As Hispanic Heritage Month comes to a close, Next Street wanted to live into our Small Business First value and recognize the contributions of Hispanic small businesses. In communities of color across the country, entrepreneurship is perhaps the most powerful economic mobility tool. Hispanic business owners represent 14.5% of all businesses. They are one of the fastest growing sectors of the small business economy with 82% of all startups being launched by Hispanics, which is three times the national average. We’re highlighting Hispanic small businesses to showcase their pivotal role in shaping the broader economy.
One key segment among successful Hispanic small businesses is the family business. To better understand the keys to their success, we sat down with two multigenerational small businesses in one of Next Street’s key markets, Los Angeles County: Adriana Cortes of Delicious at the Dunbar and Rafael Ortiz Jr. of Ortiz Jr. Auto Repair.
While much is written about the myriad challenges faced by Hispanics and other entrepreneurs of color, we do not spend enough time understanding and appreciating how they leverage their identity to set goals for and operate their businesses. Thus, we focused our conversations on how these entrepreneurs have used their racial identity as well as all of the other identities they possess as assets in their entrepreneurial journey. Several themes from the conversations emerged around community building, wealth creation, and quality jobs, which are important aspects of why small businesses are critical in both the economy and in transforming local ecosystems.
The powerful testimonies of these two entrepreneurs demonstrate how the entrepreneurial spirit is transforming communities and why it’s important to continue uplifting and supporting small businesses, particularly those owned by Hispanics and other People of Color. Please check out highlights from our incredible conversations below.
Identity as an Asset
Meet the Entrepreneurs
On how identity informs how you run your business
Adriana: Having been an employee for so many years, it gives us a perspective on what our employees want and need – job security, a livable wage. We don’t run like a McDonald’s that offers 2- or 3-hour shifts. Our employees are looking to not have three jobs, so we try to offer them full-time if that’s what they seek, even if that means us rattling our brains to work out schedules. My mother, you know, she worked while having two children, so we understand female employees wanting morning shifts because they need to pick their children up from school and take care of them while the husband possibly takes a night shifts. Things like that are things that I, as a business owner, understand because I’ve lived them.
Rafael: Being a Latino mechanic in South L.A., I think that my identity plays a huge role, whether its in setting a goal or running the business because our community is about hard work, resilience, ethics, family and simply helping each other. I’ve always been an advocate of building strong, lasting relationships with not only my customers, but with our community.
On being a multi-generational business owner
Rafael: I am a second generation business owner. It’s been a fun journey, and we’re going to continue to grow and continue to make change and despite everything that we’ve been through, we’re still positive. It’s been a long time journey to get funding to be able to complete our project, but I’m personally just excited to begin the next chapter of Rafael Ortiz Junior Auto Repair. I call it a 2.0 version because it’s now more like my version of it. I’m just excited.
Adriana: My father asked me “Mija, would you open this up with me?” I had just finished school and was working at a nonprofit, but I said “yeah.” I didn’t really think much about it, honestly. It was a no brainer for me. It was, for one, to find financial security for my family, but also a way to give back to my parents who have given up so much for me, and to help my father with his own dreams.
Want to hear more? Watch Adriana’s full interview or read the transcript here, and watch Rafael’s full interview and read the transcript here.
Acknowledgements: We want to thank our partner, Vermont Slauson Economic Development Corporation for introducing us to these remarkable entrepreneurs. Vermont Slauson is a founding member of the Get in the Game Coalition. For more details about Get in the Game, click here or read our Los Angeles Times Op-ed.