Minority Owned Businesses in Nevada: Leveling the Playing Field

Nevada is open for business. The state is considered business friendly, and that goes for international corporations and small minority owned businesses equally. 

“With my business, one of the things I observed is that Nevada is truly open for business, whether you are a minority or any other ethnic type of individual doesn’t make any difference,” said Bob Daniel, owner, PrideStaff Las Vegas, a minority and veteran-owned staffing service. 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t issues for minority-owned businesses. It just means there are opportunities. Minority owned businesses face many of the same challenges non-minority-owned businesses face, but ethnicity and culture can play a role. 

“As far as what makes the Asian Chamber of Commerce different [from other chambers], knowing the culture is huge, and not only that culture but the language. A lot of our business owners that come here from different countries don’t speak English very well yet and sometimes they have a hard time following procedures like opening a business,” said Sonny Vinuya, president, Asian Chamber of Commerce. The chamber can help. The designation of Asian Chamber is important because there are 40 countries identified as “Asian.” 

“The fact that we’re the Latin Chamber of Commerce differs us from others in that we’re the trusted organization within the Hispanic community,” said Peter Guzman, CEO/President. “We’ve earned the trust factor, which is really a very important factor in the Hispanic community.” The Latin Chamber is growing as non-Hispanic businesses join because the Hispanic market is $17 billion in Nevada and continuing to grow. “Everybody is trying to get a little bit of that,” Guzman added.

Read the rest of the story at nevadabusiness.com.