Recent estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau emphasize the importance of Latino-owned business in the United States.
Although Latinos still make up a relatively small share of the total business in the United States, compared to non-Latinos, the number of Latino-owned business is growing relatively quickly. The number of Latino-owned businesses increased by 46.3 percent from 2.3 million to 3.3 million in the five years between 2007 to 2012. The total number of all U.S. firms increased at a relatively the slow rate of 2 percent during the same period, from 27.1 million to 27.6 million. Hence, if not for Latino-owned businesses, the total number of U.S. firms may have decreased over that time period. The Latino-owned business receipt growth rate similarly outpaced that of all firms, with an increase of 35.1 percent from $350.7 to $473.6 billion, compared to 11.7 percent growth from $30.0 to $33.5 trillion for all firms.
Reaching out to your Latino community members when discussing any economic development planning or entrepreneurial gardening is essential. Most importantly, reaching out is essential because you should always be sure to include a diverse and representative group in these efforts to maximize buy-in and productive contributions to the process. But reaching out is also important because failing to make an effort to invite your Latino community members will simply exclude a large portion of your small business owners.
See the link below to read the Census’s post:
http://blogs.census.gov/2016/12/01/hispanic-owned-businesses-on-the-upswing/