Projects

Microfranchise Ventures, LLC looks for success criteria in potential microfranchises:

• Profitibility - Will this business allow a family to lift themselves up out of the lower class and into the middle class in a reasonable time period?
• Employment - Will the microfranchise concept create jobs?
• Scalability - How much growth potential does this concept have?

Valet Taxi (www.valettaxi.com, in Spanish)

Valet Taxi began operations in February 2009 in Lima, Peru.  It has grown to 17 taxis in the fleet and has changed the lives of its drivers.  This is what life is like for a typical taxi driver in Peru:

• The vast majority of drivers rent their vehicle and are caught in a cycle of exploitative poverty where the car owner charges a daily rental fee that barely leaves enough for food and other basics for the driver and his family
• A work schedule of 15-18 hours per day, 6-7 days a week is commonplace
• The driver almost never has insurance or a repair warranty on his vehicle.  A wreck or a mechanical problem are major financial setbacks that increase working hours and decrease take-home pay
• Most live in shacks or a similar lower-class housing arrangement
• They have no retirement, no savings, and little hope that their situation will ever change in this life

Valet Taxi resolves these problems:

• A Valet Taxi driver immediately becomes the owner of a brand new vehicle and becomes a client of a formal bank or other financial institution - things that before were not even remote possibilities.
• Our drivers have more time to be with their families and feel empowered as they work to pay off a brand new vehicle that they will own free and clear within 3-5 years; not surprisingly our driver's delinquency rate on their bank loans is zero.
• Our drivers have a complete warranty on their car and are fully insured.
• The microfranchise provides a complete support net to the driver in case of sickness, an auto accident, mechanical problem, or traffic violation.
• Most importantly, our drivers are now able to leave the lower class and become members of the middle class while expanding their own businesses.

This is Marcos Camarena, one of the microfranchisees at Valet Taxi.  He is the proud owner of his car and told us that all of his goals in life have to do with making his family successful.  He told us that he was unable to accomplish any of his goals while renting a taxi but now he has a clear path to help his family succeed.