Category Archives: Businesses

Dedicated to Clients

This semester I worked with the International Hartford team in gathering information about immigrant entrepreneurs in Hartford, Connecticut.  Through participating in this research I had the opportunity to interview three immigrant business owners on New Britain Avenue in Hartford.  The main objective of conducting these interviews was to gain a general understanding of the amount of energy immigrant entrepreneurs bring to the Hartford area, in particular to the business district.  These businesses included a grocer, nail salon, and African hair-braiding salon.  After interviewing the immigrant owners of these businesses, I distinguished prevalent themes present in their process of starting a business as well as the many adversities they had to overcome.

My first and most informative interview was with a female owner of the African hair-braiding salon on New Britain Avenue in Hartford. The owner migrated to the United States from West Africa to seek enhanced economic opportunities.  Although she did not relocate to the United States with her immediate family, she explained that some of her extended family lives in the greater Hartford area.  The interview began with something of her background and her previous working experience before starting a business of her own.   As she shared this information I learned about the many challenges she faced in her process of starting a business and how she learned from those difficult experiences.

A dominant theme I detected in the contents of the interview was her lack of knowledge about the different prerequisites for starting a business, which created many hardships for her as a result.  When this business owner arrived in the United States, she was only fluent in French and spoke no English at all, hindering her ability to understand basic regulations and communicate effectively like city licensing requirements.  So she began taking courses at Capitol Community College, in Hartford, to learn English and received her hair styling license after attending classes at West Hartford Adult High School.  During this time, she was working as an employee for a salon on Albany Avenue in Hartford.  When that business eventually failed and shut down, she struggled to attract clients to her home-based business. She felt taken advantage of by her employers because they knew she lacked resources and had nowhere else to go.  After hair-braiding in her home temporarily to support herself financially, she saved enough money to lease a space and opened her storefront business. Her clients are like family and keep her motivated to continue what she does everyday with enthusiasm.

Along with the struggles she faced in starting a business of her own, she shared the future aspirations she has for her salon.  This owner wishes to expand her business and offer new services beyond just hair-braiding. As of now, she works on her own. However she plans to hire full-time employees to help grow her business once she earns enough money.  Currently, she is working closely with the University of Hartford on developing a business plan, which she expects to finalize soon.  In addition, she is a member of The Chamber, an organization based in Middletown, Connecticut that works to support small businesses.  When I asked her why she decided to open this type of business she was quick to explain that it was the only thing she knew, but emphasized that an individual should be truly passionate for their business and what they do.  The eagerness she expressed during the interview demonstrates the amount of energy immigrant business owners contribute to the Hartford business district. She is is driven by the love she has for both her clients and career.

No Luck

On a rainy afternoon, we, Stephanie, Maggie and I pulled up into the parking lot of a pizza shop on Farmington Avenue in hopes of an interview. Walking in, we ask for the owner of the establishment. Upon realizing that the person at the front of the small store was the owner, we asked if we could get an interview. He looked disheveled, and asked us again what we wanted. Again explaining that we had come to his store before looking for an interview time that best fit his schedule, he said that he was waiting on the police. His delivery driver had apparently been robbed earlier that day. He sounded frustrated saying he had been waiting for over 30 minutes. After figuring out this meant that we wouldn’t be getting an interview we asked if there would be a better time. The owner was vague and we figured we wouldn’t be able to get an answer, and so we said our thanks and left the store. After leaving, we talked about the absurdity of someone getting “robbed” in broad daylight, in the middle of the day. My thoughts wandered to the owner. ‘What is he thinking’ I thought. ‘How often does this happen?’ I wondered how the owner could trust this city.

While lost in my thoughts, we had walked down the street to a supermarket. I quickly caught up with Stephanie and Maggie and squabbled over, who should ask to talk to the owner. As the only guy, I lost and made my way to the counter. The owner was at the counter and unfortunately did not look too pleased with our presence. We didn’t exactly look like the type of people to buy anything from his store. I asked if he could spare some time and perhaps give us an interview for our research. He looked uninterested and said that he was busy.  I didn’t push it. I looked back and gave the “thumbs down” and we left. I thought about the owner of this market and whether an empty store made him nervous or worried that he wouldn’t make rent or something like that. We got back to the car and as we were slowing down next to the Aetna building, a cop car sped past us.

