A Mérida art gallery that does 40% of its sales on Facebook was one of the success stories presented at a free training course for about 2,000 entrepreneurs and small business owners.

The social media network offered the course to entrepreneurs wishing to learn how to use the network for their businesses.

Mérida is the third city visited so far this year by the Boost your Business with Facebook program. Last year the program visited 33 cities across Mexico and offered training to over 10,000 small business owners. This year, training will be held in 35 cities.

The success story presented at the event was that of Pedro Cab Kuk, an artisan who owns the Henequén art gallery. He has been able to take advantage of Facebook to promote and sell his products.

“The business of social networks is promotion, people knowing you, you being credible, them believing that what you make is good and that it works, because the things we make are to be used, not just for decoration,” he told El Financiero.

The Henequén art gallery has more than 700 clients, including hotels, stores and individuals. Sales on Facebook represent 40% of the company’s income, making the social network “the spinal column of the business.”

“I used to spend a lot of money going to expos, traveling and everything, but now I’m spending less on that,” he said.

Another entrepreneur who attended the training was Mayela Contreras, who took a three-hour bus ride with her partners from Tekax, a municipality in southern Yucatán.

Originally from Oaxaca, Contreras founded the “La Sultana” brand in Tekax, which produces salsas and pineapple preserves with habanero chiles.

“These are traditional products of Tekax,” she told El Financiero. “All of our products are made in the traditional way; the washing, the peeling, the roasting.”

Contreras and her 15 partners sell the products from door to door, but they hope to be able to use the skills they learned at the Boost your Business training to make sales on Facebook.

Source: El Financiero (sp)