NewsTaco

By Armando Rayo

Today at the SXSWi Panel: Accelerating Killer LatAm Startups, Panelists Pedro Torres Picón, David Weekly, Carolina Rossi and Yang shared some interesting insights on the entrepreneurial trends happening south of the border.

Rossi mentioned that one of the reasons for Chile’s momentum is because, as the leading producer of copper in the world, funding is now more readily available. She sees a growing trend of powerful organizations that are investing and providing funding for startups.

Also capturing the excitement – “more and more people are joining the middle class, the internet’s penetration has increased, the consumer is growing and they are going more and more online,” discussed Yang.

Interestingly enough, many of the startups are not serving the Spanish speaker. With Spanish being the second global language of the world, this is an isolated opportunity that has been missed.

Some key barriers entrepreneurs are facing are motivation, lack of educated investors, executing logistics and funds. Twitter and Facebook have been integral in assisting distribution and building networks.

This SXSW Interactive Coverage was Sponsored by Univision News

By Susana Baumann

Hispanic business owners play an important role in their communities that need not to be underestimated.

Back in January, the Obama Administration announced the consolidation of the Small Business Administration as a larger general agency combined with other government agencies – the Department of Commerce, U.S. Trade and Development Agency, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Ex-Im Bank and the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.

The decision seeks to cure a widespread malady in government, the agencies’ overlapping functions as brought up by the “Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue” report.

According to the announcement, the move will save an estimated $3 billion over 10 years, which seems not too much in the general scope but experts say it is a good start. However, my concern is related to Hispanic small business owners and how they will be able –or not–to navigate the new system.

As it is, the SBA definition of “small business” includes the following:

• In manufacturing, the maximum number of employees may range from 500 to 1500, depending on the type of product manufactured;
• In wholesaling, the maximum number of employees may range from 100 to 500 depending on the particular product being provided;
• In services, annual receipts may not exceed $21.5 million, depending on the particular service being provided;
• In retailing, annual receipts may not exceed $21.0 million, depending on the particular product being provided;
• In general and heavy construction, annual receipts may not exceed $17 million, depending on the type of construction;
• In special trade construction, annual receipts may not exceed $7 million.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 2.3 million Hispanic-owned non-farm U.S. businesses operating in the fifty states and the District of Columbia in 2007. There are 37 percent of Hispanic-owned U.S. firms operating in construction and repair, maintenance, personal and laundry services sectors.

These firms accounted for 10.4 percent of all U.S. businesses in these sectors. Wholesale trade, construction and retail trade accounted for 50.8 percent of Hispanic-owned business revenue.

The survey makes a distinction between employer firms – those who employ people – and those who don’t. Employer firms accounted for only 11 percent of the total number of Hispanic-owned firms and 79.5 percent of Hispanic-owned firms’ gross receipts. Average receipts for these firms were $1.1 million, totaling $274.5 billion.

Also in 2007, 2.0 million Hispanic-owned businesses had no paid employees, with average receipts of $35,149, and generating $70.7 billion. Evidently, Hispanic-owned small businesses are at the very bottom of the “small business” definition. Most of these are family “mom-and-pop” businesses that are usually left out of the private or government funding umbrella.

So where do they go for help and funding?

Usually, Hispanic business owners do not count on government help. Mostly funded by their owners’ own savings, loans from extended family or personal credit cards, many times they lack of formal business training or experience. They also trust their families and local community networks for business advice and additional funding.

Because of that trust, success in their business means taking care of their families, extended families and their community, a 2011 study conducted for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) reveals. Their families being their first priority, Hispanic businesses usually support their immediate and extended family members. Some of the study’s conclusions say that:

• More than half started their business because they wanted something tangible to pass on to their children.
• 70 percent plan to pass their business on to their spouse or children.
• Nearly one-third started their business to provide jobs for family members, and 65 percent have one to four relatives or family members working with them.
• Compared to only 48 percent of the general population, 70 percent of Hispanics have relatives beyond spouses and children who are dependent on their business’ success.

