The Faces of Thriving Small Businesses
Nic Canales, Small Business Owner (Spanish Black Belt)
Benjamin Velasquez, Small Business Owner (Catering by Benjamin)
Alfredo Saettone, Small Business Owner (Alcura, Inc.)
Joanie and Tony Majeed, Small Business Owners (The Mount Pleasant Pharmacy)
The Faces of Stable Housing
Lorena Amaya, Tenant Association President
Laura Bowman Pimentel, First-Time Homeowner
Alexander Escobar, First-Time Homeowner
Jose Ugarte, Homeowner
Nic Canales, Small Business Owner (Spanish Black Belt)
Ask small business owner Nicolas Canales for the central location of his small business, and the answer is simple – he doesn’t have one. Doing business within the technological age of foursquare and Google Maps, he and his staff can be found in bars, coffee shops, homes, offices, and restaurants all across the District of Columbia – not to mention cities including Baltimore, Boston, Denver, and New York.
“I wanted to do something with my life, and I wanted to do something with my Spanish,” Nicolas says. “Who better than a Hispanic who speaks perfect Spanish to help others speak Spanish fluently?”
A student of market demand and consumer preferences, Nicolas epitomizes the nimble small business owner. Quickly able to manage changing circumstances and mindful to actively solicit customer feedback, Nicolas in 2004 launched Spanish Black Belt, a Spanish language institute that is responding to the needs of a globalized economy and a growing clientele looking for ways to start anew or get ahead.
Nicolas’ vision quickly confronted a common challenge facing start-up businesses – a need for capital to increase his small business' capacity to meet market demand. Rejected for a loan from Bank of America, which cited the business’ infancy as one factor for its decision, Nicolas applied in 2006 for a $30,000 micro-loan through the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) to hire two additional part-time teachers to offer more options for students who wanted to learn practical Spanish.
Over the next four years, with LEDC’s guidance and resources, Nicolas established a strong track record of success. Recording a perfect repayment history on his LEDC loan, Nicolas made his final payment in June 2010 – six months ahead of schedule. Nicolas doubled the size of his teaching staff, increased his revenues by 150 percent, and Spanish Black Belt entered new markets including Denver in 2007 and New York in 2008.
When the economic crisis hit, Nicolas swiftly adapted to the new economic environment. Spanish Black Belt withstood a decrease in applications, fewer people electing one-on-one classes, and difficulties retaining staff. By changing parts of his product pricing, increasing the number of cheaper, group classes available, and making plans to increase automation of the application, registration, and enrollment processes, Nicolas created space for his small business to realize the opportunity inherent in the crisis.
"Some people thought, 'I want to continue learning Spanish,'" Nicolas says. "'I want to do this now because there is an opportunity here – this could be the way out of the crisis, to learn a new language.’”
Nicolas’ hard work and intuition has paid off. In May, Spanish Black Belt qualified for a new $50,000 loan from M&T Bank, its first loan guaranteed by the Small Business Administration. Now fielding approximately 1500 applications per year, Nicolas and Spanish Black Belt are on pace to replace lost jobs and possibly expand to new locations next year.
"40 million people speak Spanish in this country, and many are getting better jobs, buying houses, and getting better education ..." Nicolas says. "You will need the skills to understand this new situation, and one of these skills is to speak Spanish.”
Benjamin Velasquez, Small Business Owner (Catering by Benjamin)
“Is the chef there?”
It’s Thursday morning, and a bilingual receptionist at the Carlos Rosario International School in Columbia Heights is on the phone trying to locate executive chef and LEDC client Benjamin Velasquez.
Walking the noisy halls in a chef’s top hat and a crisp, white apron, Benjamin immigrated to Silver Spring, Maryland 27 years ago. Having left his native El Salvador at the age of 19 to escape the perils of civil war, Benjamin’s first days in the United States mirrored those of many first-generation immigrants. His world, he remembers, had been turned “upside down.” Leaving behind his initial ambitions to become a lawyer, Benjamin was hired as a dishwasher in Washington, DC for his first job.
“When you are a dishwasher, you’re all wet, and you don’t know if you’re wet because you’re sweating or because of the water from the pots and pans,” Benjamin says.
After four years as a line cook, front line chef, and kitchen supervisor, Benjamin decided to enroll in a culinary arts school on the weekends while working two full-time jobs during the week. As he learned the art of European and Asian cooking from chefs at international embassies, his work at the Washington Hilton Hotel gave him the unique opportunity to help cook for six American heads of state. These difficult, but rewarding years allowed him to learn about the food of other cultures and develop his specialty – international and European cuisine.
