Chapter to Hold Seminars, Offer Job Placement : Latino Business Group Formed in Valley

The San Fernando Valley on Thursday got its own chapter of the Latin Business Assn., an organization aimed at helping Latino business owners.

The group attracted about 285 Latino business owners to its initial breakfast meeting in Van Nuys. It has just 25 members now, but President Ed Aguilar expects the number to grow to 150 by year’s end.

Aguilar said the association is planning to hold seminars to show Latino business operators how to improve their cash flow, apply for small-business loans and win supply contracts from large Valley-based corporations. Also planned are job-placement and scholarship programs.

All programs will be run from the chapter’s office on Saticoy Street in North Hollywood, which has been given $10,000 by the parent organization to get off the ground. Officials expect annual membership fees ranging from $25 for students to $500 for corporations to eventually provide the chapter’s operating revenues.

Aguilar, 44, started his own data-processing company from scratch five years ago after spending years climbing to the rank of vice president in a corporation. His Informco Inc. of Van Nuys increased sales from $250,000 the first year to $2 million last year, with “extremely good” profits, Aguilar said.

But Aguilar says that he has also stumbled, especially in the early years, and that he wants to help other businesses “avoid some of the pitfalls that I’ve been through.”

Aguilar is a past vice president of the 10-year-old Los Angeles chapter and was picked to head the Valley chapter because he impressed organization President Hal Martinez with his “dedication to sharing his leads and customers with Hispanic entrepreneurs.”

“Industry is growing here, in Chatsworth, in Warner Center,” said Aguilar, who noted that Latinos have no advocacy group to see that they get their share of the business pie. “There’s no one representing the small Hispanic businessmen or being an advocate on Hispanic issues,” he said.

Aguilar and Martinez said that traditionally few Latinos have gone into business for themselves and that Latinos therefore need help with structuring, financing and managing a company, and with selling its product or service.

The Valley chapter will work closely with chambers of commerce and other business-oriented groups whose officials agree with Aguilar on the need for the Latino organization.

For example, Lucki Baxter, executive vice president of the Chamber of Commerce in heavily Latino San Fernando, said about 50% of businesses in her city are owned by Latinos.

Kenneth B. Worthen, a board member of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., said Latino businesses throughout the Valley tend to be service-oriented and include graphics, printing and small manufacturing plants, restaurants, automotive centers, auto parts shops and companies that make components for computers.

In order to succeed in these businesses, Aguilar said, local Latino companies should persuade Valley-based corporations to buy from local vendors by bidding competitively with large, national suppliers.

With the Latin Business Assn., “We are trying to create a sound economic base for small businesses,” Aguilar says.