Indigenous communities in Colombia have been characterized by an economy of subsistence, influenced by the nomadic population that has allowed them to take advantage of the abundance of the environment in which they live and by the cultural context of these communities. The authors document a project initiative to co-create a sustainable entrepreneurship model for indigenous communities, to identify sustainable income alternatives adjusted to the culture and living conditions of indigenous people. First experiences of this project took place in La Fraguita Community in the Department of Caquetá at the south of Colombia, where a social entrepreneurship incubation process was deployed, identifying different productive activities, selecting grounded organic chili pepper as a pilot for the implementation of a culture-based and local product income alternative, with added value provided by the community.

Financial education is one of the aspects of economic development in countries that have been given great importance in recent years. It is considered that a country that increases the levels of financial literacy is a country that has a greater proportion of people who are banking and with this, the banking sector is dynamic and as a consequence the economy in general. Given this, banks have a great responsibility to develop alternatives that favor a greater percentage of the population using their services for which they should consider, not only the quality of services but also the interest charged for their loans and the retribution that has the money placed by each of its clients.

Since the decade of the 1960s, the retail trade has evolved in a dizzying way. This has put at risk the permanence in the market of the traditional distribution and final sale models in which the local store is established, and whose existence has favored the development of the urban settlements in Latin America and, particularly, in Colombia. However, at present these may not be sufficient in the face of the development of new business models and technological platforms that have facilitated the acquisition process of products of primary necessity in a market composed of consumers with less availability for purchasing. In this sense, the local store assumes risks that can be addressed through the implementation of strategies that not only depend on the competitiveness conditions provided by the national government, but also on the decisions that autonomously take as a business model, whether as sector or as individual level. The chapter recommends actions to be implemented by the shopkeepers in the search for their permanence in the market.

This chapter describes the specific characteristics of neighborhood stores; for this purpose, a brief summary of the historical conditions in which they have developed, their evolution, characteristics, and the conditions that make them different from other formats of retailer commerce is presented. Taking into account that this is a business model that raises from the base of the pyramid and is developed in the provision of services in a high percentage, it raises some basic concepts of this model that are applicable to the neighborhood store. On the other hand, the authors look forward to bring together the basic concepts of project management to the store from two perspectives, the first from programs that may or may not be from the government, that bring support in the search for its consolidation as a socially and economically sustainable model, and the second from the own management of the store, which due to the lack of fundamental knowledge on administration from the owner, seems to be condemned to its survival, without major possibilities of growth.