These Businesses Can Help Drive the Economic Recovery
Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) have been a significant engine of new business creation in the US. They helped pull us out of the last recession.
Latino-owned businesses (LOBs) have been a significant engine of new business creation in the US. They helped pull us out of the last recession. And now there is a subset of LOBs that are poised to lead in the next economic recovery, given the right support to weather the present storm and grow in the future.
Of the 4.8 million LOBs—14 percent of all US businesses—Gacelas, the Spanish word for gazelles, are a rapidly growing segment with the greatest potential to scale up. They could make a big dent in the $1.47 trillion opportunity gap, which is the additional amount LOBs would contribute if they were able to grow to scale at the same rate as non-Hispanic, white-owned businesses. Their job creation potential is also significant: before the pandemic LOBs were on track to create an additional 5.5 million jobs if parity of capital were reached. These numbers should clearly...