3C Insider: Digital Tools Help Hispanic Small Businesses Grow and Thrive
It’s National Hispanic Heritage Month, and 3C has a simple message for policymakers: aim to make it easier, not harder, for Hispanic entrepreneurs to use affordable digital tools to run and grow their businesses. Digital tools are the key to success for many Hispanic small businesses, and policymakers should support programs and policies that ensure small businesses, especially minority-led ones, have access to training and workshops to better leverage digital tools that empower success.
Nearly one in four new businesses is Hispanic-led, and the 5 million Hispanic-led businesses in the U.S. add more than $800 billion to the U.S. economy. Research shows that digital tools help Hispanic-led small businesses unlock important business opportunities. In our advocacy efforts for digitally empowered small businesses, we’ve shared the stories of many of these impressive Hispanic entrepreneurs.
- Juanny Romero of Sunrise Coffee, Las Vegas’ longest-running independent coffee shop, used digital tools to get her business through the pandemic and expand it further.
- Feliciano Zavala runs Peninsula Party Rentals, which rents out party supplies like helium tanks, tents, and chairs for fun occasions. He saw sales jump by 900 percent when he started using Google Ads.
- Josenny Tineo and Michelle Peralta of Josie + Michelle Events took their business virtual during the pandemic and kept it humming along; now that in-person events are back, they continue to use digital tools to get the word out.
- Andrea Lisbona of Touchland was in the right place at a difficult time, launching her hydrating hand sanitizer in 2019 and seeing sales skyrocket 1,200 percent once the pandemic began in 2020; digital marketplaces and ad tools helped her along the way.
Stories like these show why Hispanic and other small businesses must band together, share resources, and stay informed on important policies that could impact their companies. Fortunately, we have exciting news on that front.
Over the last few months, we’ve been developing a community engagement platform for small business leaders to connect with others, ask questions, and stay up to date on 3C events and activities. If you’re interested in joining the 3C Community, please submit this form to access the platform. We hope to see you there, and I look forward to uniting together and advancing our advocacy to the next level.
Rob Retzlaff
Executive Director
I am 3C – Small Business Stories
Lawmakers need to see firsthand how digital tools make running a business easier. We would love for you to share an “I am 3C” vignette that reminds policymakers how important digital technologies are to your success. If you are interested in sharing your own story, simply let us know here.
Chilitos Dulces y Chamoy
Digital Tools Are Sweet For One Small Business
Alex Salazar started his business selling traditional Mexican chamoy candy in 2021. Soon, thanks to the candy’s quality and flavor, the company saw its business take off, with more than 5,000 orders within the first 10 months. And it was mainly due to digital tools that he could cope with such a rapid expansion. As he puts it, “We were founded on the internet and wouldn’t dream of opening a storefront because of how convenient it is to sell online.”
What makes selling on the internet so convenient? Digital tools like his Shopify website, along with important Google tools like Business Profiles, Maps, Ads + Analytics, and many others. However, Alex worries that Congress will destroy his storefront as it goes after technology companies in a misguided attempt at antitrust legislation. “The idea that Congress could pass a law that destroys how Google works is truly frightening. I don’t know what would happen to my business, and I’m not interested in finding out,” he says.
Op-Eds
As you know, every issue is a small business issue. As policymakers rush to pass legislation, it’s crucial for them to hear from small business leaders like you before making decisions that could affect your company and your future. While there are many ways to make that happen, one of the most effective is submitting an opinion piece to your local newspaper. Please reach out if you want to learn more.
Small businesses can’t afford Washington’s war on tech
New York Daily News
John T. Scott, Emeritus professor of economics, Dartmouth College
Professor John T. Scott from Dartmouth College wrote this op-ed highlighting the latest report on the “Estimates of Potential Harm to U.S. SMBs” he worked on in partnership with Data Catalyst Institute. As that research showed, if the anti-tech antitrust legislation currently being considered by Congress becomes law, digital platforms will almost certainly remain large, but because their small business products and services — app stores, retail marketplaces, advertising and marketing, and others — would be forced to change and become less useful, small businesses will lose $500 billion in revenue in just the first five years after enactment. This equates to millions of small businesses losing more than $100,000 each during the first five years after the proposed law takes effect!
Upcoming Events
3C Happy Hours
Tuesday, October 11th
6:00 PM EDT / 3:00 PM PDT
3C Happy Hours are back! If you have any questions related to small business advocacy or need assistance with digital tools, the 3C team is here to help. If not, we’d love just to spend some time together and get to know one another. Note that this Happy Hour will be hosted on our new 3C Community platform. To sign up, simply register here and select ‘Add to Calendar’ on the 3C Happy Hour page.
Roundtable Discussion: Selling Your Products on Amazon
Tuesday, October 18th
1:00 PM EDT / 10:00 AM PDT
Join us for a roundtable discussion on how to get started selling products on Amazon. We will hear from three small businesses about their tips and tricks and how they get started themselves. We hope that we will be able to provide you with insight as to whether selling on this platform is the right fit—and how to go about doing so if it is. Click here to RSVP now.
Your Quick Digital Fix
It’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and CISA (the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Association) has some helpful tips about multi-factor authentication, which requires at least two forms of ID before you can get into your accounts, keeping them safer from hackers. Read about the types of authentication, how to enable it, and more.
Here are 5 things you should know:
1. Increase holiday sales with Google tools
It’s October, and everyone is starting to realize they need to buy holiday gifts. So it’s time for small businesses to step up their product promotion. Google Tools can help with that, especially Google Business Profile and Merchant Center (a no-cost tool that lets businesses create Google product listings). Sign up for this helpful workshop on October 12th to learn more about these tools.
2. Amazon tips for holiday sellers
Amazon is also crucial to getting the most out of the holiday season. Helium10 provides ten key steps to avoid missing out on customers on the platform. It covers how to predict demand for various products, forecast inventory, optimize for holiday-related keywords, and much more.
3. E-commerce SEO: how online stores can drive organic traffic
Search engine optimization is one of the easiest strategies for boosting a small business’s reach, and it carries one of the highest ROI of any e-commerce marketing campaign. With this in mind, understanding SEO best practices can help transform and unlock any e-commerce business—such as the tips contained in this primer from BigCommerce.
4. 5 easy steps to optimize a LinkedIn Service Page
LinkedIn is a great place to find customers, with its global network of 800+ million professionals. Plus, a LinkedIn Service Page is free. This LinkedIn blog post explains how to set one up, from creating a friendly introduction for customers to adding an overview of services and uploading media clips that showcase past work and successes.
5. Canva Docs: an easy way to add more visuals to documents
Is the internet made of words or pictures? The answer is both, but pictures may have the edge now. People send emojis, memes, and videos almost more easily than they write text, yet to create long-form work, they still rely on text-based documents in Microsoft Word or Google Docs. Now, ZDNet reports, Canva has created a product called Canva Docs to help people better use images and video within documents.
Do you have a small business story you’d like to share with us or any questions or concerns you’d like us to address? Email us at membership@connectedcouncil.org
