Business owner Karla Leon displays cupcakes and cookies on the counter before opening for business at A Thing Called Cake in Brawley on Tuesday. (JOSELITO VILLERO PHOTO) |
Even though her previous job provided plenty of opportunities to use her talents, Brawley resident Karla Leon said she nonetheless tired of her career after 12 years. It became apparent she needed a change.
Something of an artist and a good cook, Leon said the new career path she would settle on wasn’t exactly her choosing.
Using some of the money she had made over the past two years baking custom cakes and edibles for family and friends, Leon would open the doors of her one-woman baking operation, A Thing Called Cake, late last year in Brawley.
“Everybody that I know said that I should open my own place,” Leon said.
And while in the past Leon’s “hobby” had kept her busy about every other weekend, she is now working on a daily basis. Leon said she hopes her entrepreneurial venture grows to the point where she is forced to hire help to keep up with demand. Her children, who are too young to work, have already expressed an interest in joining their mother at her custom cake shop.
“Hopefully it ends up being a family business,” Leon said.
While such a venture may entail considerable risk at a time when consumers aren’t spending with the confidence of years past, across America the number of Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 43 percent between 2002 and 2007, more than double the national rate of 18 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the Valley, 52 percent of the area’s nearly 3,000 nonfarm businesses were owned by Hispanics in 2007, compared to 16 percent for the state and 8 percent across America, the bureau reported.
While the percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses in the Valley may not mirror the percentage of its Hispanic population, the difference is not entirely surprising, said Julian Canete, president and chief executive officer of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.
Limited access and availability to capital and equity as well as technical assistance to help understand the process of opening a business may also be preventing many local Latinos from going into business for themselves, Canete said.
“The days of opening your door and putting up a shingle are gone,” he said.
The chamber has seen significant growth in Hispanic-owned businesses in the state in recent years, Canete said, noting that the majority of these enterprises would be characterized as small businesses.
It is not uncommon for someone who had recently been laid off from a job to strike out for themselves, Canete said.
“Latinos are very entrepreneurial by nature,” Canete said.
Local business owners that do succeed in the down economy often possess something lacking in their peers, said Aaron Popejoy, Imperial County Joint Chambers of Commerce chairman. A common trait of successful entrepreneurs is to grasp at opportunities when they present themselves and “command their way through.”
“They have leadership mentality,” Popejoy said. “They are not thinking of what they can’t do, but what they can do.”
Max Castillo said he credits his parents for cultivating a strong work ethic within their children. As a child Castillo had to perform a lot of work around the family farm and it shaped the type of person he would eventually become, he said.
By the time a person reaches the age of 15 or 16 they should have amassed more marketable skills than their parents had possessed at that age, Castillo said.
“That’s why we are where we are,” Castillo said. “Youths don’t have core values, they blame others when they never get where they want to be.”
Aside from farm work, the 71-year-old Castillo said he also once was a teenage bartender at the Barbara Worth Country Club.
Eventually Castillo would leverage the knowledge and contacts he accumulated during his stint in the title and insurance sales to branch out on his own, he said. What started out a one-man subcontracting operation has blossomed and allowed the family to support other business endeavors, Castillo, owner and founder of Castillo Construction Co. in El Centro, said.
After having previously worked with family members at another business, Elpidia Torres said her husband decided to open his own tire and wheel business in El Centro.
While the down economy has produced a drop in sales at Valley Tire & Wheel Inc., Torres said, they don’t regret the decision to open their own business.
And although one of their sons occasionally helps out around the shop on the weekends, that son is studying law in Mexico and is unlikely to stay with the family business indefinitely, Torres said.
The likelihood that children will follow parents into the family business is fairly low, Popejoy said. The family-owned businesses that can successfully grow tend to be a little larger.
The California Hispanic Chambers estimates 650,000 businesses in the state are Hispanic-owned.
Noting that small businesses supply a vast majority of the nation’s job growth, the state could see “phenomenal growth” if each of these businesses were to add just a single employee, Canete said.
