To be successful outside Salvador, entrepreneurs take 'the city in their suitcase'

Everything that Salvador has and is recognized for – joy, harmony, color, creativity, hard work, innovation, persistence – is embodied in the Trio Elétrico, probably the best-known and exported Bahian invention of all time. And in the wake of the trio, the history of other businesses created or perfected here shows that having a Soteropolitan DNA is a differential that favors success. And it's not enough to go beyond our borders and borders, we need to take Salvador along.

Businessman Fritz Moura spent part of March in the US. It is there that he intends to set up new units for his company, Cleannew. Moura's entrepreneurial experience was born in November 2014 with a car wash company – Autoclean, a brand that remained with his former partner. Armoring a sofa came his way about a year later, based on his perspicacity, creativity and flexibility, as noted by consultant and specialist in entrepreneurship José Nilo Meira. “Creativity is a characteristic that must be present in every entrepreneur. The success of the enterprise depends on creativity, because the entrepreneur cannot just do more of the same”, he says.

Moura noticed the demand for upholstery washing while still taking care of the cars. “Customers, when they received their washed cars, asked if I washed sofas, which led me to study and enter this market”, he reveals. “Car washing was done at night, in large condos. Charged R$ 25 per car. If I washed ten cars, I ended up with R$250 at night, still having to pay employees. During the day, if I washed a sofa, I would earn the same R$250. I decided to invest in this segment”. In December 2015 CleanNew was born.

To enter the new market, Moura imported Italian machinery, bought imported cleaning material – more than that, he asked the manufacturers of these products to modify the formula of bactericides to preserve the colors of the upholstery and increase the durability of the service. He also bet on the formalization of the service, which, according to him, was operated in Salvador only by individuals, most working informally. “My target audience is the high end, who have sofas that cost BRL 100,000. Formalization, the fact of knowing what you are dealing with, is important for this audience”, he says.

The last difference was in the name of the service. As he had the best products, machinery and presentation, he created the concept of sofa shielding, which is a washing followed by waterproofing done in a deeper, more resistant way and with a one-year warranty. In March 2017 Cleannew entered the franchise system. Today, the brand is in Brazilian cities. And in a few months it will also be present in Miami and Orlando (USA).

Egypt
The color and warmth of Salvador inspire the product labels of Flora Brasil, a hair cosmetics company owned by ophthalmologist Karla Leite. Unlike Cleannew, the nas company was born with a focus on exports. In this case, for the restricted Arab market. It exports around 3,000 sachets a month to Egypt and is in the process of closing a supply contract for Qatar. “There was a huge demand for Brazilian hair volume reducers, for Brazilian keratin, which, however, over the years began to be frowned upon due to the use of formaldehyde. I took advantage of the space to create natural products, without the use of formaldehyde”, says Karla.

Armed with her commercial acumen and entrepreneurial spirit, the doctor sought out Sebrae to receive guidance and sought to surround herself with specialized professionals to help her set up the company and the products, all without chemicals and with actives from the Brazilian flora, for example Brazil nuts. “And also without tests that mean animal abuse, as provided for in the trade protocol with the Arab countries,” she says. “I went to Egypt more than five times until they cleared the importation”, she reports.

Karla says that her products are successful for some reasons specific to that region. The first is that Arab women, underneath their clothing, are very vain about their hair and are concerned with pleasing their husbands. The second is that the water used by them is desalinated and/or recycled, which impairs the care of the threads and requires them to use reducers.

“I believe that being born and living in Salvador influenced me to look at different ethnicities and cultures, trying to see what is common and what is different. Soteropolitano is more malleable and easy to adapt to different realities ”, she reflects. For Meira, what Karla's story reflects the values attributed to Salvador – in addition to persistence and creativity – is the ability to aggregate. “She surrounded herself with good people, which is fundamental to the success of any undertaking.

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