Handling the Finances Is Problem No. 1

A survey of minority business owners shows that computer technology plays an important role in the success of firms headed by people of color.

Handling finances was cited as much a hurdle to starting a new business as self-defined cultural barriers by 34% of the 350 respondents. The survey was sponsored by QuickBooks from Intuit Inc., a California based-software company that makes Quicken, TurboTax and other financial software. Other obstacles cited in starting a new business included understanding technology (15%) and finding enough time (6%).

The survey’s findings on finances come as no surprise for Philip Borden, executive director of the Women’s Enterprise Development Corp.

“Finance is the toughest thing to teach, the toughest to manage and the least glamorous,” said Borden, whose Long Beach organization teaches entrepreneurship to mostly poor women of color in the area, including Orange County. He added that finance is an area that small-business owners struggle with regardless of color.

“The businesses we see, when they run into trouble, finances is where they run into it. They haven’t been careful about tracking profits, and projecting what their business will be like,” he said. “Finance is an ugly part of business.”

Henry Mendoza, president of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, said the two leading elements go “hand in hand,” especially for newly arrived immigrants, who struggle to learn American business customs.

“If you don’t know how to do business here, that makes it tough to be successful,” said Mendoza, who also owns a CPA firm in Laguna Hills.

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Daryl Strickland covers tourism and small and minority business issues for The Times. He can be reached at (714) 966-5670, and at daryl.strickland@latimes.com