Executives and entrepreneurs find networking opportunities and business support through Hispanic chambers of commerce.
According to the Sonoma County Economic Development Board’s 2011 Hispanic Demographic Trends Report, Sonoma County’s Hispanic population made up more than 24.4 percent of the county’s inhabitants in 2010. The California Department of Finance projects the Hispanic population to become the ethnic majority (51 percent) by 2050. The Pew Research Center notes Hispanics as a percentage of county population in Napa County increased from 24 percent in 2000 to 31 percent in 2009; in Marin County, Hispanics comprised 11 percent of the population in 2000 and 15 percent in 2009.
More than 700,000 Hispanic-owned businesses exist in the Golden State, according to California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce (CAHCC) President Julian Canete, and about 10 percent are members of local chambers of commerce. The CAHCC is the largest regional ethnic business organization in the nation that promotes the economic growth and development of Hispanic entrepreneurs and California’s emerging businesses.
“One of the reasons the chamber exists is there are some unique needs and barriers that face Hispanic businesses,” says Canete. “Some of them have to do with language and language programs that aren’t usually going to be done at a traditional chamber. They also face unique obstacles as far as access to capital as well as technical assistance training and procurement contracting issues.”
Hispanic chambers wear many hats
Hispanic chambers of commerce typically first developed as support networks for Spanish-speaking small business owners. However, throughout the North Bay, the chambers now serve as educational resources and networking outlets for not only Hispanic business owners but also Hispanic professionals, nonprofit organizations and mainstream businesses seeking to market to the Hispanic consumer. “Opening up our target objectives helps the Hispanic Chamber bring multiple resources to the table that can help Hispanic/Latino business owners and professionals, as well as other businesses intent on reaching the Latino market. It’s about what you can bring to the table and what could be helpful,” says Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Marin (HCCM) President Cecilia Zamora.
One challenge for Hispanic businesses is navigating the permitting systems and developing business plans. “I think there are certain cultural differences,” says Napa County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (NCHCC) President Gerardo Martin. “You can be an extremely hard worker, but if you don’t know how the rules work around here, it’s going to be very difficult to succeed. We’re able to help them out in that way.”
On the flip side, all businesses that recognize and want to seize the market opportunities presented by the Latino community can bolster their bottom lines in this struggling economy. Chambers are key networking venues for companies seeking to target this customer, as well as those looking for an employee base that mirrors their community’s demographics.
Education is key to success
Educational programs offered by Hispanic chambers can help make the difference between success and failure for many Hispanic-owned businesses. Licensing and permitting processes, business plan preparation, lease negotiation and the legal setup of the business—sole proprietor, LLC and so forth—often differ significantly from those of a person’s original country of inhabitance.
In Napa, NCHCC teams up with the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) to offer monthly meetings and classes that range from marketing to financing and everything in between. Since the SBDC presents most of its programs in English, NCHCC steps up with Spanish translating services. “That’s kind of what the chamber does: help bridge the gaps,” says Martin.
Education is a main focus of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sonoma County (HCCSC), both for its business members and the community’s youth. “We at the chamber believe that, obviously, with business you must have education. They go hand-in-hand,” says Marcos J. Suarez, HCCSC president.
As part of the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Northern Region, HCCSC provides members access to quarterly training meetings on topics such as access to business capital and international trade. It also taps local resources, including the SBDC, the Women’s Initiative for Self Employment and the Community Action Partnership.
“A lot of times, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We can support each other,” says Suarez. “To us, in the end, it’s always about business creation or business development. If we can work together and it’s available, then we can offer that space and be able to bring them more students for these types of workshops.”
The Marin chamber also taps existing resources for its members, partnering with banks and other organizations that offer training workshops for business professionals. One of its projects is to develop a Hispanic Business Leadership program with Dominican University of California.
“We haven’t quite got it off the ground, but it’s based on building a cohort of business professionals who can learn and increase their leadership skills,” says Zamora.
NCHCC bridges a gap
What makes the Napa County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce different from traditional chambers? Gerardo Martin gets that question a lot.
“We’re a bridge between the people who want to get some help for their businesses from a chamber but aren’t quite ready to join the municipal chamber,” he says.
