ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – October 26, 2020 – Looking to help Latino entrepreneurs balance business, family and culture, a Loan Fund small business consultant and Central New Mexico College professor has released a bilingual business book in English and Spanish.
“The U.S.-Latino Entrepreneur’s Guide to Balancing Business, Family and Culture” by Marvin F. Lozano, Ed.D., is the first book to offer the start-up or experienced business owner a bilingual approach to business success. The book includes roles of family and culture for aspiring Latino entrepreneurs and those wanting to understand Latino entrepreneurs. The guide is published with English on the left and Spanish on the right page.
Lozano and his wife, and Miquela C. Rivera, Ph.D., a bilingual clinical psychologist who co-authored the book, began the guide four years ago after teaching and consulting with Spanish-speaking immigrants who wanted to be entrepreneurs. Lozano has been a CNM Business professor for more than two decades and is a small business consultant with The Loan Fund.
“We realized the two core pieces of Latino life – family and culture – were not being addressed in entrepreneurship classes we were teaching at the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce. Adding those components helped participants understand how their core values and relationships inform their business and impact family, whether family members are directly involved in the enterprise or not,” said Lozano, who is also a loan officer with The Loan Fund.
Lozano and Rivera adapted current entrepreneurial research, approaches to problem-solving, business development and money, and blended it with the Business Model Canvas, a template that helps company owners to describe, design and analyze their business models developed by Alex Osterwalder, a Swiss business theorist and entrepreneur. They incorporated this with a U.S. Latino family and culture perspective.
“Together, these components comprise this culturally-sensitive tool that is distinct, meaningful and useful for U.S.-Latino entrepreneurs,” Lozano said.
In addition to traditional business advice such as developing a mission, target markets and cash-flow, this guide helps Latino business owners understand the impact of personal and cultural values on business decision-making and examine roles of family in a Latino entrepreneur’s business development. The guide also helps Latino entrepreneurs develop customers by addressing Latino needs, lifestyles, customs and preferences.
While he offers several words of wisdom, his advice to Latino entrepreneurs when starting a business: “Talk with your family about the importance of having their support and include them in the decisions you make,” Lozano said.
The book is available online from the Kendall Hunt Publishing Co.