Father and Son Relations

Many stores on Park Street are family run. While Yosa and I were out doing our field research we noticed that many of the stores owners had their daughters and sons working for them. These kids were very instrumental in the prosperity of their parents’ businesses.  The reason I say this is that in many of the shops we visited the parents did not speak English but rather Spanish. The owners depend upon their sons and daughters to translate for the parents.   On more than one occasion when we visited these stores, we saw kids hanging around with parents and one time a son was filling  in for the father while he was away on a business trip.

We found that some stores started by parents have been taken on by the children inadvertently. One storeowner told us that it was out of respect for his father that he took on the business not because he wanted to. This gentleman is now running a jewelry store on Park Street. When you walk into his store you don’t see that much jewelry for sale or many clients. What is important to note is that there are many jewelry stores on Park Street so there is a lot of competition. I compared this gentleman’s jewelry store to another one up the block. The other store had a wider selection of jewelry and more clients when we visited. The daughter of the second jewelry store owner told us that the father started this business and built a personal connection with his clients. That is why they have been in business for 30 plus years. What this jewelry store seems to do differently than other jewelry stores in the area is running radio advertisements and building a loyal client base. These stores are built from the ground up and bring pride to the family. Thus the kids want to keep these businesses going for these reasons.

Learning Business in the Family

We went to Park Street in Frog Hollow of Hartford to interview a woman and her son.  The woman, owns a party supply business.  She moved to Hartford from Puerto Rico and started this store because there was a demand for the items she sells and no supply nearby.  She sells everything you could think of that one would need for a party–be it a wedding, a baby shower, or a quinceañera (15th birthday celebration in Hispanic Culture).

She began her business without borrowing money or taking loans, just using capital she had acquired from her previous jobs. This is an important note for future business owners, as it proves that taking out heavy loans is not always necessary to have a successful business. She did say, however, that she felt support from the Spanish American Merchants Association that operates in Hartford, as she took courses that helped her in her startup.

Her son, born in Hartford, worked for her when he was younger–for  about 14 years.  He gained a lot of business experience from her, and decided to open up his own clothing business.  Like many business owners, the idea of having ones own business was attractive because he could be his own boss and not have a salary cap. Starting as a street vendor with 100 dollars in his pocket, he built a customer base in the area.

His business soon flourished enough for him to get a space on Park Street just a block away from his mother’s business.  He likes Park Street because there is a lot of demand for his product–clothing and some accessories such as hats.  There is also a lot of foot traffic in the area, so he said it was an ideal place to open a business.

His mother’s advice to prospective business owners was two fold, both practical and personal. She encouraged good treatment of customers to build a solid clientele base, citing that “that’s why I’ve been here for 26 years!” On a more personal level, she advised people to ensure that business ownership was a field they really want to get into before they made the decision to begin a business.

How Changing Consumer Cultures May Affect Business

Briana Chang and I visited a hair supplies shop on North Main Street in Hartford Connecticut. We met with a woman by the name of Jeanie (a pseudonym), who is the store manager. She spoke on behalf of the Korean business owner who was also present in the store at the time. The store specializes in the sale of hair products, and hair weaves/wigs. Many of the customers who visit the store are women of color. I asked Jeanie about some of the difficulties she faced as a manager of the store. She mentioned that many of her customers have begun wearing their natural hair in their natural textures instead of wearing straighter hair weaves or chemically processing their hair. It is no secret that because of societal pressures, women of color have historically spent a great deal of money on their hair in order to conform to the European standard of beauty. This means that they must straighten and chemically process their naturally curly/kinky hair. Women can purchase many of the products for this process, or additional alternatives to achieve these styles at this store. Recently, women of color have developed a consciousness around, and greater appreciation for their natural hair texture and have refrained from relying on many of these products. There is no doubt that this transition is most beneficial for these women because it saves them a great deal of money and the stress of always manipulating and damaging their natural hair.

