Immigrant Entrepreneurs Intensify Small Business Growth

By Morris Beschloss Although it’s already a well-known fact that America’s independent small business sector generates more expansion than the rest of the world nations combined, little has been indicated about the intensifying role played by the nation’s immigration surge, and the Hispanic population sector’s contribution, in particular. According to Kansas City, MO-based Kauffman Foundation “Immigration entrepreneurs launched 28% of …

Home of the Free, Land of the Entrepreneur

By Frank Holmes At 16, Jan Koum immigrated to the U.S. from his native Ukraine, then still under communist control. He and his single mother rented a small two-bedroom apartment on government assistance and relied on food stamps. Even though he didn’t own a computer at the time, Koum devoured computer networking manuals and became proficient at hacking, a skill …

Adversity Only Makes These Immigrant Entrepreneurs More Determined

By Daphne Mallory Overcoming adversity is part of life for immigrant entrepreneurs. We sometimes face adversity when fleeing our home countries. We may experience social isolation due to language barriers. Adversity can be a gift. For some immigrants, it’s been the secret ingredient to a successful business. Robert Atallah, CEO of CedarLane Natural Foods, is such a person. He is …

Immigrant Entrepreneurs Prosper on Main Street

By Miriam Jordan When Angel Taveras was growing up in Providence, R.I., in the 1980s, his youth baseball team was sponsored by Alan Jewelry, a local business, which played against the likes of Washington Park Woodworking. These days, sponsors include La Gran Parada restaurant, Reyes Market and other immigrant-owned businesses that have flourished in the city since the 1990s. “Without …

Startups Are Making a Comeback in America

By Steve Matthews and Catarina Saraiva Even though American politicians like to praise small business as the job-creating machine, research shows that it’s the startups that expand employment. These new entrepreneurs are now back on the rise, according to a report Thursday by Kauffman Foundation, which studies entrepreneurial activity. The Kauffman Index of Startup Activity, which is an indicator of new …

Business Lessons From Immigrant Entrepreneurs

By Cheryl Conner What’s the best education for running a business? An MBA? Here’s another idea—I am increasingly impressed with the lessons every business owner can learn from America’s immigrant entrepreneurs. From Google’s Sergey Brin to eBay’s Pierre Omidyar to thousands of local and neighborhood businesses, there’s no denying the impact of immigrant entrepreneurs. According to the U.S. Chamber of …

Immigrant Entrepreneurs Help Fuel Record Growth Streak

By Maria Contreras-Sweet If the U.S. jobs data released on the first Friday of every month is starting to sound like a broken record, it’s because records continue to be broken. The American economy added 267,000 private-sector jobs in January. That’s 59 straight months of consecutive job growth, the longest streak on record by a mile. Our last three months …

Are All Your Customers Created Equal?

“The customer is always right.” “We have to take care of the customer no matter what.” “The customer focused business is a successful business.” We’ve all heard or probably said those things. Have you ever had a customer that you were always happy to see and were happy to see you? Your transactions always went well, were profitable and they …