Rompiendo Barreras

American Demographics, Nov 1, 2003

Byline: Mark Fitzgerald

Corporate executives looking to contract a janitorial service used to be taken aback when Elizabeth Gonzalez-Gann walked through the door with her bid. She could read their thoughts: A Latina might be fine for cleaning the house, but janitorial work was for men. But things have changed and nowadays, corporations seek her out. This child of migrant farm workers, who grew up laboring in the fields of California, is founder and CEO of Jan-Co Janitorial, a Tucson, Ariz. firm that now has 65 employees, an average $747,283 in annual revenues and contracts to service facilities ranging from government offices to the stadium where the Colorado Rockies have their spring training camp.

"I did not start with a business plan at all when I began 16 years ago," Gonzalez-Gann confesses. In fact, much of the firm's startup funds came from her personal credit cards. But now, at age 47, she and her brother, whom she took on as a partner in Jan-Co's second year, are thinking about the very long-term future of the business. "We're looking and saying, 'Where do we want to take this? Do we hand it over to the family? Do we want to sell it?' It's a big question, and we have actually only started to think about it."

It's a question not only for the increasing numbers of Latina entrepreneurs who are Boomers, but also for banks, accounting firms, insurance brokers and other financial service providers. Mainstream corporations were almost entirely absent during the surge in startups of women-owned businesses in the Hispanic community. Now that these women and their businesses are maturing, the issue is whether corporations will also miss out on the many marketing opportunities as Latinas seek first to grow their businesses faster, and then to transfer them to the next generation.

But this market won't just fall into the laps of financial services marketers, and those who want to pursue it in the decade ahead had better start now, warns Barbara J. Robles, a professor and researcher at the University of Texas at Austin who specializes in the financing of Hispanic enterprises. "It requires a lot of time investment and long-range investments, and corporate America is not real keen on those kind of outlays," she says. There are also knotty cultural issues to navigate, she and other experts say. But there's a big payoff if companies do it right. Robles adds, "The Latino population is very brand-loyal. Look at brands like Colgate-Palmolive, which Latinos are completely devoted to - corporations would kill to have that kind of loyalty."

DATA POINTS

The businesses built by Boomer Latina entrepreneurs are worth the trouble, researchers say. Latinas control just 8 percent of all women-owned businesses, but no segment of that market is growing faster. Between 1987 and 1996, Latina-owned businesses grew 206 percent, compared with 47 percent for all businesses, according to a 2000 study by the Center for Women's Business Research in Washington, D.C. As of last year, the center estimates, Latinas owned or controlled 470,344 firms, employing nearly 198,000 people and generating $29.4 billion in sales. Already, Latina-owned businesses account for the greatest share of women-owned firms in six states: New Mexico (20 percent share), Texas (18 percent), California (17 percent), Florida (16 percent), New York (14 percent) and Arizona (13 percent).

Latinas aren't just building businesses fast they are building them big. "There's a myth that Latinas are only in food service or accommodations - just small businesses. Well, our studies are myth-busters," says Sharon Hadary, the center's executive director. Just 4 percent of Latina businesses involved accommodations or food service, she notes, while 10 percent of Latina entrepreneurs ran construction companies. The increases in Latina businesses are especially striking in enterprises that have traditionally been dominated by males: up 428 percent in construction, 389 percent in agriculture and 338 percent in wholesaling. The range of businesses now owned by Latinas was reflected by the women entrepreneurs honored in the fall of 2002 by the Los Angeles-based Latin Business Association: Belinda Guadarrama, the president and CEO of GC Micro Corp., a computer hardware and software reseller with annual revenues of $35 million; Concepcion M. Powell, president and CEO of CPS National, Inc., a pharmaceutical distribution company and Irene V. Ibarra, the president of O&I Incorporated, an acquisition and relocation consulting firm.

Who is this new Latina entrepreneur? For one thing, she's grayer than the Hispanic population at large; Boomers definitely dominate among women business owners. While the median age of the U.S. Latino population is nearly 10 years younger than the entire population - 25.9 years compared with 35.3 years, according to the 2000 census - Latina entrepreneurs in 2000 were, on average, 48 years old, with 42 percent in the prime Boomer years of 45 to 54, and another 15 percent age 55 or older. Latina business owners are also more likely to be married, to have more children and to be less educated than other women entrepreneurs of color. Not surprisingly given their age, Latinas tend to be well-established in their businesses: 38 percent had owned their firms for 10 to 19 years, and another 18 percent had been in business at least 20 years. Just 14 percent of those identified by the Center for Women's Business Research had been operating for 4 years or less.