November 4-10, 2004

cityspace

Comercial 101

by Cory Frolik

Five years ago, Dora Rueda and her husband moved to Philadelphia from Honduras in search of the American Dream. In their case, it materialized in the form of a house-cleaning business. But arriving with aspirations doesn't make them happen. Luckily for Rueda, however, she learned of the Empowerment Group, a North Philadelphia nonprofit that helps Latino entrepreneurs get their businesses up and running.

"I couldn't have done it without them," Rueda says.

When trying to launch the businesses of their dreams, entrepreneurs of any race or gender know they're in for an uphill battle. For Latinos, however, the experience can even be more daunting.

Not only are there language barriers with which to grapple, there are no IKEA instructions to help them navigate the work involved in filling out the proper forms and orchestrating the technical aspects. In many ways, the paperwork is riddled with haikus of legality, making for a truly intimidating experience.

In Philadelphia, this is especially true in the Latino sections of Kensington, a neighborhood with a median family income of $12,000. There, Executive Director Sylvie Gallier's group, located at 2111 N. Front St., offers free services and classes designed to help aspiring Latino business owners.

To date, EG has culled funding largely from the city's Office of Community Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which gave $350,000 in 2002. They hope to get more state and federal funds to help continue an effort in which participants take classes ranging from economic analysis to advertising. On Thursday nights, Gallier assumes the role of marketing instructor.

"We focused on Latinos as our niche because no one else was doing it," she says.

EG takes a "Teach a man to fish" approach. They don't do the work of others, but rather show entrepreneurs how to do everything themselves. By making the marketing "students" examine how they respond to various advertisements, they see how some marketing tools affect a consumer's inclination to buy a certain product.

"[It] is hands-on instead of theoretical," says Gallier, who has seven marketing students. "A lot of the people we work with have not had the education to build these kind of skills. Latino entrepreneurs are frightened of the legal aspect of starting a business. Most countries don't have a complicated process to start a business."

Gallier aims to have about 150 students next year, which doesn't seem all that difficult considering that Latinos are one of the fastest growing demographics in the city. (Currently, about 8.5 percent of the city population is Latino.)

"It's really hard to get to that dream without help," says Rueda. "Especially for Latinos."