This does however have the opposite affect on the businesses that depend on these women for the majority of their profit. This is a common trend among many types of businesses. Our cultural norms are ever changing, and with that, our cultural capital also changes. The things that we claim to be a significant part of our lives today may be thing of the past in just a few years. The way that we wear our hair, or the kinds of clothes we wear, and even the things that we eat can change drastically from generation to generation, and businesses must be able to conform to these changes in order to remain profitable. This hair supply shop that we visited might benefit from incorporating more “natural hair” products and information for women of color who may not be very knowledgeable about how to care for their natural hair, especially if they have never had to deal with caring for kinky/curly hair in the past. They might even want to sell hair extensions that are available in kinky/curly forms so that these women could purchase products that better resemble their own natural hair textures. These ideas are sight specific, and may not work for many businesses, but there are ways to adapt to cultural changes depending on the customer demographic, availability of resources, and willingness of business owners to discover and meet the demands of their customers.

The Family Business

Throughout my time exploring the many immigrant owned businesses in Hartford, I noticed one factor that stood out.  Family plays an extremely important role in helping and managing the business at hand.  In some cases, it almost seems as though the business would not be able to run at all without this family support.

A classmate and I were given the opportunity to interview the Italian born owner of a Maple Avenue Laundromat.  The Laundromat was a busy place and had clothes piled everywhere.  The customers seemed very diverse, including a large number of Hispanic customers. I know that many Trinity students also go to this Laundromat.  Before the interview even began the owner insisted we wait for his son to come conduct the interview.  He made it seem as though he knew nothing about his own business.  Later he told us “my wife and I run the business together. My son helps do the paperwork and finance.”  When we asked him if he faced any adversities when he first opened his business, he replied, “When I started the paying bills and the paperwork was hardest. Then it got better.”   His son clearly played and continues to play a pivotal role in this business, as he takes the responsibility in paying the bills, which covers for his father’s weakness in finance.

The theme of family in an immigrant business also came up in a discussion in a nearby market and smoke shop.  Unfortunately, that owner was out so we decided to take the opportunity to ask a few questions informally to the man working the counter.

The gentleman turned out to be the father of the owner.  He told us that he works many hours at the counter looking over his son’s new business.  While the father works at the shop, his son is delivering pizza for Dominos.  The amount of support the father was giving to his son and his business astounded me.  It was evident that owning the shop was not enough on its own, so the son had to find other ways to make money.  Without his father working at the shop, it would be very questionable whether the business would still be existent.

I have noticed the importance of family help in my own life and through experience.  My mother, who is an immigrant, opened a restaurant in Boston 15 years ago.  To this day her mother still makes the recipes, her brother has become co-owner, and her sister is the floor manager.  I also help out at the restaurant and often times am happy to do so without compensation.  She has told me that without this support, things would be a lot harder on her and the business. This idea is further expressed in Valdez’s article “Beyond the Ethnic Enclave,” as he writes about how one’s family helps facilitate their entrepreneurship.  Valdez states, “Ethnic business owners often hire family or co-ethnic community from which they emigrated.  Family members experience the “reciprocal obligation” to work in the family business, often without pay” (245).

The family’s role proves to be a unique type of support for immigrant entrepreneurs.  Economically, they provide work and service for the business at little to no cost in many cases.  This service is especially valuable in new businesses when the entrepreneur needs help starting things up.  Morally, the family is there to offer emotional stability and ultimately serves as a sturdy support team.  From my interviews, discussions and experience, it his clear just how much the families of an immigrant business owners contribute to their businesses.

Laundromat SmokeShop

Location, Location, Location

In the beginning of this semester’s research for International Hartford, my team was assigned North Main Street and Maple Avenue for our areas of focus. As the semester progressed and as our research trips matriculated, I began to obtain a better sense of the entrepreneurial activity within each area’s respective immigrant population. North Main Street, true to its cultural reputation, proved to be highly saturated with West Indian owned small businesses, whereas Maple Ave tended to have far less of a unified cultural identity. Moreover, Maple Ave had more of a multicultural identity as there was no single ethnic group that was a majority in this area.