Their spouses and children are their preferred financial advisors and they worry about protecting their families in the event they would be unable to continue managing their business. In this case, “personalismo,” an important value for this community, plays against these hard-working business owners. So many responsibilities overwhelm them, and they usually feel intimidated to seek financial education, formal and systematic business knowledge and preparation, or any other opportunities that would make their businesses thrive.

Despite the cultural roadblocks that might exist in this community, the reality is that navigating the governmental red tape can be discouraging, especially for those with language barriers. The road to increase Hispanic business participation starts with acknowledgment of their power in the national business scene. As in politics, Hispanics are taking over an important role that might define many aspects of the U.S. economy, including community involvement and extended civic responsibilities.

These instances need to be contemplated in the new proposed structure. Hopefully, the new agency will acknowledge these types of cultural and behavioral differences among Hispanic-business owners and plan accordingly their outreach to get these businesses involved in a formal setting helping them develop to their full capacity.

[Photo By Monica's Dad]

By Lisa Rickard and Hector Barreto

Americans often think of lawsuit abuse as a problem associated with larger businesses.  But small businesses bear a large portion of the lawsuit burden in the United States. According to the Small Business Administration, small businesses create 64% of new jobs in America, and yet, frivolous lawsuits cost small businesses collectively over $100 billion in 2008. That seems a heavy burden on a sector that needs to thrive in order to revive this fragile economy.

Which makes the impact of lawsuits on Latino small businesses all the more troubling. For many in the Latino community, entrepreneurship is the gateway to achieving the American dream. According to the U.S. Census, Latinos in this country are three times more likely to start a small business than the overall population.

But abusive litigation against these small businesses threatens their business and their very economic future. A survey of small business owners taken since the economic downturn showed that overall, 92% said the poor economy has made it more difficult for their company to absorb the costs associated with lawsuits. And more than two-thirds of small businesses said that if targeted by a lawsuit, they would likely be forced to hold back on hiring, reduce employee benefits and pass costs onto consumers.

Yet lawsuits against these vital businesses continue even through the troubled economic times in places like California. Latino small businesses in the Golden State have been targeted by unscrupulous lawyers filing abusive lawsuits on behalf of plaintiffs seeking to gain as much money from them as possible under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  And Latino business owners can be especially vulnerable to these lawsuits due to a language barrier and some Latino business owners’ unfamiliarity with the U.S. civil justice system.

For that reason, the Institute for Legal Reform has launched a public education campaign – the first of its kind – specifically targeted towards Latino businesses in the U.S.  The national campaign consists of paid media on Spanish language Television, Spanish language radio, and on-line advertising, underscoring the vulnerabilities that exist for Latino businesses.  The campaign urges Latino business owners to visit the Spanish-language version of the website, www.facesoflawsuitabuse.com, which is www.abusodedemandas.org, to learn more about these stories of lawsuit abuse and how others have dealt with this problem.

Partnering with groups such as the Latino Coalition and the Civil Justice Association of California (CJAC), ILR will help educate Latino entrepreneurs and businessmen and women about the impact of lawsuit abuse through a public education and awareness campaign by highlighting the stories of Latino business owners who have been the targets of lawsuit abuse.  The campaign was launched just last month. Violations of the ADA are very serious indeed and no one disagrees that action should be taken to correct problems.  But serious questions arise when lawyers and plaintiffs claim they are standing up for the rights of disabled people everywhere, yet the record shows a relative few have become wealthy by filling their own coffers from such lawsuits.

California stands at a lowly 46th in the ILR’s Harris survey ranking of state legal climates. California’s Unruh Act may explain why it has far more ADA suits filed than any other state. This law allows plaintiffs to seek monetary damages (as opposed to just injunctive relief) of up to $4,000 for each and every ADA violation, which has in essence created the perfect breeding ground for frivolous lawsuits over minor violations.