When the Rosemount Center, a bilingual Head Start Center located in Mount Pleasant, offered him the opportunity to cook for their 150 students and 40 teachers as an independent contractor, Benjamin seized the opportunity to obtain the necessary regulatory documents and start his first job as a professional caterer. Shortly thereafter, Benjamin started his own personal catering business, Catering by Benjamin, after years of informal catering for church events in the community.
With the help of a microloan from LEDC in 2009, Benjamin successfully expanded his catering business into the greater DC Latino community. LEDC’s financial assistance helped Benjamin purchase a new cargo van that now helps him transport food from his kitchen space at the Rosemount Center to catering events around town.
“Now I can not only work in an enclosed facility, but I have the capacity to mobilize a whole kitchen from Place A to Place B,” Benjamin says. “[LEDC] always makes you feel welcome.”
While the economic crisis has hurt Benjamin like many others in the service industry, Benjamin is optimistic that the Latino community’s growing interest in professional catering services and the loyalty of his customers will help him during the slower months. In the meantime, as a teacher of 30 culinary art students every year at Carlos Rosario, Benjamin continues to enjoy teaching students in the DC metro area the art of cooking.
“It’s very rewarding when I see my students graduate because they are all immigrants,” Benjamin says. “This work really gives you a lot of satisfaction because you see them grow and work.”
Alfredo Saettone, Small Business Owner (Alcura Inc.)
Ask Alfredo Saettone, general manager of Virginia-based food importer and distributor Alcura, Inc., what he’s learned about operating a small business in the midst of an economic crisis, and he likens the dynamic experience to the art of theorizing versus the art of doing.
"It’s one thing to be in the locker room," Alfredo says. "It’s a whole other thing to be on the field playing."
When Alfredo and his two Peruvian partners formed Alcura in 2005, their vision was to bring 11 products from their homeland to the United States. Alcura specializes in the importation and distribution of quality Latino products including a wide variety of peppers, spicy pastes, tuna, as well as Peruvian candies, snacks, and beverages. Recognizing the growth of the Latino population in the United States, Alfredo and his partners understood that success depended on quality service, competitive prices, and good relationships with prospective clients and food suppliers.
As the economic crisis worsened in 2009 and consumers cut back on on their purchases, Alcura saw its steady sales drop approximately 35 percent as their candies and snacks failed to move off the shelves. Drawing on their strong business relationships, Alfredo moved to shore up Alcura’s position by reaching out to a new supplier of chiles with a good price in California. The only thing he lacked was the capital to seize the opportunity.
Denied credit at his personal bank despite a high credit score and a perfect repayment record on two previous loans with LEDC, Alcura applied for a $5,000 micro-loan from LEDC to help seal the California deal. Alcura used the working capital to creatively respond to changing circumstances - a business strength that helps to explain Alcura's ability to increase sales every year. Although their 2009 sales were below projections, Alcura is poised to succeed in 2010.
“We feel very close to LEDC,” Alfredo says. “They always take the time to listen to our needs and how we can grow as a business in the region.”
Joanie and Tony Majeed, Small Business Owners (The Mount Pleasant Pharmacy)
Almost 30 years ago, the word was out: "If you are coming to the United States from El Salvador, come to Mount Pleasant." As Salvadoran migrants fled civil war to the Village in a City to start anew, many found a small pharmacy ready to meet their everyday needs.
Today, much like the changes experienced over the years by the community in which it resides, the Mount Pleasant Pharmacy has undergone its own transformation. With the help of the Latino Economic Development Corporation’s Small Business Development and Façade Improvement programs, the pharmacy’s new exterior façade and internal merchandising overhaul have strengthened its appeal at a time when area small businesses and residents are working hard to preserve the community’s cultural and economic diversity despite the downturn and nearby gentrification.
"We’ve seen different associations and groups in Mount Pleasant become much more active," says co-owner Joanie Majeed. "They weren’t very functional for a long time, but now, people are more vocal."
The pharmacy’s long history that began on April 18, 1983 on Mount Pleasant Street remains intimately tied to Mount Pleasant’s Latino community. Co-owners Tony and Joanie Majeed developed a strong rapport with the newly arrived Central American migrants, helping many take care of themselves amid lives with limited economic opportunities. Staying open every day of the Mount Pleasant riots in the early 1990s, the pharmacy formed close bonds with generations of families in the area.
When more than 200 residents living in an apartment building just one block away lost their homes in March 2008 due to a massive fire, Tony and Joanie strongly felt the degree to which the displaced tenants, critical to the success of their small business, had become their dear friends.
"What I saw the next day was people sitting on the street, waiting for the police to go in there with black garbage bags and get what they could find of what was left," Joanie recalls. "Many people were sending money home to their countries. It was our neighborhood - we knew all of them."
