BizBuzz
business in brief
Politics, marketing, trade & trends
HISPANIC COMMERCE
 Big chance for Mexicans in U.S. to buy house back home
Mexicans aren’t just sending remittances home these days. They’re also buying houses in their homeland, thanks to Cemex offshoot Construmex, which for six years has offered financing for Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to buy construction materials or finished houses back home.
Now the company has decided to step up its offer.
Construmex recently got together with 35 construction companies—both large-scale firms with operations around the country and smaller outfits—to build houses in Mexico for expats living in the United States, according to an Efe article in La Raza. All the builders are committed Cemex clients “to be able to assure the quality of the houses,” Construmex U.S.-based General Manager Andres Montalvo told Efe
Principally targeted by the Construmex offer are the estimated 8 million Mexicans residing in California, Illinois and Texas—although this year the company is also reaching out to other U.S. areas through a toll-free line and other means.
Montalvo makes two points about the credit crunch currently wreaking havoc in the U.S. First, that “it has not made us necessarily more vigilant in granting financing,” and secondly, “Mexican clients see a great possibility, or a better deal, investing in Mexico rather than here.”
He estimated that more than 80,000 Mexican families have already taken advantage of the financing for buying building materials or finished houses in the land of their birth.
FINANCING
Prosper, based in San Francisco, is one of a tiny but growing number of for-profit online social lending marketplaces in the U.S., which some entrepreneurs are looking to as alternatives to bank loans. As the credit crunch makes getting a loan even harder for small business owners, for-profit social lending could play a bigger role in financing small enterprises in the U.S. Most sites reported that between 20 percent to 30 percent of loans are for businesses; it is the second most common reason borrowers listed, after refinancing debt.
—John Tozzi in BusinessWeek
MARKETING & ADVERTiSING SELLING IN SPANISH
Bucking a trend of diminishing advertising revenues in print—Associated Press announced that newspaper ads dropped by 7.4 percent in the third quarter last year—Southern California’s El Clasificado is on a roll. In that same quarter, its revenues surged by almost 24 percent.
Following the winning formula of founder and publisher Martha de la Torre, the free Spanish-language classified ads publication with information on “everything from health and education to consumer alerts and real estate” is snapped up by 310,000 readers weekly in 150 cities around Southern California. It also appears online at www.elclasificado.com and organizes grassroots events with sponsorship opportunities.
The Los Angeles Business Journal recently listed it as one of the area’s 100 fastest-growing privately held companies.
X-ECUTIVE CALENDAR: what not to miss
Feb 9-12: International Franchise Association’s 48th Annual Convention “Building the Future Together,” Marriott World Center Orlando. For more information, contact Lynette Darby at 202-662-0782 or ldarby@franchise.org.
March 4-5: 11th Annual LULAC Legislative Awards Gala & Policy Summit, J.W. Marriott Hotel, 1331 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington D.C. For more information call 202-833-6130 or see www.lulac.org
March 11-13: 2008 Annual United States Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Legislative Conference, Mariott Hotel, 1221 22nd Street NW, Washington D.C. 20037. For more information see www.ushcc.com
April 10-12: The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) trademarks showcase, Main Office, Alexandria, Virginia. See www.uspto.gov/surveys/tmexpo2008.htm.
April 11-13: 17th Annual International Franchise Expo, Washington Convention Center, Washington, DC. For more information, call 201-226-1130 or visit www.ifeinfo.com.
April 23-25: DiversityBusiness.com’s 8th Annual National Multicultural Business Conference, Disney Broadwalk Resorts, Orlando. For more information, 203-255-2972 or see www.DiversityBusiness.com
TRENDWATCH VOTING POWER
Some 9 million Hispanics will be able to cast ballots in the presidential elections of 2008, which means a 23 percent increase over 2004, according to a report by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute.... The pressure in some sectors against illegal immigration has prompted many to legalize their status.
—El Latino, Chula Vista, California from EFE
MEDIA: LONE STAR STAKE
 Help has arrived in the form of new owners for the recently troubled Rumbo newspapers in Texas. Rumbo Rio Grande, Rumbo Houston and Rumbo San Antonio have been taken over by the giant ImpreMedia group, which will now serve up the news in Spanish in nine of the 10 most important Hispanic markets in the U.S.
Despite frequent honors for their journalistic and graphic excellence, the Spanish-language Rumbo newspapers in Texas ran into business difficulties recently, slashing staff and cutting circulation from three days a week to one, while founder Edward Schumacher Matos announced his resignation.
ImpreMedia, with such news media to its credit as La Opinion in Los Angeles, El Diario/La Prensa in New York, and the weekly La Raza in Chicago, will now see its total circulation grow to 3.51 million copies per week, an overall jump of 3 percent.
SNIPPET
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for IT professionals is some $92,000 annually.
—La Opinion
SNIPPET THE WORK/LIFE BALANCE
 According to national small-business expert Louis Barajas, you need the right mentality to develop a business so that it doesn’t dominate your life. He says: “When you make your business a part of your life and not vice versa, you are making your life the priority and your business simply revolves around it. That gives you the time and energy for good relationships, health, growth, education, giving back, and your business. What’s more, you’ll be able to approach your company with new spirit, relaxed, with greater resources and consequently with better motivation and focus.”
—La Raza
TRENDWATCH workforce
Things are tough for entrepreneurs who depend on foreign workers. Between 2002 and 2006, the number of ICE worksite arrests grew sevenfold to 716 criminal arrests and 3,667 arrests on civil charges. And, say experts, in many cases, the federal
government is prosecuting on criminal charges what would have been considered civil offenses until recently.
