Hispanic-owned businesses up 54%, study says

Revenues and payrolls also increase in 6-year span.

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By Eric Schwartzberg, Staff Writer Updated 3:56 PM Sunday, October 9, 2011

BUTLER COUNTY — The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in Butler County has doubled in the last decade, according to a regional study.

Conducted by the Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA, LaVerdad Marketing and Hispanics Avanzando Hispanics, the study shows the number of Hispanic-owned firms increased by 54 percent between 2002 and 2007.

The results demonstrate “a clear economic impact on the region,” said Alfonso Cornejo, president of Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA.

“There’s no doubt the Cincinnati-Dayton corridor is experiencing explosive growth,” he said. “That is the utmost reason why growth (of Hispanic-owned business) has been like that.”

The study also shows revenues for Hispanic-owned businesses in Butler County grew by 48 percent, payroll by 57 percent and the amount of employees by 58 percent during that six-year span.

“Hispanic or Latino” refers to a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin regardless of race.

The leap in receipts from $31.9 million in 2002 to $61.5 million in 2007 fills Butler County business owner Isidro Carrero with hope for future entrepreneurs.

“That tells me the Hispanic community is growing and not just growing in number, but growing in the marketplace,” said Carrero, who owns CraftMaster Building Solutions.

Carrero, 34, came to the United States from the Dominican Republic in 1999, first working in New York, then making his way to southwest Ohio several years later

He started out a worker in the construction business and opened Craftmaster Building Solutions in Roselawn in 2003, then subsequently moved it to Hamilton and Okeana in Morgan Twp., where his wife Christa grew up.

Craftmaster is one of 365 firms that contributed to a 51 percent increase in the amount of Hispanic-owned businesses in Butler County between 2002 and 2007, according to a 2011 study carried out by the Hispanic Chamber Cincinnati USA, LaVerdad Marketing and Hispanics Avanzando Hispanics.

Although some Butler County officials have taken a hard-line stance on illegal immigration, Carrero said the county remains “a good place to do business.”

“The market is easy to get into and it’s just more attractive and we just like it here,” he said.

Carrero said growth of Hispanic-owned businesses in Butler County can be attributed a successful entrepreneurial community that works hard and contributes to the community, as well.

The explosive growth of Hispanic-owned businesses in the county also can be attributed to the construction industry, according to Cornejo.

“The construction industry is a very attractive market for us,” Cornejo said.

Nationally, construction and services sectors account for 30 percent of Hispanic-owned businesses.

In 2009, Carrero changed the name of the business from Carrero I.C.A. Construction, which he believes caused some people to hang up on him during marketing calls, to the more homogenous Craftmaster moniker.

Initially meant to “deflect some of the stereotypes of Hispanic companies,” the name change also has had an another welcome effect: it made his business more marketable.

People often believe that the term “Hispanic” refers to a race or a kind of people,” a perception Carrero said is untrue.

“Hispanics are very different,” he said. “We come from different parts of Latin America and we come from different cultures. Many people here in the United States don’t seem to see that difference.”

Carrero estimates that 90 or 95 percent of his Butler County clients are non-Hispanic, the majority of whom take the time to know him for who he is and can see beyond his national heritage.

“They pre-judge you before they get to know you but once they get to know you. But once people get to know you and see your work, things can go well,” Carrero said.

Being in the business of building something from nothing is in his blood, he said.

“My dad owns a transportation company and I grew up in businesses (of other relatives),” Carrero said. “I think that reflects our culture.”

In the Cincinnati region, professional, scientific and technical companies accounted for the single largest category in Hispanic firms by sector with 16.3 percent.

“Professional services are, by far, the largest group of Hispanic-owned businesses,” Cornejo said. “That means lawyers, architects, doctors, engineers, etcetera.”

That top category is followed by the administrative/support/waste management/remediation services firms category (10 percent), “other services, except public administration” (8.7 percent) and construction (8.3 percent).

The study also includes population growth, using 2010 U.S. Census data to show how Ohio’s non-Hispanic population grew by 0.4 percent between 2000 and 2010 to a total of more than 11 million, a gain of just 45,813 people.

Meanwhile, the state’s Hispanic population skyrocketed by 63.4 percent to a total of 354,674.

Contact at (513) 696-4541 or email at eric.schwartzberg@coxinc.com.

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