Hispanic Business Owners Ready to Restart after Pandemic

Commiserating at the recent Hispanic Chamber of Commerce reception are Fernando Garcia, Creavista; Danilo Melan, SHCCNJ membership coordinator; Massoud Ansari, Domino’s Pizza; Luis O. De La Hoz, chairman of the SHCCNJ; Antonio Perez, Site Drainer; Lisbeth Castillo, SHCCNJ, and Nelson Bohorquez, Allesig Group.

Alejandra Giron of Valley Bank chats with Vincent Vicari of the NJSBDC in Ramapo College at the SHCCNJ networking event.

A couple of hundred members of the Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey (SHCCNJ) beat the heat last Friday afternoon and spent a few hours commiserating with friends and colleagues about business and sharing best practices at the group’s Summer Networking event at Dos Cubano Restaurant in West New York, NJ.

With the pandemic apparently ending or slowing down and restrictions easing or disappearing completely, this group of Hispanic business owners is eager to return to their commercial endeavors because, as Luis O. De La Hoz, chairman of the board of the directors of the SHCCNJ, told me, they don’t have any alternative. They don’t have a plan B to survive because their businesses are their livelihoods – their lives.

“Entrepreneurship is how we overcome poverty,” De La Hoz said.

The Hispanic chamber of commerce is the largest chamber of commerce in the Garden State, according to him. It has 5,000 members and represents more than 120,000 Hispanic business owners. It annually records $20 billion in gross sales.

Fortunately, none of the members were forced out of business due to the pandemic though early on they did comply with the regulations to temporarily close their doors.

Among the problems faced by Hispanic businesses, De La Hoz said, are access to capital, access to new markets, access to networks, and the digital gap. In order to help bridge the digital gap, De La Hoz said the chamber would organize an on-line Business Expo on July 20.

Among the attendees was Vincent Vicari, regional director of the New Jersey Small Business Development Center at Ramapo College, who was ready to provide advice and guidance to the Hispanic entrepreneurs.

For membership information, visit the SHCCNJ website at https://shccnj.org/.

To get in contact with Vince Vicari regarding NJSBDC assistance to small businesses, contact him at https://njsbdc.com/njsbdc-at-ramapo-college/.