First days in Havana . . .

Reflection:
These first few days have been very insightful. Cuban entrepreneurship reminds me a lot of small business ventures in Mexico and other Latin American countries. Typically, small businesses are family owned and operated, part of the family's house is used as retail/restaurant space, and marketing is word of mouth. The classic car co-op Nostalgicar seemed to have a better understanding of using logos and social media marketing. They've changed their name to Nostalgicar to entice tourists' senses of nostalgia. This, along with working as a network of cars under the same name, has been good in terms of branding themselves in the

heavily saturated classic car market.
On the other hand, meeting with the paladar owners in Vedado, left me with a different perspective on Cuban entrepreneurship. Both the owner and his partner seemed willing to be open from 8 am to 3 am to get as much business as possible. This seemed crazy to us. Why would they want to stay open almost 24 hours a day? Also, when we tried to explain a more competitive strategy than staying open all day, they kept coming back to the same idea. They were willing to stay open for a profit. It seemed as if trying to make a profit trumps everything for them. Although it seemed excessive to us, the private sector is new and people are willing to experiment to make their business successful. It will be interesting to see how this "all or nothing" attitude towards business changes if wholesale markets and new employment laws are introduced.