A new study shows that the Rochester faces challenges when it comes to Hispanic employment and entrepreneurship.
The study comes from the financial website, wallethub.com. It shows that Rochester had among the lowest numbers for cities in the U.S. when it came to Hispanic employment, and was also near the bottom of the list of cities that are business-friendly for Hispanic entrepreneurs.
Julio Saenz is the Chief Communications and Development officer for the Ibero American Action League in Rochester.
He said that success for Hispanic entrepreneurs is tied to the creation of jobs in Hispanic neighborhoods. And he said that Ibero is providing help to new entrepreneurs who want to come up with a business plan.
“If you don’t have the right plan, if you don’t have the right expertise, then that’s going to create all kinds of potential pitfalls for even the best idea to fail,” Saenz said.
He noted that national numbers show that Hispanics create businesses at 15 times the national rate, and other cities are getting a big economic boost from the Hispanic community.
Ibero has an investors program that has helped local entrepreneurs get started.
“We have some new funding we’re using to give loans to small businesses and then we are running these free entrepreneurial classes starting the 13th of May and it’s a huge focus for us. It’s a great way for us to help these neighborhoods stabilize and grow and become economically self sufficient,” Saenz explained.
Ibero offers programs that cover areas like writing a business plan, understanding the competition and dealing with financing.
