Franchising Bides Its Time As Cuba Slowly Opens Up

Until a complete lift of the embargo, most franchisors will have to remain on the sidelines due to current U.S. regulations.

By Nick Powills1851 Franchise Publisher

SPONSORED 11:11AM • 05/26/16

The thaw in U.S. and Cuba relations has many U.S. small businesses and franchises thinking about doing business with the island nation that has been completely off limits for more than half a century. But the reality is, most will have to wait.

The Obama administration has taken steps to allow telecommunications and travel companies to work in Cuba, but most exports and other forms of business are still restricted under the embargo.

I believe the embargo will eventually be lifted. At this point, the path seems to be leading in that direction. However, the question still remains about what requirements will the Cuban government impose on U.S. businesses that want to sell products and services on the island. Franchise brands in particular need to understand that Cuba, which doesn’t have a free market, has a completely different culture and approach to business.

But there is another side of Cuba that is not often explored across small business spectrum outside of South Florida and other Cuban pockets across the country. It’s the human side. When President Obama visited a short time ago and a historic baseball game was played, my hometown of Miami reacted much differently than the rest of the country. It was more personal for us. I’m not Cuban, but my best friends are. You hear the stories and you see the pictures—families ripped apart by communism. The lost land, lost families, lost homes, lost lives, lost roots, lost freedoms—they’re all hurdles that many in Miami are not willing to jump over yet.

It makes me simultaneously sad and incredibly thankful when I think about what my friends’ parents and grandparents endured so that their children would never know anything but freedom. Fathers sent to fight wars on behalf of communism in Angola. Family members tortured, killed and left to rot in political prisons. Parents sending their children to an unknown destiny by themselves 90 miles north to Florida by whatever means necessary in order to have a fighting chance at freedom. And somehow the Cuban dictatorship that stole everything from them continues to live on. That will always hurt me no matter where you stand politically.

But I’m not naïve. Cuba is opening up and things are changing. Access to technology will do that. Information is influence and as the Cuban people continue to engineer ways to pull information down from the internet, the isolationism the Castro regime has held on to for so long will slowly erode. And there is tremendous power in that.