New York ranked in the top five states for Latino-owned business applications alongside California, Texas, New Jersey, and Florida. An annual study from Biz2Credit found earnings and applications for small business loans for Latino-owned companies increased since 2016-17.
“Latino-owned companies had very strong revenue figures – 26.5% growth – in 2017-18,” said Rohit Arora, CEO of Biz2Credit, who oversaw the research. “Much of it can be attributed to the entrepreneurial spirit that immigrants bring to the country and the overall strong U.S. economy.”
This confidence in the economy and overall optimism for small business ventures is evident according to NFIB’s Small Business Optimism which recorded its highest score, 108.8, in the 45 year history of the survey.
“As a Latino business owner, I have seen such an increase in the Hispanic population over the past 20 years. This growth has afforded Latino business owners with a great deal of confidence and has made the general market take our community seriously,” said radio station owner Victor Canales of VCMG Live, better known by his radio personality Vic Latino in New York.
What’s even more telling than the number of business applications increasing for Latino-owned businesses is the approval rate of those applications. The study reported 27 percent of Latino-owned business applications were approved in the past year which is roughly the same as that of non-Latino applicants, according to Forbes.
Unfortunately, there is still room for improvement as the study also found most Latino small business owners still have a lower credit score than their non-Latino peers. The average credit score for Latino owners was 594 while non-Latinos had an average score of 608.
