{"id":196,"date":"2014-05-26T19:05:06","date_gmt":"2014-05-26T23:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/?p=196"},"modified":"2014-05-29T13:59:14","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T17:59:14","slug":"the-family-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/2014\/05\/26\/the-family-business\/","title":{"rendered":"The Family Business"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout my time exploring the many immigrant owned businesses in Hartford, I noticed one factor that stood out.\u00a0 Family plays an extremely important role in helping and managing the business at hand.\u00a0 In some cases, it almost seems as though the business would not be able to run at all without this family support.<\/p>\n

A classmate and I were given the opportunity to interview the Italian born owner of a Maple Avenue Laundromat.\u00a0 The Laundromat was a busy place and had clothes piled everywhere.\u00a0 The customers seemed very diverse, including a large number of Hispanic customers. I know that many Trinity students also go to this Laundromat.\u00a0 Before the interview even began the owner insisted we wait for his son to come conduct the interview.\u00a0 He made it seem as though he knew nothing about his own business.\u00a0 Later he told us \u201cmy wife and I run the business together. My son helps do the paperwork and finance.\u201d\u00a0 When we asked him if he faced any adversities when he first opened his business, he replied, \u201cWhen I started the paying bills and the paperwork was hardest. Then it got better.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 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\u2019s weakness in finance.<\/p>\n

The theme of family in an immigrant business also came up in a discussion in a nearby market and smoke shop.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that owner was out so we decided to take the opportunity to ask a few questions informally to the man working the counter.<\/p>\n

The gentleman turned out to be the father of the owner.\u00a0 He told us that he works many hours at the counter looking over his son\u2019s new business.\u00a0 While the father works at the shop, his son is delivering pizza for Dominos.\u00a0 The amount of support the father was giving to his son and his business astounded me.\u00a0 It was evident that owning the shop was not enough on its own, so the son had to find other ways to make money.\u00a0 Without his father working at the shop, it would be very questionable whether the business would still be existent.<\/p>\n

I have noticed the importance of family help in my own life and through experience.\u00a0 My mother, who is an immigrant, opened a restaurant in Boston 15 years ago.\u00a0 To this day her mother still makes the recipes, her brother has become co-owner, and her sister is the floor manager.\u00a0 I also help out at the restaurant and often times am happy to do so without compensation.\u00a0 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\u2019s article \u201cBeyond the Ethnic Enclave,\u201d as he writes about how one\u2019s family helps facilitate their entrepreneurship.\u00a0 Valdez states, \u201cEthnic business owners often hire family or co-ethnic community from which they emigrated.\u00a0 Family members experience the \u201creciprocal obligation\u201d to work in the family business, often without pay\u201d (245).<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s role proves to be a unique type of support for immigrant entrepreneurs.\u00a0 Economically, they provide work and service for the business at little to no cost in many cases.\u00a0 This service is especially valuable in new businesses when the entrepreneur needs help starting things up.\u00a0 Morally, the family is there to offer emotional stability and ultimately serves as a sturdy support team.\u00a0 From my interviews, discussions and experience, it his clear just how much the families of an immigrant business owners contribute to their businesses.<\/p>\n

\"Laundromat\"<\/a> \"SmokeShop\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout my time exploring the many immigrant owned businesses in Hartford, I noticed one factor that stood out.\u00a0 Family plays an extremely important role in helping and managing the business at hand.\u00a0 In some cases, it almost seems as though the business would not be able to run at all without this family support. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":822,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,2,3,1],"tags":[53,62,73],"geo":{"latitude":41.7406197,"longitude":-72.6839905,"description":"Maple Avenue, Hartford, CT, USA"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/822"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/commons.trincoll.edu\/globalhartford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}