Hispanic Entrepeneurs

At the beginning of every business's life is a simple question: where should the business be located? If the truth be told, most businesses are located by default, in the place the simple question is asked, perhaps a hometown, or where the last employment was held, or where the big sales opportunity was most recently seen.

In fact, if no opportunity is seen at home, or in the next county, or the next state, or even on the other side of the country, the person doing the asking most often opts for other ways to make a living. It is rare indeed to find a person who will chuck off his or her native land and culture just to open a small business.

In Southwest Florida, and increasingly across America, a group of people are doing this -- making themselves strangers in a strange land -- just for the simple accomplishment of running their own businesses and making better lives for themselves and their families.

The Numbers Are Growing

"We are the largest growing minority group, so we are going to be a very positive force to be reckoned with," advises Merya Louvier, the director of Immokalee's Chamber of Commerce. "We have tremendous buying power. It would be poor business judgment not to look at this market."

Although no current, firm statistics exist on the number of Hispanic businesses -- the 1997 economic census is due out later this Spring --, Bob Da Frota, past president of the Southwest Florida Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and president of RDF Insurance and Investment, puts the registered number at about 2300: 900 in Lee County and 1400 in Collier.

Da Frota, a native Brazilian, was educated at Penn State, returned here in 1980, and gained his citizenship in 1989. In addition to the 2300 registered Hispanic businesses, he says, add the unknown number of micro-businesses, the employees who begin to take on their own landscaping or office maintenance contracts and plan to incubate them into on-going registered concerns.

Eric Beck and his wife are typical of many Hispanic business people. They own Budget Muffler and Brake on Cleveland Avenue in Fort Myers, coming to Southwest Florida via Chicago. Mr. Beck voices a set of common concerns. "There are lot more regulations, and permits, and red tape," he says "At the beginning, I found it hard to get steered in the right direction. I had to go to a guy for help. He was the one who took all the information, and got most of my permits."

This course of action is precisely what Louvier recommends and often provides. "Someone like me, I can walk you through meetings with the county," she says. "If I was a minority business owner, I'd find an attorney that was bi-lingual. You need some one who can help you with the whole process -- somebody who works for you -- to negotiate the lease, and get the money you need.

"The problem is that a lot of the minority-owned businesses don't have the resources to hire someone like that," Louvier concedes.

Since this level of advisorship represents an expense not encountered by Anglo businesses, it is seen by some as a competitive disadvantage. "It takes a lot of money," Beck says, but "during the time you are building the business, you must also comply with the rules."

Cathy Jo Whidden of Fort Myers-based Humphrey and Whidden Insurance Agency and past president of the Hispanic chamber, provides some direction and some advice. "I give them the places to call for help," she says. Four thousand of her 5000 clients are Hispanic.

She adds, "Sometimes there is the language barrier. All of the [government agencies] are in English. It's not so in Miami, but here they all [should] learn English."

Of Culture and Continents

"Here, we have such a fair system," says Whidden. "They fall in love with it and take advantage of it in the best possible ways." She goes to Mexico every two years to visit relatives, and sees very little opportunity for decent jobs there unless applicants have a family member or friend in government.

The government's influence in business sometimes tries North American concepts of wealth and advancement. For example, explains Whidden, imagine that one day you find oil on your property. You would not suddely become rich, as you're likely to do in the U.S. Instead, says Whidden, "If someone finds oil on their land, the government takes the land, pays the land value, and says, 'Thank you for your contribution to your country.'"

Ironically, the family and friend rules for employment in Mexico translate into family values in the United States. "Most Hispanic businesses have a lot of family working at every level, somewhat like the U.S. years ago," says Whidden. "It keeps the family together, with a common goal and an old-fashioned sense of values."

Historically, it is natural for immigrant businesses to cluster around immigrant populations, and the family values would seem likely to dictate marketing values as well. To some degree this is true. "Many of the small businesses cater just to Spanish people. It depends on the type of business. Others diversify," says Da Frota. "Look at the food business - most are for Hispanics, but others.... the professions, lawyers ... are not."

Beck's muffler and brake shop is one that diversified, although it may not have been planned that way. "At first, I thought my idea was to cater to Hispanics," he says, "but most of my clientele is white."

Whidden sees the door swinging both ways. She reports of a business, an international trading store, opening on Palm Beach Boulevard, a Hispanic neighborhood. "They are wanting to do a lot of trade with Hispanic people."

Outreach

Part of the Hispanic Chamber's mission is to advance trade issues with Hispanic countries, to breed better relationships with what is becoming known as the Caribbean Rim. To this end, a trip to the Dominican Republic was recently undertaken.

"Last year, I went on a Dominican Republic trade mission to establish a relationship with them that allows them access to our markets and us to theirs," says Da Frota. "The first step is networking." So far, he measures the success in terms of education more than sales. "It was very productive ... sometimes business is not only materials but is technology, education, seminars, workshops. Several things have taken place."

All concerned see a distant parallel with the European Common Market-in-progress. "I think the more successful they are, the more the trend will move to our hemisphere, and minimize trade barriers between United States, Canada and Mexico," predicts Da Frota. "It's just a question of time. All of us, we always want to protect our turf, but we have to see what the benefits are."

He points to some positive benefits attributed to the lowering trade barriers on citrus, particularly that produced in Brazil. He says that local growers have become more aggressive with their marketing skills because of the competition from Bra