Foreign-born business ownership grows in Rochester
USINFO | 2013-11-19 16:46

 
Two months ago, Mohammed Shoble bought Northside Auto Repair at 462 North St., realizing a dream he had since fleeing war-torn Somalia in 1996, when he was only 13 years old.
 
“If you have ambitions and goals and you pursue it you will achieve your goals. The opportunity will not come to you. You have to look for it,” said Shoble, now 27.
 
Throughout the Rochester area, refugees and immigrants like Shoble are staking claim to their own version of the American dream, by establishing businesses, creating jobs and helping to drive the local local economy.
 
Sometimes, their businesses continue a career started elsewhere. For others, running a business is an entirely new adventure, often prompted by the difficulties of finding work in an unfamiliar world.
 
“The history of a lot of city neighborhoods is that they sort of get re-energized, re-invigorated through new immigrant groups coming in, establishing homes, renting, and then buying, and then starting businesses in those neighborhoods. It’s a great recipe for keeping neighborhoods fresh, keeping storefronts open,” said Jim Morris, director of refugee immigration services for the Catholic Family Center.
 
DIVERSE SHOWCASE
For example, South Clinton Avenue, near Goodman Street, is crammed with immigrant-owned businesses.
 
“It’s very ethnically diverse in terms of markets and restaurants along that stretch, and it’s a great showcase of the different immigrant entrepreneurs that are active in the city,” Morris said.
 
Larry Wong, and his wife, Kelly Wong, have owned Ming’s Noodles, 1038 S. Clinton Ave., for 17 years.
 
Kelly, now 40, said she came to Rochester from China when she was 13 with her family “to have a better life.” Larry, 51, came with his parents when he was 18. “We started with very little. In China we wouldn’t have this kind of business,” Kelly said.
 
Natanael Beshah, who came to Rochester from Ethiopia 10 years ago, opened Zemeta Ethiopian Restaurant at 1015 S. Clinton about three months ago.
 
“It’s not easy to start right away. You have to know the language to communicate,” said Beshah, 35.
 
He also came to the United States for the economic opportunities. “I didn’t have a chance to go to school over there. You work hard but nothing changes. There’s a lot of corruption,” he said.
 
BROAD INFLUENCE
Monroe County is home to more than 62,000 residents born in more than 100 countries, according to the 2009-2011 American Community Survey, which used data collected over the three years to calculate estimates. Most are from China (4,700), India (4,600), Italy (4,000) and Canada (3,100).
 
The U.S. Census Bureau conducts a survey every five years to gather information about foreign ownership of businesses. The most recent survey was done in 2007. Out of about 55,000 companies with paid employees in Monroe County, about 1,900 were owned by Asian-born residents, 667 were owned by Asian Indians, and 602 were owned by Chinese-born immigrants.
 
Businesses owned by foreign-born residents in Monroe County have total sales approaching $600 million, almost 5,000 workers and a total payrolls of $120 million, according to the Census data. Preliminary data collected in the 2012 survey won’t be released until December.
 
The influence of immigrant entrepreneurs is not limited to corner stores, restaurants and boutiques. Immigrant entrepreneurs account for a significant share of high-tech venture capital funded enterprises, according to a study commissioned by the National Venture Capital Association.
 
According to the Immigrant Learning Center, a non-profit group that helps immigrants and refugees get work:
 
In a report released by the Immigrant Learning Center earlier this year, 18 percent of small business owners in the U.S. are immigrants, and immigrants started 28 percent of all new U.S. businesses in 2011, while accounting for only 13 percent of the overall population.
 
And immigrants are more than twice as likely as native-born residents to start a business. In 2011, the immigrant business-formation rate was 550 new businesses per month for every 100,000 immigrants, while the native-born rate was only 270 new businesses per month for every 100,000.
 
But the trend is slowing, according to the Kauffman Foundation. It reports that the number of high-tech, immigrant-founded startups nationwide declined from 25.3 percent to 24.3 percent since 2005.
 
SUPPORT GROWS
The motivation and experience of starting a small business can be very different for an immigrant entrepreneur. Often they focus on providing food or other products and services that are in demand within an existing ethnic community, said Virginia Smith, director of the Rochester office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
 
Funding is often raised from relatives. The SBA does not sponsor loans for non-citizens.
 
“They might be starting from their kitchen for example, or their living room and eventually they grow into a bigger business that then would go to financing to a local lender,” she said.
 
In Rochester, an increasing demand for support services for immigrant entrepreneurs has triggered plans by several groups to provide training.
 
“It’s something that’s on our radar collectively as well as within (Catholic Family Center),” said Morris.
 
Morris said the Catholic Family Center will offer entrepreneurial seminars next year.
 
DelSmith, director of Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Urban Entrepreneurship expected to open next year, said the center will assist other agencies in providing programs for immigrants.
 
Hubert Vantol, senior director for economic development for PathStone, a non-profit community development and human service agency, said his organization is about to start a new program to assist Somali immigrants who want to start new businesses.
 
“We’ve done a lot of small business training in the Rochester area over the past dozen years or so, but this is where we’re trying to adapt this for people who aren’t particularly familiar with the language and the customs. That part of it is an experiment for us,” he said.
 
P. Reffell Conteh, president and CEO of the Wachuku Foundation, 130 White St., an organization that provides job training for immigrants, is planning to work with the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship to provide support services for immigrants who want to start businesses.
 
“There is a very significant immigrant population here in Rochester that takes part in what we consider to be entrepreneurship which is almost due to the obstacles that they have when they come to the country and they’re not acculturated and they don’t know the language,” Del Smith said.
 
In some ways, the social disadvantages of immigrants is what’s driving them to start their own businesses, he said.
 
“A lot of people go into entrepreneurship, not because it’s some ideal work environment for them, or something they’ve always wanted and dreamed of doing, but they go into entrepreneurship because they feel like their opportunities are limited in their surroundings,” he said.
 
“The immigrant population, more than anyone, we find really goes into entrepreneurship and they see it as a way to support themselves and their families when they’re in an environment that is otherwise very difficult for them to go out there and get a job,” he said.
 
The study found that 20 percent of venture-funded companies with an initial public offering before 2006, had an immigrant founder. But between 2006 and 2012, immigrants started 33 percent of venture-backed companies in the United States that eventually became publicly traded — a total of 92 companies. Before 1980, only 7 percent of publicly traded venture-funded companies in the U.S. had an immigrant founder or co-founder.
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