializes in shooting adventure weddings. When the coronavirus made its debut, most of the tourism industry stood at a standstill. This ignited the birth of Pop & Sip, where the duo relied heavily on social media marketing and in-house designing to get their products before clients’ eyes. When coming up with flavors, Guerra said she was often nervous as to how it would be received, though almost every time it has proved to have great feedback.
“That’s the kind of love we put into everything,” Guerra said. “Whenever we recipe test and launch a new product, no matter how long it takes us to get it right, we take the time.”
On the Pumpkin Spice that launched mid-October, a later date than expected, the company ensured it must be at its utmost best before hitting shelves. “We didn’t want to give our customers something we didn’t absolutely love ourselves.”
On Community
One of the more positive by-products of the pandemic has undoubtedly been the boom of the #BuyLocal and #supportlocal campaigns, a bandwagon many Belizeans have hopped on in support of small businesses. With the borders closed and cargo delayed for weeks, there is a regained sense of community amongst local entrepreneurs, especially on social media. On advising new start-ups, Gallardo mentioned the building of a support network, and having specific goals.
“I love how we’ve been networking lately,” Gallardo said. “A lot of our tips come from our on customers. We learn a lot just from their reviews.”
Clients’ rave reviews aren’t the only things spurring the company on. Like the other small businesses mentioned in this article, the beverage company has also garnered positive results from collaborating with other start-up brands. A couple include Mecha’s, Belize’s first Irish Cream, and Mugz BZ, uniquely hand painted designs. From sharing each other’s social media posts and partnering in giveaways to plans for co-releasing new products, the “collab-ing” only further increases sales all around.
“It’s just been incredible, the amount of love there is,” Guerra said on the matter. “We have had several people reach out to us and ask where can I get the bottles, where do you get our labels printed, etc. and we don’t withhold any info except for our recipes.”
Both of the founders wholly believe in supporting all Belizean entrepreneurs.
“If [anyone] needs anything, we’re here because it’s definitely a community we are super proud to be a part of,” Guerra said. “I love watching Belizeans grow.”
Mecha’s
Melissa Guerra’s nickname since childhood has been Mecha, an endearment bestowed by her family. So, naturally when her business of Belize’s first Irish Cream was set to launch, co-founder and boyfriend Keaton Pollard suggested the moniker as the official company name.
“I think the name also has a lot to do with it,” Guerra said. “People don’t even refer to it as Irish cream, they’re just like, hey where can I get a Mecha’s? If your brand becomes your product itself, you’re on the right track.”
Despite its recent rise to popularity, Mecha’s first launched in August of 2019 in Orange Walk Town, Guerra’s hometown. Considered the first Irish Cream sold commercially year-round in Belize, the beverage began as a mere experiment in the kitchen, with Guerra and her sister trying to replicate the world-renowned Bailey’s Irish Cream. Upon tasting the homemade Irish cream, Pollard suggested they make a business out of it. They began producing small batches for people to sample and eventually produced for purchase, marketing via their own personal social media pages. It wasn’t until September 2020, a whole year later, when they opened official social media pages, that the local Irish cream really took off.
Both Guerra and Pollard work their eight to five jobs, which make managing an entire new business a little challenging. Especially in trying to have the products available in stores, they both had to be dedicated in pushing a “proud product of Belize,” Pollard said. Before the launch of their social media pages, the product was only available at one store in Orange Walk Town, where it sold slowly for weeks. By the end of September 2020, most of the products had sold out, a feat Guerra said was thanks to the social media pages being created.
“The impact of social media is just so extreme,” Guerra said. “When we started to see people requesting it elsewhere, that’s when we said, okay we should try to offer it to other stores. As long as we maintained our advertising our marketing, it went well.”
Rave Reviews
Word of the quality of the Baileys-esque cream raced like wildfire across the very same social media that skyrocketed Mecha’s online presence. Belize Business Review was one of the Facebook groups where a post on Mecha’s gained a lot of traction in November. The poster wrote on how a little more rum would be perfect, and Mecha’s delivered by creating a custom bottle for the customer, free of charge.
