KOREATOWN : Course Focuses on Starting a Business

Chu Op Bark graduated from a Korean university in 1965, but when she began a training course for entrepreneurs 10 weeks ago she said she felt like a freshman all over again.

Now Bark is one of 29 graduates of the “Starting Your Own Business” course offered by the Korean Family Counseling and Legal Advice Center and California American Woman’s Economic Development Corp. with funding from the Pacific Telesis Foundation.

The graduates, 27 women and two men of Korean descent who range in age from 19 to 60, are small-business pioneers looking to find their niche.

“I owned a video store in Long Beach but it was destroyed during the riot,” Bark said. “Now I’m getting ready to open a grocery market in East L.A. After this class I learned what I have to do to run my business.”

Like Bark, many of the participants already had experience running a business, including markets, self-service laundries, restaurants and drugstores. Some lost their stores during the riots and others are looking for a new venture.

“Originally, many Koreans didn’t think they needed any special training to open up a business,” said Whaja Park, chairwoman of the counseling center’s board of directors. “But after the riot they realized they needed to know about insurance, accounting, business law and how to relate to customers.”

Patti Koltnow, regional program director of the development corporation, said the participants wanted to learn the American way of doing business. “There aren’t a whole lot of places for people to get this kind of training in Korean,” Koltnow said. “The women in this program are very motivated; they just need the tools.”

The training included sessions on business planning, sales and marketing, business law, insurance and banking.

Nam Hee Song, who runs a building supplies business, said she also changed her goals because of the course. “I want to hire more employees even if it means I make less money, because that’s one way to help rebuild L.A.,” she said.

One of the biggest hurdles entrepreneurs face is securing a loan.

“It’s tough for anyone to get money, but it’s even tougher for women,” Koltnow said. But at the end of the course, four of the participants qualified for loans of up to $15,000 from Muriel Siebert’s Los Angeles Women’s Entrepreneurial Fund.

California American Woman’s Economic Development Corp. information: (310) 983-3747. Korean Family Counseling and Legal Advice Center information: (213) 389-6755.