TransRio en Ingles

Laura & I are back after a quick trip to Córdoba. It was mostly just a fun vacation; Laura stayed two weeks, I stayed three. The first week we learned the city and took Spanish classes; the second week we went to the mountains for hiking. The third week I was by myself, and worked a little on Transrio. Nothing big, but I was proud of myself. I had ten meetings in four days, all in Spanish of course. This was more a credit to the natural easiness of Córdobese folk, than to any ability I might have with the language. Still, it was a lift to my confidence.

I narrowed down my focus for Transrio to franchising, and agriculture. Franchising for obvious reasons, and agriculture because it’s all-pervasive in Argentina, especially in the province of Córdoba, and has such strong parallels to the United States. Agriculture was my original love before Great Harvest. I met with people in both businesses, franchising and agriculture. It was quite encouraging, and now I need to keep working, and do the follow-up.

Looking back on the trip, it seemed quite ordinary — Córdoba is a very comfortable city as cities go, easy to feel at home in (no small credit to Natalia) and the three weeks went quickly. It seems surprising now that actually this was the first time we’ve been able to meet Natalia in person. She and I have been working together on little projects for years. And it was also our first time ever in Córdoba itself, even though that’s been the official physical address and phone number for Transrio, for years. So overall, a great trip, worth every penny of the plane ticket. 90% vacation, but the little bit that I counted toward work was really, really worth it. I learned a ton every day I was there, and I feel energized now with lots of new ideas.

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Imagine my astonishment and delight at receiving this out-of-the-blue little e-mail:

Hi Pete,

Mike Hofman from Inc. here. I remember you well from when Michael Hopkins first wrote about you… You may be interested to know that Michael’s article on Great Harvest was ranked No. 4 on our list of the top 30 Inc. articles of all time in conjunction with our recent 30th anniversary…

I’m also writing to see if you have any interest in blogging for us about developing a franchise. I know it’s a subject near and dear to your heart, and it’s one that we’re interested in exploring in depth on Inc.com.

Best, Mike Hofman, Deputy Editor, Inc. Magazine + Inc.com

Although flattered, I of course declined Mike’s offer to write about franchising. I wouldn’t feel good about playing expert unless I was actively making hard decisions. (more…)

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Natalia wrote me a quick e-mail encouraging me to look into potential opportunities in franchising, there’s a lot of activity right now in Argentina. This is premature of course — I need my website first — but today I digressed for a quick side trip to read up on the subject. When Transrio finally gets rolling I won’t be surprised if there’s some kind of franchising connection.

Below I reproduce our little conversation; included are some links to franchise organizations in Argentina. (more…)

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