Napa is home to a large Latino population, Martin adds, and many Latino-owned businesses belong to both municipal chambers and the NCCHC. “But there’s a huge population of people who’d probably never join [the municipal chamber]. Whether it’s because of a language barrier or they’re just not comfortable, they’d never join and take advantage of the benefits a regular chamber has," Martin says.
Martin, a financial adviser for Waddell & Reed in Napa Valley, became involved in the chamber about three years ago and has been president since June 2009. Since that time, the chamber has developed an executive board and added a couple of membership directors to get some legs under the group and grow the organization.
“We have a lot of very dynamic people who were willing to help. It’s all run by volunteers. There’s no paid staff on the board,” says Martin. “People are busy running their own businesses, but they’re willing to help for the cause.”
The NCHCC counts about 75 to 80 members and is growing monthly, Martin says. Membership runs the gamut from wineries and insurance agencies to restaurants and retail shops. It includes both Hispanic-owned businesses and businesses looking to tap into the Hispanic consumer base. Mixers are held monthly and membership for a business with less than 10 employees typically runs about $100 annually.
Last July, the NCHCC launched its first annual Award and Recognition Gala to recognize eight Latino businesses that “paved the road that let some of us be in business,” says Martin. Honorees included Gustavo Brambila from Gustavo Thrace Winery, who will be honored at the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Northern Region’s Hispanic Business Salute this spring.
“We have a strong board and we continue to grow. We’re looking for businesses that want to be a part of something new, something different,’ says Martin. “We’re very excited about the future of the chamber.”
Sonoma impacts youth
A group of Latino leaders formed the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Sonoma County in 1987. It typically numbers about 400 members but the economy has taken its toll and membership currently sits at about 300. Monthly networking mixers are hosted by members and attract between 80 and 120 guests, including public officials.
“We feel that Hispanic consumers and businesses are going to play an important role in bringing us out of this economic downturn,” says Suarez.
Membership includes both Latino and non-Latino businesspeople. And as immigrant families have set down roots in the county and begun to take advantage of educational opportunities, membership has grown to include engineers, physicians and winery and vineyard managers, as well as smaller stores and service operations.
“We’re very diverse. Our membership ranges from nonprofit to big business,” says Suarez. “We don’t turn anybody away. We feel that when you look at things from the macroeconomic standpoint, everybody’s a consumer.”
Suarez, chamber president since January 2011, is an account manager with Telemundo and has served on the chamber board for about seven years. The chamber works to educate the local business community about the potential of the Hispanic market and helps businesses navigate and understand that market, he says.
“What are you doing about marketing to the Hispanic consumer? Are you spending some time there? Because that market can really make a difference between keeping your doors open and not keeping them open.”
The chamber is especially proud of its scholarship program, which has awarded funds to promising Latino high school students since 1989. It typically gives $10,000 annually, but last year a $20,000 grant from the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco enabled the chamber to distribute $30,000.
The organization also presents college application and financial aid workshops in Spanish, which have attracted audiences of 300-plus. The workshops are geared toward parents of high school students, who may not feel comfortable participating in the workshops available through the schools because of the language barrier.
In other educational outreach endeavors, for the past three years, Executive Director Donna Zapata has spearheaded a leadership forum for chamber members and local high school and college students. The 10-week course features weekly presentations on topics ranging from history and demographics to local government, volunteerism, media and local history. A grant from the California Hispanic Chamber helped fund this year’s program, along with additional funding from PG&E, State Farm and the Ernest Bates Foundation.
The chamber also hosts an annual business expo and, in 2011, expanded it to include a job fair, with employers such as Hansel Auto and Target in attendance. Hansel wanted to add at least two bilingual salespeople at each of its dealerships, says Suarez.
“We’re really trying to educate the business community. I think sometimes there’s a lack of understanding that the Hispanic market outspends the general market just because of the vast amount of the population that’s out there and its purchasing power,” says Suarez.
Marin broadens its reach
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Marin celebrates is 20th anniversary this year. Membership numbers fluctuate between 180 and 215, a significant increase from the 40 or 50 it averaged during its first decade.
