This Chamber of Commerce is helping their immigrant business owners with marketing and other things any small business owner needs help with. They value these business owners and know their success helps the whole community. DP
By Saundra Amrhein, Times Staff Writer
tampabay.com: Whether it's a bakery selling mango and guava pastries, a sporting goods store called Deportes, or a Latin deli offering yucca and pork, Hispanic businesses are popping up all over eastern Hillsborough.
Now the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce wants to both capture and nurture that growing sector as well as teach its current members and general businesses how to tap coveted Hispanic customers.
The chamber launched the initiative in February with a focus group made up of first-generation immigrants, Hispanics new to Brandon from other parts of the country, and second-generation Hispanics who prefer English.
The group included business owners, bank managers and teachers, said Ivette Mayo, a Brandon chamber member who helped plan the focus group and who runs her own cultural consultation business.
"They left their countries where they were business people, and now they are here adding to the economic development growth of Brandon," said Mayo, who started her business in the Brandon and Riverview area two years ago.
"A lot of them have found that in this community, it was very easy to come in, and they have been embraced," she said. "They are not only opening doors; they are thriving."
Still, the focus group members wanted more information and help with services such as promotion and marketing, she said.
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