—BusinessWeek
E-BUSINESS LANDING THAT DREAM JOB
 “Go ahead, impress me. You have five minutes.” The Human Relations guy doing the hiring may not actually say this, but that’s often the feeling job candidates get. And often it all comes down to the resume—what has the would-be employee achieved up to now and what can the company expect to get out of him?
Jeff Calannio founded MyCredentials, www.mycreds.net, on the premise that the typical few sheets of paper typed up with the candidate’s job history and previous responsibilities are just too blah for today’s competitive market. So he created the online resume dubbed the “Career Web Portal” with audio, video, sharp graphics and flip-through history of the candidate’s previous positions, achievements, availability, ambitions. It’s everything the HR person wants to know in such a swift, dramatic way that all else being equal, the candidate get the edge.
The concept not only worked, but last year in November alone the number of users increased by 112 percent.
Spurred by success, MyCredentials recently beefed up its services. Users now have access to a job board with over 6 million job listings, a blog offering tips from the founder, plus examples of how the service is being used by others, with ideas on how to get the most out of it.
Lending even more credibility to MyCred.net is a recruiter program designed to greatly increase staffing companies’ placement success. Several new packages permit staffing companies, large or small, to partner with MyCredentials in a way that ensures greater satisfaction for the end employers. Which, of course, can only benefit the next wave of MyCred candidates.
TRENDWATCH COOLING MATTERS
The year 2008 brings presidential elections and, as is now customary, that means both U.S. and foreign investors will hold up their investments in the country in order to see where the new government is going with its domestic and international policies before taking any new action.
—Jose A. Ruano in La Raza
QUIPS & QUOTES:
What they are saying
 “In some cases, starting a company with your spouse marks the beginning of a separation; in others it’s a phenomenon that strengthens the relationship even more.”
-Julie Stav in La Raza
“One of the easiest things (for entrepreneurs) to get behind on is payroll taxes. And once you get behind it starts to mushroom.”
-Barry Thomsen, publisher, Idea Letter as quoted in BusinessWeek
“This is an uncertain time for the economy, clients aren’t placing new orders.”
-Karl Nusser, factory owner, California Sewing Services, as in La Opinion
“In multicultural marketing there’s more demand for culturally specific messaging and more demand for authenticity in speaking to these audiences.”
-Howard Buford, president and CEO,
Prime Access multicultural agency, as quoted in Marketing y Medios
TRENDWATCH
EDUCATION
 Hispanics as a group hold the lowest percentage of college degrees, according to a recent report released by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The statistics, which examined educational attainment in the United States in 2007, showed that more than 52 percent of Asians 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 32 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 19 percent of blacks and 13 percent of Hispanics.
The numbers are particularly significant considering adults with advanced degrees earn four times more than those with less than a high school diploma. Workers with a master’s, professional or doctoral degree earned an average of $82,320 in 2006, compared to $56,788 for those with a bachelor’s degree. Those with less than a high school diploma, meanwhile, earned $20,873.
—Victoria Knight, AP
TASTE OF VERACRUZ
 It took a transplanted Veracruz entrepreneur in Texas with a longing for the flavors he grew up with to introduce a popular restaurant from the region to Laredo.
According to the Laredo Morning Times, La Estancia is “the newest hot spot” in the Gateway City.
Veracruz native Juan Manuel Senties, owner and operator of the House of Rentals for 28 years, suddenly got a hankering in 2007 to get into the restaurant business.
Senties got in touch with long-time friend Guillermo Bouchez, owner of three wildly popular La Estancia restaurants in Veracruz state, and convinced him that Laredo was ready for a different kind of Mexican food. The immigrant eatery opened for business in December.
The manager and cooking staff from Veracruz insist on using only the finest ingredients and spices from that region.
“People are always afraid to try something new,” Senties told the Laredo Morning Times. “But I guarantee you —you will be back for more. It is definitely something different and it’s tasty—very, very tasty.”
Must be. After Laredo’s La Estancia had been open for just two weeks, Senties reported that “already we have had people who have come to the restaurant five times.” —Conrad Dahlson
RESTAURANTS
m-m-m-m-m-Mexico
 U.S. foodies are again rallying to Eduardo and Sylvia Rallo’s concept restaurants, this time with flavors from the couple’s native Cuernavaca, the rest of Mexico and beyond.
It has been a whirlwind for both since they left Cuernavaca, met at Harvard, married, and traveled far and wide discovering the world’s dishes and eateries. They then founded the gourmet World Wrapps Restaurants that expanded into a 26-store chain and won the Nation’s Restaurant Hot Concept Winner Award in 1994.
Their new multi-concept enterprise under their Resmex Group umbrella has seven restaurants in California, all different takes with different names.
Consuelo is a Mexican bistro, El Jardin a restaurant and tequila bar, Sazon the epitome of tacos. Thea is something of a departure and reflects the Rallos’ world travels, featuring Mediterranean dishes from Greece and Turkey. All four cater to the sophisticated palates of Silicon Valley’s San Jose.
In San Francisco, Colibri bistro indulges the Rallos’ taste for the central Mexican region they hail from, blending ancient Aztec and Mayan foods like chilies and corn with Spanish and French touches. Meanwhile Zazil, with its cuisine from the Coast of Mexico, brings different but always exquisite traditional flavors to the Bay Area.
Down south in Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley near L.A., Amaranta beckons with the “familiar everyday foods of Mexico.”
Sylvia Rallo serves as the Resmex Group’s CEO, while husband Eduardo is chairman, but he also has his finger in other pies such as Farmacias Remedios, a pharmacy chain he co-founded to focus on the Latino market.
But life isn’t all business. They also have three kids of whom they are very proud – Emiliano, Santiago and Natalia.
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