Hispanic entrepreneurs target English-speaking consumers

RUSSELLVILLE - Pedro Cotoc opened his barbershop two years ago in a micro-strip mall, his shop sandwiched between an alcoholic recovery center and an on-again, off-again store.

Cotoc, who speaks halting English, said 99 percent of his clientele is Hispanic and his business card is in Spanish.

Unlike restaurants and grocers, hair is universal, Cotoc said, even if the language spoken by the shop's owner is Spanish.

When asked whether he wanted to tap into the larger non-Hispanic market, after a few false starts in understanding, Cotoc's face lit up, he smiled and said, "Ya, I like!"

As Hispanic residents switch from employees to entrepreneurs, the new business owners not only want to tap into their Hispanic customer base, but cross over into the larger population.

The move is one rife with challenges, including language barriers and products unfamiliar to non-Hispanic consumers. Of the 200 members of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, only two are Hispanic-owned businesses, according to chamber records.

Large multinational companies and marketing firms have focused their efforts on getting a slice of the growing Hispanic consumer segment, but at the local level, the push is for minority Hispanic businesses to get a slice of the larger pie.

Though millions of marketing dollars have been spent in getting Hispanic customers to buy from large English-language corporations, little research has been done in the opposite direction.

"Most marketing looks at the Hispanic community as consumers,

not as marketers," said Arnoldo Mata, director of research at the Hispanic Institute, a nonprofit research firm that specializes in the Hispanic market.

In 2002, businesses with Hispanic owners numbered 199,542, according to the U.S. Census Survey of Business Owners. Results from the next survey, taken every five years, are expected in September.

Although the number of businesses decreased 6 percent compared with the 1997 survey, the number of employees in Hispanic-owned businesses rose 11 percent to

1.5 million and annual sales increased 13 percent to $180 million.

Hispanic businesses are only expected to grow, as immigrants tend to start businesses 30 percent more frequently than non-immigrants, according to the Small Business Administration, a federal advocacy agency.

Mexican immigrants were 2.22 percent of all U.S. businesses started from owners who emigrated from south of the border, according to 2000 U.S. Census data. Next in order, less than 1 percent of businesses owners are residents of Korean descent.

Cotoc is part of the second wave of Hispanic entrepreneurs across Franklin County. The first wave, attracted mainly by the chicken processing plant in the mid-1990s, focused on ethnic foods that workers missed from back home. But as the community became established and the food market saturated, budding Hispanic business owners are now branching out into non-ethnic markets, including barber shops, tax preparation and weight management.

The community remains in transition as several business owners, including Cotoc, don't speak English well enough to tap into the majority market.

When asked how English-only customers could overcome the language barriers, he said, "You could have a translator."

Pressed to explain whether customers should bring a translator to their hair appointment, Cotoc said, "No, it's not totally reasonable."

Next door, Angelica Garcia opened a franchise of Herbalife, a company focused on nutrition and weight loss.

Garcia speaks no English, but said she has a few non-Hispanic customers who may be familiar with the nutritional supplement brands.

She hits the streets, handing out bilingual cards provided by Herbalife. "I give my card more to Hispanics, because with English speakers, I can't talk a lot," she said in

Spanish.

If she encounters an interested English-speaking client, she said, "I call someone who can interpret."

That language barrier may be detrimental to business.

"If they expect to have any kind of business in the local community, they will have to adapt, they will have to have a staff member who knows English or they will have to pick up the language themselves," Mata said. "If they don't have a certain amount of English skills, it will be extremely difficult to be successful."

Limited research shows that successful Hispanic businesses adapt their products to the larger market and have all information available in English.

One case is Pizza Patron, a "Latin pizza brand" that uses word-of-mouth marketing in the Hispanic community and English language advertising in the non-Hispanic community, according to Andy Gamm, brand director.

The restaurant, based in Dallas, combines familiar American fare - pizza - with more Latin flavors including chorizo and jalapeno pizza toppings along with lime and pepper wings and churros for dessert.

"It can be challenging marketing in the other direction," Gamm said. "For us, it's pretty easy because we sell traditional American-style pizza."

Trevor Stokes can be reached at 740-5728 or trevor.stokes@TimesDaily.com.