Hispanic Enterprise - December 2007/January 2008 - (Page 8) BRIEFCASE BizBuzz BUSINESS IN BRIEF Politics, marketing, trade & trends LATIN AMERICA’S MOMENT Cultural affinities and personal connections are excellent assets, but Hispanic entrepreneurs thinking of doing business in Latin America are well advised to get some hard facts on how things are going. Overall, the news is good, according to a new Cisco Systems report by G. Patrick Pawling. The region, he says, is emerging from the generalized slump of recent years and looks forward to an average annual GDP growth of 4.8 percent through 2008. Points in favor of taking the plunge and doing business down south: currencies are stabilizing, inflation is moderate, debt is being managed, and while interest rates are high in some countries, politically the region looks stable. Of the 33 Latin American countries that are home to some 500 million people, the most thriving economies are to be found in Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Argentina, Peru and Chile. One area of opportunity is IT, since up to now Latin America has invested less in the computer field than any other region—just 1.4 percent of its GDP, according to the Cisco report (www.developers.net/ciscoshowcase). Nonetheless, “access to technology and the money to buy it are both becoming easier to obtain.” Connecting the dots, that sounds like a whole lot of expansion ahead. Ricardo Villate, program manager of Enterprise Solutions for IDC Latin America, sees the way ahead as fairly clear of threats, with only the mildest of caveats: “There is always uncertainty, but these days things are much more under control.” SNIPPET DRIVING FACTORS The service sector, which includes such companies as airlines, beauty salons, accountants, doctors, dentists and plumbers, are driving the economy in the midst of a slump in the manufacturing sector. “The activity of non-manufacturing businesses increased for the 50th straight month in October,” said Anthony Nieves, president of the ISM (Institute for Supply Management). —La Voz, AzCentral.com TREND FINANCE With lenders spooked by late summer’s credit crunch and the housing market continuing its slide, many entrepreneurs are finding capital harder to come by. Banks have tightened the spigots, and even Small Business Administration 7(a) loans may be tougher to land. Declining home values in many parts of the country are limiting the amount of equity that business owners can use as collateral for loans, as well as the amount of credit available to them. —Business Week APPAREL ALL TRENDY AND ECO-FRIENDLY The North Pole is melting, water in the South is scarce, wildfires have devastated vast tracts of California—isn’t it time we paid a little attention to the environment? That’s what Marta Soto thought when she started Bangledox Eco-Friendly Urban Clothing. Her conscientious company makes organic T-shirts from “organic 8 cottons and earth-friendly inks and dyes,” plus equally green accessories such as Paparazzi sunglasses and truckers’ caps. Marta Soto’s experience echoes many other entrepreneurs’ beginnings—when she lost her job it was, “Great, now I can start my own business.” She parlayed her natural devotion to the environment into a green T-shirt line that she began selling, modestly enough, in flea markets around St. Roberts, Missouri, in 2003. She then went on to set up her own online store. Soto’s “all trendy and eco-friendly” gear is not yet in stores, although that seems to be on the horizon. It is available online at www.bangledox.com. December/January 2008 HISPANIC ENTERPRISE http://AzCentral.com http://www.developers.net/ciscoshowcase http://www.bangledox.com
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