To stay competitive amid the arrival of the DCUSA Mall in nearby Columbia Heights that same year, the pharmacy worked closely with LEDC staff and a consultant to better organize sale items into 14 categorical zones, introduce impulse and seasonal sale items for shoppers, as well as develop systems to quickly remove items from the shelves that sell poorly in exchange for better-selling items.
LEDC’s Facade Improvement Program replaced the pharmacy’s front plexiglass window with high-quality safety glass and its silver frame door with a bronze aluminum frame that fits better with the feel of the neighborhood. In October, the program installed a new awning and blade sign to raise the visibility of the pharmacy to visitors on foot and drivers coming down Mount Pleasant Road.
"It’s easier for people to find things," Tony says. "It’s more attractive, and people are shopping more as a result."
The winds blowing through Mount Pleasant are changing, Joanie says. Since the fire, a new tenant association has purchased the building to reconstruct and preserve it as affordable housing. The pharmacy, in collaboration with nearby small businesses and civic and business associations, are now working to articulate a common vision for Mount Pleasant’s future.
"A lot of young people are moving in with good jobs downtown, and they’re interested in Mount Pleasant," Joanie says. "It’s still funky enough, not quite gentrified, but slowly moving toward that. I don’t want to see that gone – I want the mix to stay."
Lorena Amaya, Tenant Association President
In 1996, newlywed Lorena Amaya and her husband moved into the Raymond Apartments in Columbia Heights. Having traded civil war in El Salvador in 1986 for pockets of gang violence and jarring loud music from a few floors above her new apartment, she recognized the challenges facing the neighborhood.
Thirteen years later, while much of Columbia Heights has transformed, the conditions at the Raymond Apartments have hardly changed, Lorena says. Lorena and her fellow tenants battled with their landlord to address poor building conditions, including roach and mice infestation, deficient plumbing, and air conditioning problems. The costs of these delayed repairs, Lorena remembers, were often passed down from the landlord to the tenants.
In December 2008, an unexpected turn of events left Lorena and her neighbors with much to gain and potentially everything to lose. They received a letter from the building's owner: "Your building is going to be sold, and as tenants in DC, the law says you have the right to purchase it first." Although many tenants wanted to purchase the building given they had lived there for decades, Lorena realized that they did not have the money to buy it. The District of Columbia's Housing Production Trust Fund, a critical source of financing designed to help tenants purchase buildings, was dry.
Working with LEDC, Lorena took steps to organize a formal tenant association. Lorena attended LEDC's monthly Tenant Leadership Program, learning how to organize meetings, formally register the tenant association, and rally tenants together to collectively lobby for improvements. Months later, she was elected by her peers as tenant association president.
The precarious financial situation facing the tenants also led Lorena to testify before DC's Committee on Housing and Workforce Development in March 2009. Nervous but self-assured, Lorena asked the committee to pursue new funding sources for the trust fund in support of tenant purchase.
"We as an association needed that money," Lorena says. "But we wanted to make sure that if it wasn't there for us, that other low-income families in the future would have that money available."
When a third party expressed interest in purchasing the building, Lorena and the newly-formed tenant association entered into negotiations with the prospective buyer. The tenant association assigned their right to purchase to the third party in return for the new landlord's commitment to limit rent increases for all current tenants; to meet on a quarterly basis with tenants to discuss building services; to fix all housing code violations; and to make other important upgrades to the building.
"Since the tenant association was formed, we definitely know each other better," Lorena says. "The experience definitely brought us together."
Laura Bowman Pimentel, First-Time Homeowner
As the nation recognized June as National Homeownership Month, new homeowners Laura Bowman Pimentel and her husband Wellington are now enjoying the home and community that both in years past feared they might never have been able to provide for their now two-year-old son Benjamin.
Having grown up in a small, insular town in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, Laura moved to the District of Columbia in 2001 before traveling to the Dominican Republic in 2003 as a Peace Corps volunteer. There she met Wellington, who had grown up in the socially rich but poor region of Azua in the southwestern Dominican Republic.
For Laura, their new home represents the realization of a dream after difficult moments of economic hardship that tested her faith in her ability to provide Benjamin with the type of childhood that she had wanted to give to him. For Wellington, a recently arrived immigrant who felt the acute burden of social isolation after moving with Laura from the Dominican Republic in 2005, their new home in the United States represents something he hadn’t actually ever imagined was possible.
“I feel a sense of satisfaction because my son has some of the things that I had growing up that for me seemed like the norm – simple things like my own backyard, my own room,” Laura says. “For my husband, to see his son have things that he never had, it’s even more satisfying for him.”
Laura and Wellington seized their chance at homeownership in 2009 given depressed housing prices and the extension of the federal housing tax credit. In search of a bilingual housing counseling agency, they enrolled in LEDC’s pre-purchase housing counseling program. Both worked to prepare for the responsibilities of homeownership, exploring how to obtain a mortgage loan, how their credit score could impact possible financing offers, as well as how to apply for DC’s Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP).