According to the online Justia database, 5,590 non-employment ADA suits have been filed in federal courts in California since the beginning of 2005, as opposed to 378 in Texas, 770 in New York, 1,580 in Florida, 129 in Illinois and 330 in Pennsylvania over the same time period. This matters to California’s Latino-owned small businesses because Latinos make up about 37% of the state’s overall population, increasing the pool of targets – and the economic impact to the state overall.

The Faces of Lawsuit Abuse campaign aims first to bring awareness to the Latino population so that these business owners can be prepared and on the lookout to ensure that they will not easily fall prey to these abusive lawsuits. As leaders in both the U.S. business community generally, and in the Latino business community specifically, we understand that Latino small businesses play a crucial role in turning around the country’s economic fortunes. And the real problems of abusive lawsuits against Latinos are not just seen in statistics, but in the faces of those who daily confront the damage these lawsuits can do to this important community.

Lisa A. Rickard is president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform.

Hector Barreto is Chairman of the Latino Coalition and former Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration

[Photo By mRk.Cool]

Brenda Carrera cannot put her finger exactly on what it was that inspired her to become a business owner, but she does say it’s something she’s wanted to do for a long time. To that end, the 40 year-old Latina entrepreneur sought out the help of Austin’s Economic Growth Business Incubator (EGBI) to work on economic planning, making a business plan and other important choices.

“I felt that something was missing, that something wasn’t complete. I felt that if I went ahead and owned my own business I could make those changes,” Carrera, the owner of Hair Central, told us. “The classes [at EGBI] really helped me understand what I was doing, what I was getting myself into. I wouldn’t even know where to start if I hadn’t taken the class.”

Latinas are opening businesses faster than any other group of small business owners, most recently reported to be six times that of the national average. But when Carrera talks about her own trajectory towards being a business owner, after working as a cosmetologist since 1990, it’s not that complicated. It’s more about making sure that her own life, her own work experience was comfortable and fit with the life she wanted for herself, her husband and five children.

Now, as the owner of Hair Central she works with four other women and employs one of her daughters as her receptionist. Since purchasing the business, she’s changed the name and is working on marketing to bring in more business. As far as how she feels about her future as a businesswoman, she’s glad that she can provide an example for her children.

“I know it feels good for them, I think they are more willing to expand their options,” she told NewsTaco. “I think and I hope that I do set a good example for them.”

As part of EGBI’s ongoing work the agency is hosting an event in Austin on November 15. Click here for more information.

[Photo By chipgriffin]

Eva Longoria started her career as a model and actress, but over the past few years she’s become a notable Latino philanthropist and recently said she would be writing her master’s thesis on Latinas. It’s admirable that, like so many Latino stars, she could forgo activism and focus on her own stardom, but has chosen to engage with her community in positive ways.

She was recently quoted by Examiner.com:

“I am almost done with my masters. I have to write my thesis. Latina Entrepreneurs. Latina  leadership. With Latinas being the largest population growth within that population…I want to focus on the women.”

We’ve written before about how Latinas — since their education levels and consequently income surpasses Latinos — are the future of Latinos in the U.S. Add to that the fact that Latinas start businesses at a rate six times the national average, and this is what we wrote would happen:

Our community’s future leaders will be comprised primarily by today’s young Latinas. Not only will they have to resolve the power vacuum that will exist after the mass departure of Latino baby boomers, but additionally they will have an exponentially increasing scale of community challenges to address in the decades ahead. This crucial sector of women can either repeat the singular models of leadership that their male predecessors promoted across the twentieth century, or they can espouse more dynamic systems of power that draw upon all of the resources available within the rapidly growing U.S. Latino community.

It’s great that Longoria not only recognizes that trend, but wants to understand it more fully.

[Photo By Imagine Cup]

Finally, some economic news that’s not depressing: the number of Latino owned businesses in Butler County, Ohio have doubled in the last decade, according to the Middletown Journal.

The article references a 2011 study conducted by Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA, LaVerdad Marketing and Hispanics Avanzando Hispanics that found, “revenues for Hispanic-owned businesses in Butler County grew by 48 percent, payroll by 57 percent and the amount of employees by 58 percent during [2002-2007]“.