“In Marin County, because our numbers are so different, there was really never what I call ‘critical mass’ to have a large membership if you’re just focusing on Hispanic business owners,” says chamber President Cecilia Zamora, who’s also the executive director of the Latino Council of Marin (a nonprofit organization that helps businesses, government agencies, service providers, community organizations and others work more effectively with the Latino community).
To grow the organization, the chamber increased its targeted focus from just Hispanic business owners to five different areas: the Hispanic business owner; Latino professionals in the community; companies with large Latino/Hispanic employee bases; companies with Hispanics in senior management positions; and organizations looking to reach out to the Latino consumer.
“When we did that, we found there was a lot of interest in joining the Hispanic chamber to network, find new business contacts, increase marketing opportunities and maybe recruit new staff while you’re in that network,” says Zamora.
The nonprofit sector is also interested in playing a larger role in the organization as it seeks to build relationships and diversify its own board memberships.
The needs of HCCM members often differ from those of municipal chambers and can include issues such as translation, internships with Latino youth and marketing and outreach needs. The Hispanic chamber can step in to provide help. The HCCM is also the only countywide chamber in Marin and benefits from solid relationships with the individual municipal chambers.
“I’ll get a call from the San Rafael or Mill Valley chamber saying, ‘We have this new member and it’s a Latino-owned business, and I told them to give you a call,’” says Zamora. “I think the difference is we can offer them something the other chambers won’t have. And that’s the cultural piece: networking and increasing their networks within the community combined with the ability to bring issues to the table that aren’t necessarily addressed by a general chamber.”
Although Zamora sees an increase in Hispanic-owned retail shops and restaurants, she finds more noticeable growth in entrepreneurial professionals and paraprofessionals. The Latino community is venturing into consultant positions and home-based businesses, she says. “It’s not just going to be a storefront. It’s going to be a CPA, designer or a website developer.”
Several factors could be behind this development, including the economic downturn motivating projects such as the Canal Alliance’s Sustainable Business Center and the Women’s Initiative, which enables low-income individuals to see entrepreneurship as a viable career path. Additionally, business owners don’t need to be documented because the individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) provides an answer to tax liability issues, Zamora says.
“The government encourages small business ownership no matter who you are. It puts you on another track,” Zamora says. “You’ll see businesses that are starting and becoming viable. The person who owns them may not be a documented citizen, but he or she is licensed and paying taxes, which puts them on that path.”
Building success one party at a time
Susy Espinoza and her husband, Cedric Hernandez, opened Celebracion Bridal & Tuxedo on San Rafael’s Fourth Street about six years ago. She joined the HCCM more than four years ago and has been a board member for about a year. She’s also a member of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce.
“Susy is a good example of someone who went out, got her education and then came back to the community,” says Zamora.
“I noticed that we’re a growing population, and I wanted to belong to a group that would help us come together as a community,” she says. “There are a lot of Hispanic business owners who tend to just be on their own. There’s no centralized place where they can go and network.”
Espinoza grew up in Marin. After college, she returned to the county where the couple purchased a home and opened the store. Celebracion mostly catered to the Hispanic population with quinceañera celebrations, but has broadened its reach to target the entire community.
Just as the business launched with small items and graduated to dresses, ball gowns and tuxedos, its customer base has expanded and the event scope has grown to include most special events, such as weddings, baptisms, first communions, proms and graduations.
“[The Hispanic chamber] is an important group to be part of,” says Espinoza. “I find it to be very informative; it keeps you connected. I think it’s a good place to be connected. You get to network with a lot of different people with different backgrounds who are interested in the Hispanic community. It’s a good group.”
The North Bay’s Hispanic population is growing rapidly, and there’s enormous potential in this market for all businesses—from small Hispanic-owned shops to corporations like Comcast and Home Depot—and targeting the sector can make a big difference in a company’s bottom line, especially in this economy.
Hispanic Chambers of Commerce are a good place to start.
Buena suerte!
Wells Fargo Offers Support
In August 2011, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo & Co. made a $150,000 donation to the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce (CAHCC); $100,000 will be used to build capacity at the chamber and $50,000 will benefit the CAHCC’s stimulus program.
