The American Dream is alive and well, thanks in no small part to one specific segment of the population. Whether striking out on their own or joining a franchise opportunity, such as retail, fast food, life insurance, or others, the Hispanic business owner has become a powerful presence in the U.S. economy. In fact, Hispanic businesses are growing at a historical level.
How Are Hispanic Business Owners Making a Difference?
The 2021 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report (SOLE) by the Latino Based Action Network (LBAN) and the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI) shows the dramatic effect of Hispanic business owners on the economy as the country continues to adjust to a post-pandemic business landscape. Highlights from the report include:
- Hispanic businesses have grown by 44% over the last ten years, compared to just 4% for Non-Hispanic owned businesses.
- A projected 400,000 Latino-owned businesses will be responsible for job creation in 2022.
- While the most significant presence is in food services, the growth of the Hispanic-owned business sector is spread across all industries.
- 94% of Hispanics say they were satisfied with their jobs in the insurance business
For comprehensive lists of Hispanic-owned businesses, check out this recent article from NBCNews.com. From that collection, you’ll notice the variety of industries where the Latino population has built a significant presence.
A Continuing Disparity in Funding
While it’s encouraging to see the growth of Hispanic businesses occurring at such a steady rate across America, there remains a disparity that needs to be addressed.
For whatever reason, financial institutions have displayed more reluctance to loan money to Hispanic business owners. The same report that showed promising growth and the impact of the Latino population also stated, “Only 20 percent of Latino-owned businesses that applied for national bank loans over $100,000 obtained funding, compared to 50 percent of white-owned businesses. When looking at loans of all sizes, the percentages change, but not the gap: among Latinos, 51 percent received loans versus 77 percent for whites.”
This disparity in funding should not be allowed to continue. Latino entrepreneurs now need to make their presence felt by building even better businesses. This can be done in one of two ways: go it alone or have the power of a franchise to back you.
To Be or Not to Be (A Franchisee)?
The first path is to go it alone. Of course, there are pros and cons to such an endeavor. The biggest advantage to starting and running your own business is that you are the boss. Ultimately, the customer always has the final say in whether or not you’ll be successful, but in this scenario, you have no corporate presence to answer to.
Oddly enough, that advantage is also a disadvantage. With no corporate presence to answer to, you also have nobody to lean on when times get tough. More than that, buying a franchise is essentially acquiring the keys to an already successful brand. You have the power of a proven product behind you, with a successful training program, a solid supply chain, and expert technical support.
Latino Franchises have also been shown to have disproportionately better success rates than people who choose to go it alone. In the best-case scenario, you can—under most conditions‚ run a successful franchise for thirty years with a clear exit plan. When you’re ready to retire, you just turn the keys over to a younger version of yourself—someone looking to run a business with a well-established track record.
By the way, franchise owners still take pride in being the boss. Most businesses delegate key decision-making to the franchisee, only getting involved when they absolutely must.
If you want to fulfill your version of the American Dream, we want to help you get started with a Freeway Insurance Franchise. Contact us today at (877) 822-3024 or fill out our quick and easy online form. A member of our expert support team will get back to you about adding another expertly run Latino-owned business to the evolving U.S. economy!
Sources:
Hair, Neil, and Cazares, Arturo, “New State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report Shows Strong Growth in Tech Sector,” www.forbes.com, April 14, 2022
Godio, Mili, and Malin, Zoe, and Reman, Justin, “70+ Latino-Owned Businesses to Support in 2021 and Beyond,” www.nbcnews.com, October 15, 2021