Also mentioned in the article is business owner Isidro Carrero, originally from the Dominican Republic who estimates that at least 90 percent of his clients are non-Latinos, and believes that the growth of Latino businesses can be attributed to “a successful entrepreneurial community that works hard and contributes to the community.”

That and the fact that like the rest of the country, Ohio is becoming more diverse. The Middletown Journal also reports that:

The study also includes population growth, using 2010 U.S. Census data to show how Ohio’s non-Hispanic population grew by 0.4 percent between 2000 and 2010 to a total of more than 11 million, a gain of just 45,813 people.

Meanwhile, the state’s Hispanic population skyrocketed by 63.4 percent to a total of 354,674.

Latinos in Ohio may not be have the same population numbers as places like Texas, New York, Florida, or California, but they’re still making an impact in the state.

[Photo By Mattes]

Eliseo Diaz and Juan Rodriguez were just two normal guys — entrepreneurs, mind you, but normal guys nonetheless — who were living out their lives in Austin, Texas earlier this year when an opportunity presented itself to them in a most unlikely way. Now the two Dominicanos are focused on their burgeoning mobile business, Flash Valet, which at once makes valet parking high-tech, and easier to deal with.

The way it started was that Diaz’s wife was doing work at the time that required her to frequently visit hotels, and thus, valet park her car up to 15 times a day. It’s a pain, it turns out, to do this so often because she would spend 10 minutes at the hotel and 20 minutes waiting for her car — not to mention having to carry cash for tip. So Diaz and Rodriguez got together and created the prototype for Flash Valet.

Now’s probably a good time to mention that Diaz (right) and Rodriguez (left) have been family friends since their childhood in the Dominican Republic, but became partners in a previous tech venture which landed them in the world of mobile payments. Taking that experience and applying it to valet parking, the pair has managed to create a multi-pronged solution to help both valet customers and business owners.

Flash Valet works by text message. When you’re ready for your car, you send a text message. If you want to pick your car up at another participating location, valet employees will bring your car to you. Had too much to drink? Text and your car may be dropped off at your home. Don’t have money for a tip? You can do that by phone, too. Flash Valet has also developed technology solutions for the owners of valet parking businesses to help them keep track of money, worker time and vehicles. The two claim it’s a win-win both for customers and business people when it comes to valet parking.

So far the two say Flash Valet has been successful beyond their wildest dreams. Shortly after they developed the rough version of the platform in June, they tested it in Miami to a 30% response rate — with no prompting other than the valet ticket mention. Now the company is being used in 12 venues in Austin, including bars, restaurants and hotels, and sometimes achieves an 88% participation rate, meaning that the majority of valet customers use the service. Over time, Diaz and Rodriguez hope to build-in incentives for the valet companies to increase this participation.

What, exactly, do Latinos online want?

While that’s a question with many answers, José Cruz and his new arts and entertainment community, Our Tiempo, aims to provide at least one specific answer. Cruz founded the site and launched it this week in order to address the needs of what he calls New Generation Latinos, who are largely English dominant and grew up in the United States.

“I looked at my generation and we are speaking to ourselves here, we are trying to communicate and have a dialogue about who we are. We are going to like Marc Anthony and Pitbull — but we’re also going to want to go see The Cure,” Cruz said, by way of describing Our Tiempo’s focus.

These New Generation Latinos are complex. They care for content in English and Spanish. They like both “Latin” music and mainstream music. They want to connect with arts, entertainment and sports, but they also want to network and be connected to non-profits. This, Cruz told NewsTaco, is what Our Tiempo aims to do. [Editor's Note: You may have noticed that NewsTaco partners with Our Tiempo for film and arts reviews.]

“We are an entertainment marketing site, but we don’t want to take away from the supporting of non-profits. Networking is big, arts and video games are huge with our community — it’s not as if we are different from mainstream America, but there’s a little twist to it,” he told us.

