Business forum in Ceres focuses on Latino owners, consumers
A forum with the theme “Our World is Changing” was held Monday to help Latino business owners and would-be business owners understand opportunities and responsibilities. It also aimed to help the business community at large with marketing to the growing Latino population.
Over several hours at the Community Center, an audience of about 80 people got information and advice from panelists on overcoming obstacles in starting a business, safeguarding it, expanding it, meeting legal requirements, communicating effectively with consumers and more.
“People are learning more and more about what it takes to start a business, sustain it and grow it,” said keynote speaker Luis Molina, the mayor of Patterson. He said there are many talented and passionate Latino people in the Valley who have gifts that could be cultivated into businesses if they connect with allies such as ones present at the forum: the Stanislaus Business Alliance, the U.S. Small Business Administration, USDA Rural Development and others.
He and other speakers also said it’s good business to recognize and embrace the growing market of Latino consumers. From 2011 to 2016, the purchasing power of all U.S. consumers grew by 27.5 percent, while that of Latino consumers grew by 48.1 percent, according to statistics presented at the forum.
“The growth of Hispanic entrepreneurs and consumers is really driving our local economy,” said Kurtis Clark, the alliance’s chief innovation officer and Small Business Development Center director.
It’s really important to have a clear separation of duties in your office. If you have a person in your office in charge of getting the mail, they shouldn’t also be the one making the entries in QuickBooks and then going to the bank and making the deposit. You’re asking for trouble.
Katy Winders
Alliance SBDC assistant director, on the importance of establishing checks and balancesOne of the panel discussions Monday was on “Overcoming Obstacles, Achieving Success.”
“Access to capital is a huge obstacle for the community we serve,” said Jeremy Hofer of the Fresno Community Development Financial Institution, which provides loans to small businesses and nonprofits in 12 counties. “The entrepreneurs we engage with don’t come from high-wealth families; they don’t have MBAs from Harvard.”
The CDFI relies on partner agencies to help engage and train small-business people.
The nonprofit lender has $15 million in assets, and its average loans are about $40,000. What the CDFI values is jobs, Hofer said. “That’s the ultimate value for us because that’s what we’re funded for. … How are loans going to help retain jobs, how will they create jobs?”
Another panelist, Katy Winders, assistant director of the Alliance SBDC, spoke further of what small-business owners need to understand. Her center’s clients often are passionate about what they do, whether it’s repairing cars, cooking or making products – but not the numbers side of it, she said. But record keeping and financial management are crucial to a business.
“One of the top reasons businesses fail is they’re not tracking the money,” Winders said. She cited an example of a struggling ice-cream shop owner who asked the SBDC for help. A consultant with the office visited the business, crunched the numbers and realized the owner was selling his basic single scoop of ice cream for less than it cost him.
There is a learning curve. Who knew (how many licenses there were to get)? All we have is ice, and they consider that a food, so you have to have a license for it.
Angie Guzman
Stockton business ownerThere are several accounting systems out there, though the SBDC recommends, and offers instruction in, QuickBooks.
Winders and fellow panelist Angie Guzman, who owns a bar in Stockton, both said record keeping and having checks and balances in place are important for guarding against embezzlement.
Guzman and her husband bought Harry’s Cocktail Lounge, a longtime establishment, about a year and a half ago. It was pretty much an impulse buy – “It was the Snickers at the checkout stand” – when she was dining at a restaurant and heard the bar next door was for sale.
“There’s a lot to be learned in this business, a lot of room for fraud,” she said. “It’s very much a cash business, so it can be easy to put this $20 bill here vs. there, in the tip jar vs. the register.”
The couple were fortunate to inherit a good staff from the previous owner, she said. The owners have tried to treat them well and give them growth opportunities, such as sending the bartenders to bartender school, so they now are certified.
The previous owner also “hung around” for a month to personally introduce the Guzmans to the bar’s regulars. “Our clientele feel like they own the bar,” Guzman said, “so we just don’t want to mess it up for them.”
To anyone interested in starting a business, Guzman was encouraging. “It’s the best thing we’ve ever done,” she said, then quickly added, “it’s the hardest job I’ve ever had.”
Deke Farrow: 209-578-2327
By the numbers
Some of the statistics shared at Monday’s Valley Business Forum:
- More than 15 percent of all businesses in the U.S. were Latino-owned in 2015.
- From 2007-15, the number of Latino-owned firms increased by 13 percent, while the total number of all U.S. firms grew by just 0.9 percent.
- From 2007-15, total revenues generated by Latino-owned businesses grew by 88 percent, while revenues in all U.S. firms grew by only 12 percent.
- In 2014, 28.9 percent of Latino households earned $25,000 to $50,000. Of those households, 42.1 percent were business owners, compared to 28 percent of all U.S. households in that income range.
- In 2014, 4.6 percent of Latino households earned more than $150,000; 7.1 percent of Latino business owners earned that much.
- In 2012, Latino households accounted for 10 percent of all discretionary spending in the U.S. economy. That spending was $164.2 billion – a 14 percent increase over 2011. By comparison, total spending by all U.S. households increased by only 2.6 percent in 2012 compared with 2011.
This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Business forum in Ceres focuses on Latino owners, consumers."