Utah's Hispanic residents are growing in economic power, both as consumers and business owners.
And that's a trend the Utah Small Business Development Center hopes to promote.The center announced this morn-ing that its first bilingual entrepreneurial training program will offer classes in Salt Lake City this May.
Gladys Gonzalez, publisher of Salt Lake's Mundo Hispano newspaper, will teach the "Hispanic NxLeveL Entrepreneurial Training Program." Also teaching will be Adriana Andrade-Kosak, administrative assistant with the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce's international trade council/-work force program.
Gonzalez, a native of Colombia, said a course like the one she will teach would have helped her start her bilingual newspaper, because it will explain financial terminology in Spanish and provide information on available support agencies and resources.
"I had to struggle a lot, because even though I knew about the country, . . . when I came here, it was different," Gonzalez said. "The financial system was different. So at the beginning I had to . . . figure out how I would be able to get a loan or get into business and make my business grow."
Michael C. Finnerty, state director of the Small Business Development Center, said the Hispanic market has been underserved by its programs.
"With all of the growth that we see in the Hispanic community, it made perfect sense to us to go ahead and take a look at it as a targeted community to offer the Nx-LeveL program," he said.
According to information from the governor's office, Utah's Hispanic population has grown by more than 38 percent since 1990. And those numbers should grow to more than a quarter of a million people, or almost 10 percent of the state's population, by 2025.
"If 10 percent of the state's population is Hispanic, we cannot help but pay attention to that," Finnerty said. "We're kind of looking down the road and saying, `If it's really going to happen like that, let's be prepared so that as more and more Hispanic people start coming in to the SBDCs, we'll be in a good position to serve them.' "
He said the NxLeveL program is designed to provide comprehensive information on running, owning and operating a small business.
For the Hispanic program, Finnerty said he hopes students will better understand the Spanish-language textbooks. But instruction will take place in both Spanish and English.
"We need to help them bridge the gap between learning in Spanish and being able to work with the English-speaking business community," he said.
For example, he said, a native Spanish speaker who wants to start a business in Utah may need to deal with an English-speaking banker who wants to see a business plan written in English.
Finnerty said the course will cost between $250 and $300 per person, and it includes 13 to 15 three-hour sessions. The development cen-ter will start a follow-up survey one year after graduation for a three-year period to check on the success of the program.
If the program works, it may expand to some of the state's other business development centers.
"We'll deal with it on a region-by-region basis," he said. "The strategy is to roll the program out where it's needed over the course of the next 12 months."
Gonzalez said the program is needed in many areas, and it could be the key to success for Hispanic entrepreneurs.