During the cultural auditing stage of our research, I began to notice a common theme or notable strategy in many of the successful business owners I encountered. Intriguingly, I found that this theme appeared again within the individual interviews we conducted with foreign-born owners of well-established businesses. The theme in question is that of identifying the optimal business location. As our guest speaker Sharif Soussi stressed, a key function of entrepreneurs is their ability to recognize and act on a good or service missing to society or a specific community. The ability of entrepreneurs to strategically locate themselves is not only conducive to increasing the utility in their communities by making that void good or service more accessible but it also proves to be a path to high profits for the entrepreneur. Of course, there is also the alternative entrepreneur who creates value not by identifying an unsatisfied demand but by differentiating on a pre-existing good or creating value where it did not previously exist. Now, reverting to the previously mentioned type of entrepreneurship, my team encountered a reoccurring pattern of high levels of competition in close proximity. For example, on Maple Ave we noticed an overwhelming number of barbershops almost one after the next with some barbers situated directly across the street from each other. By the basic laws of supply and demand, such highly concentrated levels of competition ultimately drive prices down. Thus, while advantageous to the consumer, the entrepreneur often struggles in such a competitive arena especially in times of market distress or economic turmoil.

During our interview with the owner of a 25-year-old family-owned successful Laundromat on Maple Ave, the gentleman, from Milan, Italy, highlighted the difficulty of rising competition. Furthermore, when asked what advice he would give to any prospective new business owners, he advised to steer clear of competition. Curious about his adamancy on this matter, I later googled how many Laundromats are on or in close proximity to Maple Ave. Within a five block radius of this establishment, six Laundromats popped up on Google maps. Thus, using the simple tool of Google maps, I was able to pinpoint the venue for this particular service. Furthermore, inquisitive as to the reputation of my interviewee’s business, I was able to read up on the business’s reviews. Mainstream public forum review sites such as Yelp give consumers and, more importantly for this discussion, potential entrepreneurs the ability to get a feel for services and goods present in a community. These seemingly trivial tools of being able to operate Google Maps and being able to surf key review sites such as Yelp, for instance, in my opinion, can be extremely indicative of the competition pool a new entrepreneur may be entering when starting their own business. Hence, if I could make one recommendation to International Hartford, I would suggest that they offer classes or a brief training on instruments such as Google Maps and other such devices to its prospective immigrant business owners.

Women and Immigrant Businesses

As there is a growing female presence in business and politics, there has been a lot of progress towards gender equality. After reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg on empowering women in the workforce, I couldn’t help but think of the increasing role of women in business. How does this happen? There has been a sudden burst of women making the Forbes List, such as Sheryl Sandberg. There’s obviously no right way of doing it, but there is one thing that is increasingly happening and that is that there is an increasing number of women entering the market. As I increasingly hear about woman entering really competitive industries, it’s impressive to see this. The real question is has it been because women weren’t able to do it or because they weren’t given the opportunity due to a law or a cultural norm.

Doing my research on New Britain Avenue, I couldn’t help but think about culture and how it played into the role that woman have in business. I observed the different roles of Spanish and Asian women in business. In about the ten Asian owned businesses that I went to, eight out of the ten were owned by woman or by a couple. On the contrary, the owners at the Spanish owned small businesses were all men. I thought that was quite interesting. I started speculating about why that might be.

In the woman owned travel agencies, the Asian woman was sitting at a large desk in the end of the store. They were the center of attention, right smack down in the middle. There were also men at both of these stores, however the men were either standing or sitting on either side of the store; they were on the sidelines. A thought came to mind of what I learned in one of my courses on authoritarianism in Northeast Asia. Andrei Lankov explains in his book, The Real North Korea (2013) that women in North Korea are increasingly engaging in the black market because they aren’t considered a political threat. Opposed to women, men are forced to work and are conscripted into militias, giving them very little space to engage in any activities that are not administered by the state. Many women are engaging in the black market and selling all types of household appliances and the state allows them to. They are gaining valuable skills and teaching their kids the same thing. The factors that inhibit men while allowing women’s presence and giving them the opportunity to participate in the market in North Korea might shed some light on why so many Asian (particularly Vietnamese-American) women have established businesses on New Britain Avenue in Hartford

By contrast, men predominantly own stores in the other commercial strip that I observed on New Britain Ave. That surprised me. I expected at least one female owned business; however out of the ten businesses I entered on that block, there weren’t any owned by women. Also, Hispanic people owned most of them. I come from a Hispanic background and from personal experience I know men “pull the strings”. The two men that I interviewed mentioned how they left their home countries due to the authoritarian political systems that did not let them pursue what they wanted in their countries (similar to the Asian context). The men I met were very hardworking and ambitious, always taking on new jobs and willing to take odd jobs. They were very knowledgeable about a lot of things. When these men started their business, they weren’t alone. They were the face of the business, while women family members were in charge of the financial aspect of the business. Wives weren’t always on site, but they were mentioned many times as the assistants to these men and critical to the existence of the businesses. Men were the face of the business. They deal with purchasing merchandise and meeting with suppliers, but the women are in charge of the administrative side of the business.

