José Antonio Bustamante Ortuño is an accountant who managed restaurants in Venezuela. For three years now, he has created a true fusion of cultures through recipes and original meals from his business: Cheo Fast Food. 

José is convinced that sometimes life guides us on a path quite different from the one we envisioned, but these detours can lead us to our true destiny. Fifteen years ago, he achieved a seemingly impossible goal, moving to Australia where he unexpectedly ended up studying international gastronomy. This training served him in ways he had never imagined when he decided to migrate to Peru with his family. Although he anticipated challenges establishing his food business, the most difficult obstacle would be having to start over as he adjusted to a new culture. “Thanks to IOM”, he tells us, “I was able to sustain the business and move forward. They helped me and trained me to promote my entrepreneurship, because due to the pandemic, my business was paralyzed, to the point that me and my family of two children, my wife and mother-in-law, were left on the street. I have to say that, even with that incredible help and training, it took us a year to start and get to what Cheo Fast Food is today.”  

Cheo Fast Food combines Japanese gastronomy recipes with Peruvian food, using the indigenous products of the region, such as pisco or quinoa, with original sandwiches of his own creation. The business caters to what the people of the host country like, while also attracting customers of other nationalities who choose to live in that Peru. “But always taking of the typical ingredients and gastronomic resources of Peru”, he shares with us. “It’s not easy to sustain a business in a country where there are always new things to discover, but today I feel proud of my creations and of being a person who is dedicated to investigating everything that this country contributes that is healthy, original and innovative in the field of gastronomy to merge it with typical recipes from other cultures. Always with a completely healthy and artisan style of cooking, such as whole meal bread made with sourdough and highly nutritious Peruvian flours directly from origin.” 

For José, there is a clear difference in his business model before the aid and training provided by IOM, and after he completed the program.  Learning how to enhance his business organization, how to produce profits, and how to best invest in products proved invaluable lessons as he seeks to grow his venture.  “I would also like to highlight the importance of mentoring for personal and professional development. They are an essential accompaniment to recovering the strengths we had when we made the decision to change countries. I was lucky enough to be able to do both editions, and the truth is that sometimes because of work I think I don’t need it, or not realize to what extent the state of mind influences the resistance and creativity that I put into my business.” 

Axel Rafael Galanton Noriega is the creator of a company based in Lima called Delichef, specializing in artistic confectionery, a wide variety of foods and breads. An entrepreneurship that was born four years ago but began to take shape inside him when he was on vacation in Mexico and saw the incredible range of opportunities for creative cuisine outside his country. It was then that he decided that it wouldn’t take long for him to find the right place to make his passion for cooking his true profession. The vision was realized one year later, the chosen place: Peru. 

Noriega faced multiple obstacles and difficulties during this process, although what was most difficult for him was undoubtedly feeling at home as a foreigner. “Anyone would think that if the economic issues are resolved, one is already integrated. It’s partly true, although those of us who emigrate always carry the responsibility of collaborating with our family, so solving the financial situation is not so fast either. But integrating is something else, we also need help with that, because our business can prosper, but without the help I received from IOM, with its training programs and the seed capital, I think it would have been more difficult for me to integrate”. 

For Axel, it was this help that allowed him to organize his ideas and focus on what was truly important: interacting with the new community to which he now belonged. He used the IOM training to meet this challenge. He felt strengthened by the sessions of mentoring for professional and personal development, which enabled important advances that served to promote his entrepreneurship. “Since the first mentoring sessions, I have experienced a feeling of peace, which I knew very well where it came from: for the first time I was aware that it is not what happens to us, but how we deal with what happens to us. Also, to feel that things do not happen only to us. Often, when you start a business, you may feel overwhelmed by events, but the truth is that just as we learn marketing strategies or economics to develop a business, in the same way, we must learn to free ourselves from the thoughts that don’t serve us, and use those that make us feel passion for what we do as gasoline. This is the only way we can move forward.” 

For this young Venezuelan entrepreneur, the key pillars at the center of his young company will guide his path forward. “I realized that I needed to focus and organize my ideas, which, although they were correct, did not follow a work pattern, something necessary although there is a lot of creativity at stake. Another thing that I began to conquer is giving myself a space to start learning, no matter what because what I get is time for myself and nurturing my creativity. Many times, we get so stuck in our business that we feel we are lost, but if we stop, look around, get some air and continue, everything improves. And finally, I am learning to develop patience and to understand that achievements are not always immediate, but if you do your best, they always come.” 

Ronald Silva is an expert in soil science and crop production born and raised in Venezuela. When he made the decision to migrate to Peru, he struggled to find his place in this new culture and economy. After five years in his new country, Ronald and his wife decided together that starting his own business was the right path forward. After considering different options, he saw a fantastic opportunity in making and selling cuisine from his native land. He started making traditional tequeños, typical appetizers of Venezuelan cuisine and the dough for empanadas, as cuisine of the country where he was born was gaining fame beyond its borders. 

At first, Ronald sold the food ready-to-eat, but when his frozen menu gradually expanded, he decided that this was the future of his business and wished to put all his knowledge and energy into expanding his frozen food customer base. Yet he still struggled to adapt to his new culture, and to form the meaningful connections needed to become a successful entrepreneur. 

Ronald struggled with financial stability as he sought to expand his business, “But there was OIM,” he shares with us, “helping and empowering. I confess that with the way of thinking that we brought from having migrated, it was difficult for me to process the idea that there were opportunities for people who came from other countries. But I understood that we could only get ahead if we learned to use the necessary tools to be autonomous. It was not just about our willpower or race. What the new culture did we had to do as well: then the pieces began to fit together, and the entrepreneur who had always been in me then put together the puzzle. Every entrepreneurship idea has a “how”, a “what for” and a “why”, which must necessarily be known.”  

He now runs his frozen food business, Ronnytequeños, from Lima and says access to mentoring aimed at personal, professional, and social development was also “a real discovery”, he tells us. “The whole block of mentoring made me understand -session by session- that on many occasions we perceive ourselves as stagnant when something goes wrong, when the accounts do not add up, when we have to decide on an issue, is because we don’t focus where we should.” Today Roland’s business is very different from what he and his wife had originally conceived, and although they still have a long way to go, he insists: “We will always be infinitely grateful to our mentors, for showing us the way to commercial success, from the implementation of key skills in finance, marketing, product, tax issues, but above all because of the trust they helped us gain. Because that’s when you feel that you will be able to achieve your dreams, your goals, and you start to believe in yourself, and you take more steps toward the right direction.”