This is Derek Miller Speaking on Business. The Suazo Business Center was named in honor of Utah’s first Hispanic Utah State Senator, the late Pete Suazo. Today it provides assistance to help primarily Spanish-language entrepreneurs launch and grow their dreams. Here’s Executive Director Silvia Castro with more.
SILVIA CASTRO
The statistics of minority, and specifically, Hispanic-owned businesses are mind boggling. And the resources to assist these entrepreneurs is even more amazing.
In recent years, the number of minority-owned businesses in the U.S. has increased dramatically, while non-minority owned businesses grew only 10 percent. There are over two million Latina-owned businesses in the country, a growth of almost 90 percent since 2007, and in recent years, the self-employment rate of foreign-born Hispanic women is double that of U.S.-born Hispanic women. Latinos are starting businesses at a faster rate than the national average, growing 34 percent over the last 10 years, compared to just 1 percent for all other small businesses.
That is why Suazo Business Center exists – to assist these hard-working people grow and develop their families, futures, and communities, helping our state’s economy grow stronger even as it grows more diverse.
DEREK MILLER
The Suazo Business Center is a true American success story, right here in Utah. Over the past two decades it has assisted in the creation of 5,000 new small businesses, generating over $250 million in revenue. I’m Derek Miller with the Salt Lake Chamber, Speaking on Business.
