Business Plans
for Hispanic
Community Businesses
Should your business be based in
the Spanish speaking communities of the United States, you are nearly home free.
Add a cross-culture Advisory Board, incorporate your business, and formalize any
outstanding small business loans -- you're on your way. (See Minority
Business Loans for an outline of these steps.)
For a particularly outstanding
presentation, create an online
business plan to knock their socks off.
With all of that on your side, you
will be well on your way to getting that loan.
Non-Hispanic
Community Businesses Need a More Dynamic Approach
When your business is not centered
on the Latino community, you have all the challenges of any other person
writing a business plan -- but more so.
Your presentation must be better.
Your idea must be more original.
Your goals must be more do-able.
If you are offering collateral for
your loan, it will likely have to be more collateral than non-Hispanic business
owners would offer.
I wish I could tell you
differently. But I can't.
Overcoming
Prejudice
For the fairest treatment, pursue
the SBA angle if you can.
Work your business network. Find
out if there is a bank in your area that prides itself in its relationship with
the Latino community. Find "your" banker in that institution (and he
need not necessarily be Hispanic himself -- in fact, he could likely be a she).
Unfortunately, there is the
unspoken prejudice that you must overcome: the perception that Hispanics are
lazy. I have worked with enough Hispanics to know that it ain't necessarily so,
but many others haven't. Take particular care in all of your presentations --
the business plan, your online business plan, and any presentation of your
accomplishments -- to clearly demonstrate that you possess every bit as much
ambition and energy and dedication as any other entrepreneur.
The prejudice against Hispanic
entrepreneurs is on a personal level. But, because it is personal, it can be
overcome, one by one.
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