Staff Writer, Copy Editor Julio Morales can be reached at 760-335-4665 or at jmorales@ivpressonline.com.
Something of an artist and a good cook, Leon said the new career path she would settle on wasn’t exactly her choosing.
Using some of the money she had made over the past two years baking custom cakes and edibles for family and friends, Leon would open the doors of her one-woman baking operation, A Thing Called Cake, late last year in Brawley.
“Everybody that I know said that I should open my own place,” Leon said.
And while in the past Leon’s “hobby” had kept her busy about every other weekend, she is now working on a daily basis. Leon said she hopes her entrepreneurial venture grows to the point where she is forced to hire help to keep up with demand. Her children, who are too young to work, have already expressed an interest in joining their mother at her custom cake shop.
“Hopefully it ends up being a family business,” Leon said.
While such a venture may entail considerable risk at a time when consumers aren’t spending with the confidence of years past, across America the number of Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 43 percent between 2002 and 2007, more than double the national rate of 18 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In the Valley, 52 percent of the area’s nearly 3,000 nonfarm businesses were owned by Hispanics in 2007, compared to 16 percent for the state and 8 percent across America, the bureau reported.
While the percentage of Hispanic-owned businesses in the Valley may not mirror the percentage of its Hispanic population, the difference is not entirely surprising, said Julian Canete, president and chief executive officer of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.
Limited access and availability to capital and equity as well as technical assistance to help understand the process of opening a business may also be preventing many local Latinos from going into business for themselves, Canete said.
“The days of opening your door and putting up a shingle are gone,” he said.
The chamber has seen significant growth in Hispanic-owned businesses in the state in recent years, Canete said, noting that the majority of these enterprises would be characterized as small businesses.
It is not uncommon for someone who had recently been laid off from a job to strike out for themselves, Canete said.
“Latinos are very entrepreneurial by nature,” Canete said.
Local business owners that do succeed in the down economy often possess something lacking in their peers, said Aaron Popejoy, Imperial County Joint Chambers of Commerce chairman. A common trait of successful entrepreneurs is to grasp at opportunities when they present themselves and “command their way through.”
“They have leadership mentality,” Popejoy said. “They are not thinking of what they can’t do, but what they can do.”
Max Castillo said he credits his parents for cultivating a strong work ethic within their children. As a child Castillo had to perform a lot of work around the family farm and it shaped the type of person he would eventually become, he said.
By the time a person reaches the age of 15 or 16 they should have amassed more marketable skills than their parents had possessed at that age, Castillo said.
“That’s why we are where we are,” Castillo said. “Youths don’t have core values, they blame others when they never get where they want to be.”
Aside from farm work, the 71-year-old Castillo said he also once was a teenage bartender at the Barbara Worth Country Club.
Eventually Castillo would leverage the knowledge and contacts he accumulated during his stint in the title and insurance sales to branch out on his own, he said. What started out a one-man subcontracting operation has blossomed and allowed the family to support other business endeavors, Castillo, owner and founder of Castillo Construction Co. in El Centro, said.
After having previously worked with family members at another business, Elpidia Torres said her husband decided to open his own tire and wheel business in El Centro.
While the down economy has produced a drop in sales at Valley Tire & Wheel Inc., Torres said, they don’t regret the decision to open their own business.
And although one of their sons occasionally helps out around the shop on the weekends, that son is studying law in Mexico and is unlikely to stay with the family business indefinitely, Torres said.
The likelihood that children will follow parents into the family business is fairly low, Popejoy said. The family-owned businesses that can successfully grow tend to be a little larger.
The California Hispanic Chambers estimates 650,000 businesses in the state are Hispanic-owned.
Noting that small businesses supply a vast majority of the nation’s job growth, the state could see “phenomenal growth” if each of these businesses were to add just a single employee, Canete said.
Staff Writer, Copy Editor Julio Morales can be reached at 760-335-4665 or at jmorales@ivpressonline.com.