“One of the biggest things is being receptive to feedback and not being offended by it,” Guerra said. “I ask people to criticize me, my actions and my products because I want to improve either myself, my work and my product.”
“It’s such a heart-felt feeling when customers find a way to get in contact with you to say man, that was the best Irish cream I have ever tasted,” Pollard said. “They even compare it to the original Baileys. It’s remarkable that people can share such kind words.”
Community
While Mecha’s did have ample support at the start of their venture in 2019, a stark difference was seen once lockdown began in 2020.
“The massive support of small businesses and that whole mentality right now is helping us,” Guerra said.
Pollard agreed, stating keeping the support chain going is key. “As Belizeans, we need to help each other, especially in a time of this pandemic,” he said. “You will have bad days, you will have good days especially if you have full-time jobs like us, but believe in your product and don’t give up.”
Their collaborations with other start-ups have also proven to be fruitful, and Mecha’s is quite open to continue the support in the future. The company strongly believes in sharing their knowledge, and encourage other businesses to do the same.
“It’s like a whole little village of support,” Guerra added. “You know how they say it takes a village to raise a child, well it takes a small village of small businesses to make another one grow.”
Mugz
Glamorous women with large sunglasses, sequined clothes and a larger-than-life attitude are the stars of Melanie Bodden’s line of uniquely hand-painted designs. Curiously, despite the light-hearted depiction of these paintings that end up on shirts, mugs, and other various merchandise, Bodden said the venture first began as a much-needed creative outlet during quarantine.
Bodden has been painting ever since she was a little girl, but got into the hobby in earnest during the summer of 2020. She explained she was experiencing her own trials and issues during the past year, which led to her using the downtime to paint and “escape into my own world.”
“Even though I felt sad, I don’t paint sad,” Bodden said. “I don’t like to give eyes to things that are negative, so my paintings are very intentionally lighthearted because they come from a place that’s not so lighthearted.”
The idea to make a business out of her paintings was when she first posted a photo of a painted mug on her social media. A friend commented she ought to put it on a shirt, which she said was the start of Mugz. The very first thing she did was create a logo, and the rest fell into place. With Bodden still being a full-time teacher at Belize Elementary School, hand-painting every single mug was not feasible, so she turned to printing. Eventually, the designs found their way onto shirts, tumblers, hoodies and most recently, cans and tote bags.
Despite all of the different products the brand offers, keeping the name as “Mugz” was meaningful since that was how the company first birthed, Bodden said. The first launch was in August 10, 2020, after promoting the new business for about a month to build momentum and excitement, a tactic that definitely worked in her favor. Bodden fleetingly had doubts at the beginning on how to balance the workload, especially with the strain of online teaching. Preparing and editing videos for her students, however, proved to be a transferrable skill as she became a one-man team to market her products using the very same online tools.
On Community
Bodden considers herself a large consumer, and when the lockdown began, she shopped obsessively online from small businesses. Unknowingly, this helped build relationships that would help spur on her own small business in the future.
“They were really kind, and once they found out I was behind [Mugz], they started doing a lot of these posts about my page and that brought me following really fast.”
Fellow small business owner Aesha Garel from Zest Handcrafted Jewelry told Bodden she stepped into the business at the right time. Apparently Garel noticed a big following increase in February/March 2020, when the pandemic first made its way to Belize. Recently, Bodden has also been working with The Candle Shop to co-release a product together, and eventually hopes to cater to the United States market.
Bodden is always open to collaborations, as long as the person has “good energy,” she is willing to create together. She encourages that opening a small business is a risk worth taking, and to keep the support going.
“It doesn’t matter if they have 20 followers and don’t interest you,” Bodden said. “It will interest you one day because you once had 20 followers.”
If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Feel free to share with friends, and see you next month!
— Gisselle