On a July afternoon, a hidden building at Tempe’s Pera Club is lined with more than 50 tables emblazoned with the names of local auto repair shops, dance studios, ice companies, and other small businesses.Fuerza Local An event was held. Graduation ceremony for the 22nd class of the Acelerador de Negocios program.
The lively event will showcase business, networking, and alumni accomplishments.
In the space, women flit from table to table. Smiles, conversations here and there, hugs. A small check-in. Every table she stops at lights up with her presence, and those tables smile at her.
She’s not the main event, and she would probably say so, but the energy and influence she has on people is palpable. For nearly half of this year’s 53 graduates, Giovanna Gonzalez, Fuerza Local’s program coordinator, has been a teacher, mentor and friend who helped them get to where they are today.
Her first business consultation
Before working at Fuerza Local, the Latino-only arm of the nonprofit Local First Arizona, González’s first business with her husband was central to helping her make the leap.
Their entrepreneurial journey began at the ballpark when the young Gonzalez met a Texas Ranger minor league baseball player and the two fell in love. After the couple married, a neighbor invited Gonzalez’s husband to work at the flooring store during the off-season. Sixteen years later, as her husband started running more of his flooring business, Gonzalez saw an opportunity.
“So I said to my husband, ‘You have the tools to start a business,’ and he said, ‘Well, I don’t know how,'” Gonzalez said.
After several years of nagging, she took matters into her own hands. Little by little, she taught herself what it takes to start a business in Arizona.
“I started teaching myself how to start a business, how to get licenses and permits, how to register,” she said. Start your company online today. ”
So GK2 Floor Prep LLC began its journey, at least in name, taking initials from the daughters’ first names.
The next step was a little more difficult. After saving money for the first few years, they took the plunge and spent their savings on two machines to start a flooring company.
Gonzalez said there was a moment of doubt. What happens if we don’t get a deal or convince a customer? “Then I said to my husband, ‘You know what, I don’t care.’ We could eat beans all day. But you know what, we’re going to get it done,” she said.
She was right. Their business has been operating since 2017.
This experience led them to Fuerza Local, where she and her husband were part of the 13th graduating class of the program where Gonzalez would eventually work. This fact alone allows many participants to connect with her, given the personal success she has seen in the same program she hopes to graduate from.
“She has that experience and knows how difficult it is to start a business, get licenses and everything in place,” said Angelica Meza, Fuerza Local graduate and co-owner of Mondaldo AZ Framing. spoke. “She knows we need help, and she always has the answer,” Meza said, and it’s her mission to find it, even when it’s not.
Gonzalez was inspired to help others by seeing parts of the people she loves in the participants she helps. She recalled a memory she had with a woman who called her about starting a tortilla business. The woman had been laid off from her job in March and wanted to grow her business by selling tortillas as a source of income, so Gonzalez introduced her to programs such as Fuerza Local’s Community Kitchen.
“Every time someone comes in, I find out that it’s my daughter who started a new business at age 20. There’s a 60-year-old woman who wants to start selling tortillas, but it’s my mother who wants to start selling tortillas. Maybe,” Gonzalez said. “I will see someone in someone I love, because they could be that person.”
How Fuerza Local promotes Latino businesses in Arizona
According to its website, Fuerza Local offers participants a variety of classes and resources in Spanish on forming an LLC or growing an existing business. We also offer programs such as Acelerador de Negocios and Nivel Ejecutivo, which are business accelerator and leadership programs.
The organization also helps connect businesses to local credit unions in response to predatory lenders and fraud that many small businesses, especially Spanish-speaking owners, can encounter.
The program tries to protect against such instances, but some owners may let them slip through the cracks. In that case, having someone like Gonzalez in your corner could be an asset.
“She has been working with the community. She knows how we struggle,” said Javier Cervantes, co-owner of Cervantes Ice and Fuerza Local alumnus. “She knows that our community is less knowledgeable about the city and the different things that the people have to offer you, and I think that makes this community even better.”
As part of that support, Gonzalez runs a chat group where participants he has worked with can ask a variety of business-related questions. This will help people like Mr. Meza know how to contact the Arizona Registrar of Contractors for their framing business.
“If you’re Hispanic, it’s not easy to start a business here in the United States. I don’t think we have a lot of information and it’s difficult,” Meza said. “And people are afraid of not having a Social Security number or what will happen if they do something bad. People like Giovanna need people like Giovanna to help us be educated and find the right information. It’s very important to have someone.”
Through chats, Jeovanna created a sense of community by encouraging people within and outside the Fuerza local to support their fellow local businesses in any way they can. This is the case, as Meza shared, when Gonzalez sends messages encouraging participants to attend events sponsored by other companies, or when he likes and leaves comments on social media pages. .
The biggest impact is the sense of community.
“It’s had a huge impact,” said Rocio Cervantes, co-owner of Cervantes Ice and a Fuerza Local alumnus. I have one myself,” he said.
Gonzalez said that community is only growing, with the last program offering 60 spots available in each class at various classes across Arizona, including classes Gonzalez teaches in Avondale and south Phoenix. There were approximately twice as many applicants as compared to the previous year.
Empowering women in Arizona starts at home.
Outside of the office, Ms. Gonzalez is active in her daughters’ lives, whether it’s volunteering at school, watching movies with her family, or going on mother-daughter outings. Along with her husband, she also sets an example for women to be empowered.
“We make decisions, both of us, and sometimes in our culture, but who makes decisions? Men, right? Not in my case,” Gonzalez said. “We always make decisions together.”
Just as she does it with her own daughters, she does it with many of the women she meets in her office. As part of the Fuerza Local program, aspiring business owners or entrepreneurs must be interviewed and present a business plan during the initial process. During these interviews, Giovanna noticed a trend.
Women are more likely to describe their role in business with their husbands as “just helping,” and often keep their husbands’ involvement to a minimum, including administrative tasks such as payroll, processing checks, and answering the phone. That’s what it means.
“You’re not a helper, you’re a partner. You need a 50% cut,” Gonzalez said. “In my community, we think we’re just helping, but we’re not. You’re a partner, and it’s yours. Take it. Fight for it.”
Gonzalez also supports the Latina community through participation in events and other partnerships. For example, when I joined Meza on the podcast “Mujeres Al Aire”. There, Meza first learned about Fuerza Local by inviting leaders as guests. Since then, she’s featured Gonzalez as part of the podcast’s larger mission.
“Our goal is to support the Hispanic community, especially women. I think Hispanics have a lot of talent and a lot of dreams, but how do we get there? I don’t know,” Meza said. “We have a lot of different resources, like Fuerza Local, counseling, different companies, non-profit companies, so my job is to share those resources with our employees. Jeovanna is a part of some of those resources. is.”
Since its inception in 2013, the program has produced more than 1,100 graduates of its six-month business accelerator program, according to Fuerza Local’s 2023 Impact Report.
“As a business community, we are a strong community,” Gonzalez said. “So we’re buying local. Because we want Latino families to succeed and have generational wealth, we need to go and buy next door, not from big corporations. is.”
As our alumni community grows, so does our ability to support it.
“Sometimes you have a talent or a dream, but you don’t know how to make it come true. You feel like, ‘I don’t know English, I don’t have money, I don’t have an education,'” Meza said. Ta. “I think Fuerza Local is helping a lot of women and Hispanic people in this country, especially in Arizona.”
