Why do we keep at it amid so much struggle?
Maybe because sometimes, just sometimes, an entrepreneur can work magic.
What else can you call it when an overwhelmed mother takes financial strain; a global pandemic; a new baby for whom she wants to help make the world greener and more inclusive; and an empty diaper bag, and turns it all into a business that can address all those needs and desires at once?
What else can you call it when she overcomes bank rejections and mountains of self-doubt, and endures, and expands?
It’s some kind of sublime alchemy. Today, her baby beams from her company’s page as he walks through life in reusable diapers his mother made herself. His face adorns the logo of the products she ships to San José and Heredia, to supermarkets and hotels. With her sewing machine, with his smile, they remind us that we can do better for the world, that we can be kinder to those who are different from us. That the difference between need and dream is sometimes just a matter of grit and ingenuity.
Betsy describes entrepreneurship thus. She could be describing motherhood, or life. “I realized, it’s not that this is impossible. It’s just that this is only for the brave. I’m brave. I rise. I go on.”
Inspired by the story of Betsy López, founder of Eco Baby Nosara. After her reusable diaper microbusiness was rejected for bank microloans, she received financing from the Nosara Crece fund; her business now ships the cloth diapers she makes all over Costa Rica, supplies the Super Nosara La Paloma market, and sells her reusable sanitary pads to Harmony Hotel in Nosara, which provides them to its guests. The logo of her business features her two-and-a-half year old, Dereck, who has Down syndrome and has inspired her to use Eco Baby Nosara to promote inclusivity as well as environmental awareness. U.S. tax deductible donations to Nosara Crece can be made through Amigos of Costa Rica; learn more here.
Betsy is a member of our Entrepreneurs 506 WhatsApp group, which has shaped and informed our January edition, “Toolkit 2022.” Our weekly Media Naranja column tells short love stories with a Costa Rican twist. During our January edition, we’re focusing on entrepreneurs who are making a difference. Join the group here.
