an entrepreneur tells her experience

Passionate about dogs and cats, Colombian Olga Johanna Pérez hopes to bring to the United States with her family the business that she has been promoting in her country: Animalove Store.

“Animalove Store is born from love and respect for animals, but also from seeing so much indifference from human beings. We started with a rescued puppy at home, but we already had 10 dogs at home, so we looked for a bigger place, this project has been done as a family with a lot of love”, says Pérez.

“We want to start in Miami first because of the language, because there are a lot of Latinos there and we know that getting there by touching hearts, which is what we need, because by touching human hearts we are benefiting many animals,” he added.

Located in Cajicá, Cundinamarca, about 38 kilometers north of Bogotá, the popular pet store business opened its doors in 2012. Since then it has been successful in sales, which go in large part to serve the foundation that rescues abandoned animals and which bears the same name.

She is not the only one. The VOA consulted the firm, Global Business International, a company specialized in providing accompaniment and follow-up to companies from all over the world to establish international businesses.

“We have seen in recent years a real interest on the part of many Colombians who want to invest in the United States, in fact, there are figures that accompany it, last year 2022, for example, more than 130,000 Colombians decided to emigrate to invest and live legally in the United States,” he explained to the VOAVíctor Parra, director in Colombia of Global Business International.

“The United States continues to be the leading economic power in the world, so of course for investors in the region it continues to be the number one destination to protect their heritage, which by the way, with so many years, they have built in their country, then in the United States they can have their investments in a safer way”, he adds.

Opportunities in the US

The task of taking her business to the United States, says Olga Pérez, was able to achieve it thanks to the opportunities and facilities granted by the American Union to develop businesses.

“Well, we are going to be in Miami, Florida, we hope that this store will go to many more parts, that we can multiply there, always thinking about the welfare of animals, always being able to continue supporting those here in Colombia and Obviously to the United States.

According to figures from the World Bank, the United States is among the top three countries that offer an easy and practical system for doing business.

These facilities are what exactly encourage and mark the way to achieve your goal of becoming a businesswoman in the United States.

“We are at 80% of the development of the store in the United States, we believe that by the end of the year we will be opening to the public and the expectation is enormous because there are many “paticas” that benefit from the purchase of each item that we have there in our store, they will be helping these beings and many more that we are going to support”, he tells the Voice of America.

Currently, Olga and her pet store, which has also become a foundation, helps some 400 homeless dogs and cats that will soon benefit from the store that will open in Miami, and with which the owner of Animalove Store hopes she will have a relationship. global reach.

“Not only do we hope to arrive and open a store in Miami, but to be able to open more stores in different states of the United States, we also see ourselves as franchisors, where we can sell our store as a franchise and that Animalove Store expands,” he concludes.

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