Our Tiempo launched in Chicago and Los Angeles this week, by the end of the year the site will be up in Washington, D.C. The site is a place where Latinos can socialize and network around activities they enjoy in their own backyards — most of the content on the sites is locally grown.

So what will you get on Our Tiempo that you won’t get elsewhere? Cruz explained it thusly, when given a chance to interview the developers of a video game, Our Tiempo inquired as to whether there were any Latino characters in the game. It’s a small detail, but an important one.

Check out Our Tiempo online, or on Facebook or Twitter.

Jesenia Bailey found her way into a career in comedy in the most unlikely way — by doing as everything else first. She’s the co-creator and co-producer of the Latino comedy project Ay Que Funny, a Puerto Rican from the Bronx, a dreamer, and someone we wanted to profile in our occasional series on News Taco about how people achieved their American Dreams.

Bailey is a comedic actress and improv performer who believes she found her way into comedy through fate. She told NewsTaco she was someone who never knew the direction of her life. She wanted to be a singer, but couldn’t sing. She went to beauty school, but hated doing hair. She went to trade school and became a disgruntled secretary.

But, oddly enough, she says that’s when fate intervened.

“It was a very depressing environment and I became the person in the office who told the jokes to lighten the air, aka, office clown! And so began my comedy career,” she told us. “After working there for five years, I dared myself into doing standup comedy, which led me to develop my own sketch and improv comedy show, and behold – here I am today, still working in an office! But working every darn day on my craft and performing my passion for comedy every chance I can get — which is mainly on the weekends.”

Ultimately, Bailey hopes to be able to support her family with this passion. She told us she wants to work in TV, because more Latinos need to be on TV, and she’s working on webisodes and a pilot to this end.

“I also want to inspire young and older Latinas to live their dream — there aren’t many people who ‘look like me’ in the entertainment industry and I want to be the one to break the stereotypical Latina mold. Yes, we’re sexy and fabulous, but we’re also smart and funny,” she told us.

Being a woman and a Latina has been a “challenge” in the entertainment industry, Bailey told NewsTaco, but this only inspires her to work harder she said. “As a Latina in comedy, well unfortunately, it’s as if we don’t even exist.  Bottom line – I know I have to work my butt off to make my mark in this industry.  So instead of playing the waiting game for gigs that are casting ‘someone like me’ – I make my own gigs.”

Like many other Latino entrepreneurs we’ve spoken to at NewsTaco, Bailey decided to make her own platform to feature her work. Instead of waiting to hear for work, she made her own, “That’s why I began producing my sketch comedy show Ay Que Funny. Before doing my show, nobody was calling me because casting directors/agents/managers didn’t know that I can bring it – so, by producing my own work, I’ve been able to show them that I am very well capable to produce the comedic goods that need to be brought.”

Last week I found myself eating New Mexican-style pozole with new friends, getting to know artists from the corridor between El Paso and Las Cruces, and reconnecting with colleagues from across Texas, helping me to heal from my most recent 600-mile journey back to this historic region. For well over four centuries have mestizos inhabited these lands, now they are finally conducting Latino leadership trainings and discussions to prepare the next generation for the landscape of tomorrow. I was a member of the Texas contingent of panelists at the 2011 Leadership Summit presented by New Mexico State University’s Faculty/Staff Caucus.

My colleague, Dr. Cristobal Rodriguez, had invited me to his home at the base of the mountain to join the celebration that he and his wife were hosting in their home for visiting scholars from Texas. By the time I drove up the moonbeams were cascading upon this southern edge of the Rocky Mountains, illuminating our backyard conversations near the indigenous cacti, jalapeños and cilantro. Scholars from both ends of the Rio Grande, and every major community in between, ate and laughed and bonded the way Latinos do after midnight. A few hours later, we were dashing to campus to listen to NMSU President Barbara Couture welcome us to this historic event.

Three 20th century male Latinos, under 40 years of age, each from the borderlands, moving at high speed and armed with a Ph.D. What a rare breed to sight along Interstate-10, indeed.