Upon reflection, I realized that cultural differences have affected what role woman have in immigrant businesses in the US. The political situations in the home culture have also shaped business entrepreneurship in Hartford. The men that I spoke to had different experiences that prompted them to be take a chance and start a business. And, in some cases women were given opportunities to create businesses. Overall, I noticed that woman might seem underrepresented in these businesses, but really, they are very present. They are not necessarily the “face” of some immigrant businesses but they do have a strong presence and impact on the success of these establishments. Efforts to empower women around the world are on the rise. These are examples of how women (as business owners or business managers) in Hartford are just as able as men and their example can empower future women to get more involved.

More Parades, More Events, More Support for Immigrant Business

Hartford is a city where residents come from various backgrounds and cultures. When we met and interviewed immigrant business owners it was clear that living as an immigrant in America was not as easy as they expected. Immigrants like Efrain (a pseudonym), the owner of a market on New Britain Ave., have experienced hardships after moving to the United States. Even after buying and running his market for years, Efrain has worked hard on his own to establish and support his business. What is missing in this equation? Perhaps more support from the city of Hartford and its community?

Efrain and other business owners have struggled to maintain their businesses. It is evident by the relationship Efrain and other owners have with their customers that they have established a strong sense of community in their area. However, what is the city of Hartford doing to help them after they arrive? When asked if his market has been involved in any events or parades (specifically the Puerto Rican Day Parade) the response was simple: never.

How has a business that has authentic Hispanic products never been asked to participate in the parade or festival events? Business owners like Efrain have done everything on their own and plan to continue growing their businesses without city help. Maybe this calls for adjustments in the planning of city-wide events and festivals. Immigrant friendly parades and festivals such as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade should be a day where we celebrate and show appreciation for the city’s diverse immigrant communities. This means we should not just be organizing a day of celebration but also getting diverse businesses and immigrant communities involved in these festivities. This would recognize the wider immigrant community and their contributions to the city of Hartford and help create an environment where immigrants can feel comfortable and celebrate their cultures and accomplishments.

Success in a Small Business: Advantages and Advice

I conducted a cultural audit of immigrant-run businesses on New Britain Avenue, between Empire Pizza and House of Flora. I chose three immigrant entrepreneurs to interview. The first business was a grocer from the Dominican Republic; the second business was a nail salon owner from Vietnam; the third business was a hair salon owner from the Ivory Coast. Although all three owners were of different backgrounds and owned different kinds of businesses, I found that they all were happy that they owned their own business. They were also happy to provide advice for future immigrant business owners, and were willing to be mentors if asked.

All three businesses indicated that one of the best things about owning your own business was the luxury of being your own boss. You get to choose your hours. You get to control who your employees and clients are. You have the opportunity to get close to your clients. These preferences suggest that being in control is a big motivation/benefit for starting a business.

The advice that the business owners gave was primarily cautionary and concerned how to sustain a business. They indicated that it is important to save money before starting the business, but most of all, you have to be passionate about your entrepreneurial pursuit. The salon owner stated:

“You have to know exactly what you want to do, and you have to love what you do; otherwise, when hard times come, you back off.”

They also stressed the importance of treating the customers well and developing relationships with them. A surprising suggestion was to not be tempted to stay open late at night. I was surprised to hear this because availability is an easy way to distinguish your business from other businesses. The reason behind this advice was safety; the owner believed that having late night hours makes you more vulnerable to robberies that would result in the loss of all profits made that day. The biggest theme was trust. The grocer suggested that you start with family or somebody who you know won’t steal from you and will be diligent.

The preferences of these small business owners and their advice have taught me that small business is about independence, resilience, and gratification. They all indicated that it is hard work and the potential for failure is high. However, they all stressed that the reward is worth the risk.