In 2019 DBA was invited by Mission Activation, to come to Costa Rica to begin the process of identifying candidates for the business startup program. Mission Activation is a Christian Ministry serving principally in the province of Guanacaste.

In the picture above DBA is presenting the business startup program to a group of interested Costa Ricans. From these candidates 18 were selected to be members of the first 6-day class comprised of the Generate Your Business Idea (GYB) and Start Your Business (SYB) programs.

Here are the names of the 18 students of the first DBA class conducted in Costa Rica. These students were from all walks of life. The commonality is that each of them was motivated to learn the market research and operations of successful businesses.

The first class met in Hope Fellowship Church in Playa del Coco. Over the course of 6 days, using three student workbooks, the students completed exercises that lead to the identification and refinement of their business idea first. Then a complete business plan was completed as a condition of graduation.

While all of the 40 exercises applied to the student’s individual business idea, most Costa Ricans preferred to work in small groups to help each other with encouragement and expertise. In the above picture the principal DBA instructor, Rafa, is working with a group that is working on their exercises.

Part of the DBA process is having the students develop a business idea that has a high probability of success. This is accomplished by teaching market research techniques and competitor analysis. It is a 2-day process that results in the students proudly marching to the front of the class as the add their name and business idea to the list.

One of our students, Milady, has a food service business. After she heard the devotional and learned from a Biblical devotional that the Hebrew word, “Avodah” refers to work and worship. She was so touched by the concept that not only should we worship God while working, but in a spiritual sense, work is worship!

Overnight, Miladay’s renamed her company Abada Food Express after the Hebrew word Avodah. She even had a specialty tee shirt made and brought it into the class.