Perez Zeledon, with San Isidro de El General at its centre, is the capital of southern Costa Rica. Highland coffee, cattle, regional retail and the gateway to Chirripo. It is far from the capital, which puts many people off, but for a creator working in user generated content it means exactly the opposite: an entire market with no competition and clients who have never worked with anyone.

Coffee, mountains and regional retail

Highland coffee is the area's signature, with family farms and micro mills that export and are starting to sell direct. Cattle and agriculture complete the productive base, and San Isidro works as the commercial centre for the whole southern region: hardware stores, agricultural suppliers, clinics, schools and urban retail serving tens of thousands of people.

The fourth leg is mountain tourism: Chirripo, waterfalls, cabins and hiking routes, with domestic and foreign audiences who decide by watching video.

The sectors that hire in Perez Zeledon

  • Highland coffee and micro mills: process, harvest, roasting and direct sales, a category with a story and an international market.
  • Mountain tourism: cabins, Chirripo tours, waterfalls and rural stays.
  • Agriculture and cattle: agricultural suppliers, inputs, dairy and local produce, a formal client that barely uses video.
  • San Isidro retail: shops, restaurants, gyms and services covering the whole southern zone.
  • Health and aesthetics: dental clinics, opticians and aesthetic centres, with the care health advertising requires.
  • Construction and hardware: an active sector thanks to the area's growth, with no social communication at all.

Being first in a market with no creators

In an area like this the challenge is not competing, it is explaining. Many businesses have never hired a creator and do not know what they are buying. The way in is to teach rather than sell: arrive with two videos already filmed of products you use, show how they would look on their Instagram, and put a simple price on it.

When the first one works, the rest follows on its own, because in a town this size everybody knows everybody. And real growth comes when you stop depending on local clients: with electronic invoicing and a UGC marketplace profile, a brand in San Jose or abroad can hire you without distance mattering.

Turning distance into an argument

Being far from the capital has an upside worth using in the pitch: access to mountains, coffee and landscape that do not exist in the Central Valley, with low production costs and real availability.

A coffee brand that needs farm imagery cannot get it in San Jose. An outdoor clothing maker who wants Chirripo needs somebody who lives nearby. That is your product, and it should be said in those words.

What creators charge

As a reference: a single video for a local business starts around thirty to sixty dollars. With a strong portfolio, eighty to two hundred dollars per video. Packages of three to five videos sell between two hundred and fifty and five hundred and fifty dollars. National brands pay above that, and coffee clients with international markets considerably more. Local clients pay in colones by SINPE Movil; clients from outside, in dollars.

Where to go next

Perez Zeledon offers a market with no competition and a visual product, highland coffee and mountains, that sells outside the region. To turn that into paid work, our guide on how to become a UGC creator covers building the portfolio, setting prices and closing the first collaborations.