Learning Cross-Border Small-Business Tactics

An Orange County community college district signed an agreement Wednesday with the Mexican national development bank to train Mexicans to aid small businesses in that country and to encourage deals between firms on either side of the border.

The agreement with the Rancho Santiago Community College District is the first one the Nacional Financiera has made with an American college.

In the initial stages, Mexican government officials will study how to start and run a successful small business with ties to U.S. markets. The officials then would create training centers in Mexico to pass on that knowledge to Mexican entrepreneurs.

As part of the deal, Nacional Financiera also is establishing a $50-million Hispanic Private Equity Fund to finance businesses on both sides of the border.

Patricio Marcos Giacoman, the bank’s director of promotion and technical assistance, said Mexican officials had explored colleges in New York, Chicago and Texas, areas with large Chicano populations, before settling on Rancho Santiago.

What sealed the deal for the community college district was that it already had established a California-Mexico Trade Assistance Center in downtown Santa Ana aimed at helping local businesses establish markets in Mexico.

“NAFIN wants to start working with an established network in the U.S., which we have, and we want to continue working with an established network in Mexico, which they have,” said Enrique Perez, director of the college’s trade assistance center. “It’s a perfect partnership.”

Since opening in July 2000, the center has worked with 225 Orange County companies to help them develop strategies for entering the Mexican market, providing them with government, business and educational contacts and helping them navigate the regulations in the Latin American country. The companies have ranged in size from five to 250 employees. It also has assisted 65 Mexican companies.

Creating a Network of Small-Business Centers

The Mexican government plans to establish small-business information centers in each of its 32 states, each of which will concentrate on linkages to the U.S. market. The officials who will run those centers will be trained at Rancho Santiago’s trade assistance center.

The first people to arrive from Mexico will be representatives from the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Zacatecas and Puebla.

“They’re sending those people here to learn our methods, how we take a company from step one to a success story,” Perez said. “Everything from how we’re sitting on boards, to networking, to how we’re able to outreach to the business community.”

Perez said those people will provide additional contacts for Orange County businesses. “Establishing 32 information centers gives me a strategic person in every [Mexican] state,” he said. “It means a vast network to assist us.”

Edward Hernandez, chancellor of the community college district, which includes Santa Ana and Rancho Santiago colleges, said one job of two-year schools is economic development of their communities. “People forget that’s one of our missions,” he said.

To bring the community college district and the bank closer, Nacional Financiera will open an office a floor above the trade assistance center’s office in Santa Ana, a mile or two from campus. The office will be on the 10th floor of the International Business Center, the same building where the Mexican government’s first U.S. trade center is located.

Mark Bock, an owner of Zen Electronics in Laguna Hills, is one of several business owners meeting today with Nacional Financiera representatives. The company, which employs 11 people and sells products to cable TV system operators, plans to open a branch soon in Ensenada.

“International trade is a heck of a lot more difficult than trade across state or county lines,” Bock said. “There’s always some sort of trick. These guys know where to go.”