Julio Gonzalez started his engineering firm, J.E. Gonzalez & Associates, in 1991, with annual revenue totaling $50,000. Last year, company income reached $940,000; and he expects his 2004 figure to top $1 million, boosted by work on Southwest Florida International Airport's new midfield terminal.

Neel Little is using his contacts in the restaurant field and through networking in the business community to grow Speedi Kleen, his Lehigh Acres-based cleaning and janitorial service.

Aridia Noboa provides a variety of services-from prepaid phone cards to notarizing-to people from diverse backgrounds at her seven-year-old Merengue Multiservicios in North Fort Myers.

These entrepreneurs reflect the diversity of minority businesses in Southwest Florida, from those that work on high-dollar public projects to others that focus on niche consumer groups.

It's hard to determine how many minority-owned businesses are based in the region. The Lee County Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Directory, which is updated monthly, lists more than 200 firms owned by male minorities, female minorities and white females. But few black and Hispanic business owners are seen at major business events and economic development meetings.

"They need to be there. Networking is essential to the success of any firm," says Chuck Taylor, senior manager for small business development at the Lee County Port Authority. Taylor has been in that role for 14 years, working to ensure that women and minorities are participating in bids for contracts and concessions. "Even with downtown, so much is taking place, and minorities need to be in there for just a percentage of it.

"They're not going to know what's going on," he says.

A few organizations for minorities have died out, he says, such as a minority contracting association in Fort Myers and a group in Dunbar. Other efforts are more focused on landing jobs rather than networking.

The Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program through the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University has helped businesspeople, including Speedi Kleen's Little, get started in the bidding process and in marketing themselves.

Little started his business two years ago after moving to Southwest Florida from the Lake Norman area outside of Charlotte, N.C. His car-detailing shop there had suffered in the aftereffects of 9-11; money wasn't coming in from dealerships and Little had to sell everything, he says. He relocated to Southwest Florida because his in-laws lived here.

Little had known people in North Carolina at TGI Friday's, leading him to a cook's job at the Fort Myers TGI Friday's, where he got to know the managers. He learned they needed a cleaning service, so he took the work and wound up taking care of the eatery's Naples and Port Charlotte locations.

Speedi Kleen now has four employees. Clients include Stevie Tomato's Sports Page, with bars in Fort Myers and Naples, and Kraft Construction.

"I just took off from there. I'm no stranger-I introduce myself," he says.

Little says he doesn't think that being in a group of black businesspeople would help him reach his goals-within five years, he aims to employ between 20 and 25, and to offer more services including mobile detailing, carpet cleaning and house cleaning. "It's not a black thing, it's not a white thing, it's just meeting the people, marketing your product and service and getting in the door," he says.

Noboa has been involved with the Southwest Florida Hispanic Cham-ber of Commerce, which has helped her with referrals, networking and education about issues important to her business, Merengue Multiservicios. She thinks that minority business owners need to be more involved and get together with other chambers to network.

Being a minority does make it a bit harder to own a business, Noboa says. "We have to push sometimes. Minorities may be a little bit shy," she says. "I'm not afraid to go into a business, but I'm a little shy to ask things."

Noboa, a native of the Dominican Republic, opened her business upon arriving in Southwest Florida seven years ago and noting a lack of services for the Hispanic community. Five years ago, the mother of three moved to her current location at 583 Pondella Road in North Fort Myers. Her business offers all types of services-prepaid phone cards, money wiring, notarizing and even helping people fill out job applications.

Customers include Southwest Florida residents hailing from Mexico, South America, Central America and the Caribbean. Understanding her clients' work schedule, she is open seven days a week. "Their only day off is Sunday-that's the day they come to me," she says.

Engineer gonzalez, who was born in Cuba, also has worked to create a diverse team of 10 employees from different backgrounds. He moved to South-west Florida in 1989 to work for another engineering firm. A year later, his employer was struggling financially and let him go, and he started J.E. Gonzalez & Associates in Fort Myers. Since then, the firm has worked on projects for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Lee County Government and Southwest Florida International Airport.

Back in the early '90s, Gonzalez was involved with different groups, including Lee County Economic Development, Dunbar Housing Authority and the Metropolitan Planning Organization. But as his business grew, he found that he had less time to be on committees.

He has benefited by doing joint ventures with other companies of government agencies that need to contract with a minority business. "Sometimes they like to use my company because they gain points. But at the same time, I have a great reputation as a mechanical engineer, not because of being a minority," Gonzalez says.

He hopes to expand his firm into its own office in the next couple years and to increase the amount of work on public projects and with FGCU.

But Gonzalez says growth in the number of Hispanic-owned businesses here is still to come. "I see more women-owned business, more black American-owned business," he says.

At Southwest Florida International Airport, about 10 to 15 minority firms, most of them female-owned, are among those working on the new Midfield Terminal Complex, Taylor says. But not all the firms are based in Southwest Florida-some are from Miami and Fort Lauderdale area.

Taylor says it's hard for some minority firms to win big project contracts because they lack experience. "A lot of primes [primary contractors] more or less have a good work experience," he says.

One of the frustrating things is getting turned down for business loans and trying to learn the system, says Raisa Disla, who recently opened Total Wellness and Spa Center in a plaza at 1953 Colonial Blvd. in Fort Myers. Having worked at and practically run similar businesses in New York and east Florida, she understood what it would take to own and operate her own center. But licensing and other steps she had to follow were confusing at times.

"Sometimes you find yourself lost," she says.

She agrees with Noboa that sometimes minorities are shyer when it comes to working through the system. But the single mom says providing for her son, who is five, is a motivating factor.

"I'm in the minority, but when you really want something I think you should go for it, no matter what obstacles," she says. "It's been so hard for me, sometimes I say, 'Am I doing the right thing, should I go for this as a single mom?' I'm going to do it no matter what."