With the help of a $40,000, no-interest HPAP loan, Laura and Wellington purchased their first home last January, calling LEDC the “heart” of what can at times be a stressful but rewarding process.
“To have someone there every step of the way to tell you what to expect, to give you advice on how to do things, was really helpful,” Laura says.
Alexander Escobar, First-Time Homeowner
Alexander's five-year-old daughter Zara is hungry. Sprinting upstairs from the basement to the kitchen, she clumsily climbs onto a chair beside Alexander and asks what there is to eat. As her eyes affix upon a small camera resting upright on the dining room table, she peers into the darkened lens, jostling her head from side-to-side.
The picture of Alexander's life at that moment - a new homeowner in the Brentwood neighborhood of Northeast DC - was the product of his long-standing desire for independence. Emigrating from Colombia to the United States in 1998 to study English, Alexander met his fair share of challenges. His plans to open a dental laboratory in Costa Rica after he finished learning English fell by the wayside. Alexander remained in the United States and worked for five years at a small laboratory in Virginia.
During these years, Alexander's drive to start his own business led him to the doorsteps of the Latino Economic Development Corporation (LEDC) in 2001. Enrolling in LEDC's small business workshops, Alexander still imagined opening his own laboratory in the United States as he once had in his native Colombia. Before realizing his goal, life got in the way - Alexander married, and his daughter Zara was born.
The afterglow of starting his new family in Maryland faded in 2006, when Alexander separated from his wife. Moving into an efficiency in Northwest DC, Alexander saw Zara every other weekend. Their time together - often frustrated by the challenges of little space, loud noise, and rashes of cockroaches and bed bugs - convinced Alexander that Zara deserved more.
"I wanted a house because I lived in a space the size of what is now my living room," Alexander recalls. "My daughter was growing up, the area was filling with toys, and before I knew it, there was no space left."
Determined to provide a better living environment for his daughter, Alexander contacted LEDC's Homeownership Program. Signing up for LEDC's pre-purchase homeownership counseling, Alexander spent hours on multiple weekends learning how to manage debt, the costs and responsibilities of maintaining a home, and how to apply for a no-interest loan through the DC Department of Housing and Community Development's Home Purchase Assistance Program (HPAP).
Shortly thereafter, Alexander began the arduous task of finding a home. Enduring a series of frustrating disappointments - lost investments after failed housing inspections, city funding droughts that left him temporarily without money to apply for a private loan, and expired private loans that needed to be reapplied for - Alexander remembers looking at almost 20 houses during his busy weekends spent juggling both Zara and Zara's future.
Now, feelings of frustration have transformed into feelings of joy, as he watches Zara play with her cousin in their new home.
"It is very gratifying," Alexander says. "I feel happy to see my daughter run, to have her own space, to have her own room and room for her toys, to know that we aren't living in boxes. This is the moment to enjoy this house, to enjoy the space with my daughter and my family."
The day Jose Ugarte and his family ultimately saved themselves from foreclosure was the day they realized they had kept intact the experiences and memories that had made their first house feel like a home.
His son Marcelo, now 26, remembers painting the fireplace wall crimson red with his family when he was young. His daughter Natalie remembers her first sleepover with friends, her 15th birthday party in the backyard, and her high school graduation dinner. Calling Maryland home for 10 years, each member of the Ugarte family could see a little of themselves in their home in Silver Spring.
"This home is like a nest," Ugarte says. "Every person puts things here and there, with care and feeling, and it feels warm. You have your children below your wings, and you protect them."
As a self-employed contractor specializing in construction, Jose felt first-hand the devastating impact of the worsening economic crisis on the construction industry. As work became hard to come by, his ability to pay the mortgage was further eroded when his monthly payments increased per the terms of his variable interest rate home loan. Soon the Ugarte family received countless out-of-state offers by phone and mail to save their home. Most promised mortgage relief for the price of $5,000-$10,000.
Unable to pay, Jose attended a LEDC foreclosure housing counseling seminar and was invited to meet with a housing counselor at no cost. With the help of LEDC housing counselor Patricia Belbusti, Jose provided all the necessary documents to qualify for a trial modification under the federal Making Home Affordable Program. Committed to saving their home and staying united, the Ugarte family talked openly at the dinner table about the sacrifices they needed to make to pay their reduced payments on time. They agreed to cancel their home phone, cable, and internet services and sold one car.
Six months later, Jose qualified for a permanent modification of his home loan. Now, with a fixed interest rate and more reasonable mortgage payments, Jose and his wife Blanca are able to pay for Natalie to go to college.
"We see the future more brightly," Jose says. "It's like a weight has been lifted off our shoulders, and we have new opportunities."
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