Daily Business Report-Feb. 26, 2020
Orlando Osornio owns Tortas Al 100 in Salinas. (Photo by Kate Cimini/ The Salinas Californian)
Latino small business owners are the
fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in U.S.
The following from CALmatters is an abridged story by Kate Cimini from the Salinas Californian
Latino small business owners are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the U.S., even as they battle systemic racism that has resulted in lower incomes and loan rates. Over the past 10 years, the number of Latino business owners grew 34 percent, compared to 1 percent for all business owners in the United States, according to a recent study from Stanford University. And more Latinos than ever are applying for small business loans to launch or grow their operations.
Becoming an economic force
The growing success of Latino small business owners comes as Latinos are increasingly becoming an economic force in the U.S. The same Stanford study found Latino-owned businesses contributed about $500 billion to the economy in annual sales.
A 2019 report to Congress based on data from 2017 found almost 60 million Latinos in the United States already account for $2.3 trillion in economic activity in total, which on its own would rank as the eighth largest economy in the world. And Latinos are projected to make up 30 percent of the U.S. population by 2020, meaning the group’s contributions are only likely to grow.
Latino-owned businesses employ more than 3 million people, the 2019 State of Latino Entrepreneurship report by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative (SLEI), a Stanford University research initiative centered around Latinos in business, found. All told, Latino-owned businesses account for about 4 percent of U.S. business revenues and 5.5 percent of U.S. employment.
However, Latino-owned companies remain smaller than white-owned firms, averaging only $1.2 million in revenue compared with $2.3 million brought in by a white-owned company.
That is a problem, said Jerry Porras, a professor of organizational behavior and change emeritus at Stanford Business School, co-founder of the Latino Business Action Network, a nonprofit out of Stanford University focused on empowering Latino business owners, and co-director of SLEI.
“I think that there’s really a positive story when you look at Latino businesses across the country,” said Porras. “The number is smaller as a base but its growing very rapidly.
Latinos are oriented towards starting businesses and are doing it at a significant rate.”
If Latino-owned employer firms were given the same chances, Porras said, they would generate an additional $4 billion in revenue and 1 million jobs.
Across the U.S., Latinos are represented in all the major industry sectors, owning businesses in manufacturing, education, health services, finance, construction and more.
Latino business owners tend to be younger than non-Latino business owners. Roughly 33 percent of Latino entrepreneurs are younger than 45, compared to just 22 percent of non-Latino entrepreneurs.
For every 100,000 Latino adults in the United States, on average 510 became entrepreneurs each month in 2018.
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Christine Van Loo to Speak at Women’s Week 2020
Transcendence: How to Rise Above Your Limiting Beliefs
The foundation of every action you will take, every goal will you achieve, and every ounce of potential you bring to your success is believing in yourself. That’s a message that Christine Van Loo will deliver. She is an American aerialist and acrobat, and former champion acrobatic gymnast. She was named the 1988 Olympic Female Athlete of the Year for Sports Acrobatics and named the Athlete of the Decade for the 1980s by the U.S. Sports Acrobatics Federation.
When 85 percent of the population, that’s 4 out of every 5 of you, according to research, lack self-esteem, though, the question becomes “How do you believe in yourself when you don’t?” she says. Learn 3 powerful strategies to transcend into peak confidence, conquer self-doubt, and achieve world class success.
San Diego Women’s Week events are March 16 -20. Everyone is invited, and tickets can be purchased at www.sdwomensweek.com.
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City obtains injunction against Instacart
for not complying with Dynamax ruling
San Diego City Attorney Mara W. Elliott on Tuesday obtained a preliminary injunction against Instacart, a multi-billion-dollar grocery-delivery company, for not complying with the worker classification standard established by the California Supreme Court’s 2018 decision in Dynamex Operations West Inc. v. Superior Court.
Under Dynamex, an individual is legally an employee if he or she performs a core function of a business, is not free from the business’ control, or is not engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business.
Meeting any one of those three tests is enough to classify a worker as an employee. In granting a preliminary injunction against Instacart, the court said it was likely that the city would be able to prove at trial that all three apply to Instacart’s “shoppers,” whose job is to purchase and deliver groceries within an hour of a customer’s order. The court also found that both the “shoppers” and the public would be irreparably harmed unless a preliminary injunction was issued.
“This landmark ruling makes clear that Instacart employees have been misclassified as independent contractors, resulting in their being denied worker protections to which they are entitled by state law,” Elliott said. “We invite Instacart to work with us to craft a meaningful and fair solution.
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Citadel Defense gets military contract
to deliver counter drone systems
San Diego-based Citadel Defensesaid its Titan system has been selected by a military customer for ground and airspace perimeter security deployments overseas. The number of Titan systems delivered and details about the contract were not disclosed by the company.
The Titan system sensor accurately detects, identifies and defeats ground, sea and airspace drone threats using patent-protected technology combined with powerful control software, according to the company. It said the system has smaller size, weight, and power requirements and a proven track record of success in combat environments.
“In high stress environments, Titan’s easy to use interface and completely autonomous configuration act as Force Multipliers for any unit,” according to Citadel.
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San Diego-based Soft-Pak acquired
by Tennessee based ESG
Soft-Pak, formed in 1980 and based in San Diego to provide software for waste and recycling fleets, has been acquired by Tennesee-based Environmental Solutions Group.
Soft-Pak, which will become part of ESG’s business unit, has a 30-year track record of serving hundreds of waste and recycling fleets nationwide with innovative software solutions tailored to a customer’s unique needs, according to the acquisition announcement.
In 2014,Soft-Pak launched the highly innovative and successful Mobile-Pak in-cab cloud-based tablet solution that includes real-time GPS tracking and route management, along with other customer service and billing functions that make digital integration of a hauler’s fleet easier, the announcement said.
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Heatwave exposure linked to increased
risk of preterm birth in California
More than just causing discomfort, regional heatwaves have been associated with a number of health risks, particularly for children and the elderly.
A new study by researchers at University of California San Diego identified another important at-risk group: people who are pregnant and their unborn infants. The study, published February 11, 2020 in Environment International, found that exposure to heatwaves during the week before birth was strongly linked to an increased risk of preterm delivery — the hotter the temperature or the longer the heatwave, the greater the risk. In particular, longer duration heatwaves were associated with the highest risk of a preterm birth.
“We looked at acute exposure to extreme heat during the week before birth, to see if it triggered an earlier delivery,” said first author Sindana Ilango, a PhD student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health at UC San Diego and San Diego State University. “We found a consistent pattern: exposure to extreme heat does increase risk. And, importantly, we found that this was true for several definitions of ‘heatwave.’”
