Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008 - (Page 6)

BRIEFCASE BizBuzz BUSINESS IN BRIEF Politics, marketing, trade & trends HISPANIC COMMERCE BIG CHANCE FOR MEXICANS IN U.S. TO BUY HOUSE BACK HOME FINANCING Prosper, based in San Francisco, is one of a tiny but growing number of for-proﬁt online social lending marketplaces in the U.S., which some entrepreneurs are looking to as alternatives to bank loans. As the credit crunch makes getting a loan even harder for small business owners, for-proﬁt social lending could play a bigger role in ﬁnancing small enterprises in the U.S. Most sites reported that between 20 percent to 30 percent of loans are for businesses; it is the second most common reason borrowers listed, after reﬁnancing debt. —John Tozzi in BusinessWeek Mexicans aren’t just sending remittances home these days. They’re also buying houses in their homeland, thanks to Cemex offshoot Construmex, which for six years has offered ﬁnancing for Mexican immigrants in the U.S. to buy construction materials or ﬁnished houses back home. Now the company has decided to step up its offer. Construmex recently got together with 35 construction companies—both large-scale ﬁrms with operations around the country and smaller outﬁts—to build houses in Mexico for expats living in the United States, according to an Efe article in La Raza. All the builders are committed Cemex clients “to be able to assure the quality of the houses,” Construmex U.S.-based General Manager Andres Montalvo told Efe Principally targeted by the Construmex offer are the estimated 8 million Mexicans residing in California, Illinois and Texas— although this year the company is also reaching out to other U.S. areas through a toll-free line and other means. Montalvo makes two points about the credit crunch currently wreaking havoc in the U.S. First, that “it has not made us necessarily more vigilant in granting ﬁnancing,” and secondly, “Mexican clients see a great possibility, or a better deal, investing in Mexico rather than here.” He estimated that more than 80,000 Mexican families have already taken advantage of the ﬁnancing for buying building materials or ﬁnished houses in the land of their birth. MARKETING & ADVERTISING SELLING IN SPANISH Bucking a trend of diminishing advertising revenues in print—Associated Press announced that newspaper ads dropped by 7.4 percent in the third quarter last year—Southern California’s El Clasiﬁcado is on a roll. In that same quarter, its revenues surged by almost 24 percent. 6 Following the winning formula of founder and publisher Martha de la Torre, the free Spanish-language classiﬁed ads publication with information on “everything from health and education to consumer alerts and real estate” is snapped up by 310,000 readers weekly in 150 cities around Southern California. It also appears online at www.elclasiﬁcado.com and organizes grassroots events with sponsorship opportunities. The Los Angeles Business Journal recently listed it as one of the area’s 100 fastest-growing privately held companies. HISPANIC ENTERPRISE February/March 2008 http://www.elclasificado.com http://www.elclasificado.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008

Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008 Contents Briefcase: BIZBUZZ: Business Briefs Briefcase: Trendsetters Briefcase: BIZTECH: Virtually Meeting BizLife: Travel: Madrid's New Attraction Q & A: Mi Case es su Casa Hispanic Commerce: The Agenda Cover Story: The Top 50 Corporations for Supplier Diversity Technology: Hispanic Web 2.0 Success & Motivation: Sweetening the Deal Politics & Government: The Rescue Generation Managing: The Method Franchising: The Hispanic Face of Franchising Chamber Focus: It's Showtime Movers & Shakers: Open for Business Finance & Investing: Getting Your 401(K) on Target

Hispanic Enterprise - February/March 2008

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