Cristobal had asked me to share my insights on the convergence of education, politics and new media in relation to southern New Mexico and the rest of the borderlands. In all honesty, I had been zigzagging back and forth so many times between Central Texas and my patch of frontera during the weeks leading up to this event, that I had not prepared a formal presentation for my panel discussion. After the merriment and intellectual stimuli of the night before, I was calibrated for the summit and ready to engage. Fortunately I already knew one other panelist from El Paso, David Candelaria from Entravision, and I had recently met the moderator, Glen Gerny, a couple of weeks prior during the KRWG-TV taping of Fronteras: A Changing America.

Half of the conference opted to attend our panel discussion, and this audience was comprised of faculty members, current doctoral students, recent graduates, active community members, elected officials, representatives of government agencies and initiatives, journalists and even a former pupil. I endeavored to make an impression with my presentation on new media and the implications of how this new generation of young Latino leaders are responding to both the challenges and opportunities that our unique border region presents.

During both my panel presentation and the Q&A session with Juan Sepulveda, director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans, I stressed the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship among this regional community of Latino scholars. As scholars, our mandate is to engage the community directly and not to get disconnected through elitism and a traditional tendency to promulgate a detached “ivory tower” disposition. Whether we remain in academia or we apply our educational training beyond its boundaries, we are a body of American Latinas and Latinos who are intended to inform policy through our research, advance the quality of life across our hemisphere through our teachings, and, above all, we are required to cultivate the next generation in and beyond the classroom through our hybrid cultural capabilities.

Perhaps it does take a special kind of eyes to appreciate how effective Latino experts can be advising policies and new regional initiatives, but myself and many of my colleagues and audience members are now convinced that we can apply our cultural strengths as well as new media technologies to augment local economies and expand horizons for 21st century residents of the borderlands.

I hope Texas institutions of higher education learn from the model that New Mexico State University has established. If the institution’s leadership has the vision to appreciate the ambient resources that predominantly Latino communities contain in abundance, they can configure opportunities to convene and coordinate an organized array of Latino scholars to apply their research directly in the community for the enhancement of the quality of life of all residents of the region.

[Image By newmexico.org]

To chat with Franco Mondini-Ruiz is to be sucked into his world — art museums, New York City, Mexican mothers, San Antonio art society, gay parties, baroque wedding cakes, 18th century aristocracy, Catholicism, pan dulce, his career as a lawyer — but somehow when he brings them all together, suddenly, it makes sense. A native of San Antonio, Monidini gradually found his way into the art world via art installations he would make at parties. Eventually he quit his day job as an attorney and threw himself into the world of art.

But, he told News Taco, 20 years ago the art world was a harder place for Latino artists. So, he did what any lawyer-turned-artist would do, and created a new business model for himself. Now he’s got upcoming shows in California, Oklahoma and Arizona.

“I used the model of the panadería. I want to make a lot of pan dulce, but I want it to be so beautiful that you say, ‘Thank God I’m Mexican!’ and I want everyone to buy all they want. I have a model where I am running a Mexican bakery and I am blessed because museums want a piece of it,” Mondini-Ruiz said.

Informal economies, he said, was his inspiration to lash out on his own as an entrepreneurial artist. You had to become your own business strategist in the early days, he said, because there were not very many ways to get into the art world when he started. Nowadays, it’s easier for Latino artists because you can find Latinos who are curators or museum directors or board members — “We have become part of the industry,” he said — although there is still the occasional condescension.

Nonetheless, he told us, “If anything there is an acknowledgement that there are lots of different types of Latino artists. Yet, as much as we try, contemporary art is a religion or a cult and it is pretty classist. Those of us that get in and can make the cut are usually middle-to-upper middle class kids who can speak the language. And even then, you’d better watch your aspirations because you can only go so far,”

If you’d like to see some of Mondini-Ruiz’s work and happen to be in Oklahoma in the next few months you can see his show, “Poodles & Pastries (and Other Important Matters): New Paintings by Franco Mondini-Ruiz” from September 8 through December 31.