'We are a strong community': This entrepreneur is helping boost AZ Latino business owners
In a tucked-away building at the Pera Club in Tempe on a July afternoon, set end to end with over 50 tables each decorated with the names of local car repair shops, dance studios, ice companies and other small businesses, Fuerza Local hosts a graduation for the 22nd cohort of their Acelerador de Negocios program.
The lively event showcases businesses, networking and the achievements of the graduates.
In that space, a woman fleets from table to table. A smile, a conversation here and there, a hug. Tiny check-ins. Every table she stops at seems to light up with her presence, those tabling beam at her with a smile.
She isn't the main event, and she would likely tell you so, but the energy and impact she has on folks is palpable. For nearly half of this year's 53 graduates, Jeovanna Gonzalez, program coordinator at Fuerza Local, is the one who has helped them get to where they are as a teacher, mentor and friend.
Her very first business consultation
Before working for Fuerza Local , the Latino-focused arm of the non-profit Local First Arizona, there was the first business González was pivotal in helping take flight — the one she started alongside her husband.
Their entrepreneurial journey began at a ballpark when young Gonzalez met a Texas Ranger minor league baseball player and the pair fell in love. After they married, a neighbor invited Gonzalez's husband to work at their flooring business in the off-season. Sixteen years later, as her husband began running more of the flooring business, Gonzalez saw an opportunity.
"And then I told my husband, 'You have the tools to start a business,'" Gonzalez said, "and he goes 'Well, I don't know how to do it.'"
After a couple years of nudging, she took matters into her own hands. Piece by piece, she taught herself what was needed to start a business in Arizona.
"I started going and educating myself about how to open a business and how to get your licenses and permits and how to register," she said. "One day, I told my husband, it was his birthday, 'we're going to sign up. Right now, online, we're going to open a company.'"
Just like that GK2 Floor Prep LLC, taking initials from their daughters' first names, began its journey, at least in name.
The next step was a bit harder. After the first couple of years of saving money, they took a leap, spending their savings on two machines to start their flooring company.
There was a moment of doubt, Gonzalez said. What if they wouldn't get contracts, weren't able to persuade clients? "Then I told my husband, 'you know what, I don't care. We can eat beans all day, but, you know? We're going to make it,'" She said.
She was right. Their business has been in operation since 2017.
This experience led them to Fuerza Local, where she and her husband were a part of the 13th cohort of a program that Gonzalez would eventually work for. This fact alone allows many of the participants to connect with her, given the personal success she has seen in the same program they hope to graduate from.
"She has that experience, and she knows how hard sometimes it is to start a business, to get the license and to have everything in order," Angelica Meza, a Fuerza Local graduate and co-owner of Mondald AZ Framing, said. "She knows that we need help and she always has an answer for us." And even when she doesn't, she makes it her mission to find out, Meza said.
For Gonzalez, what pushed her to help others is seeing pieces of those she loves in the participants she helps. She recalled a moment she experienced with a woman who called her about starting a tortilla business. The woman had been laid off from her job in March and was hoping to grow her business selling tortillas as a source of income, so Gonzalez connected her to programs like Fuerza Local's Community Kitchen.
"Every time someone comes, I can see that person being my daughter when she's 20, starting a new business. I can see a 60-year-old woman that wants to start selling her tortillas — that can be my mom," Gonzalez said. "I will see someone in someone, someone that I love. Because, you know, they can be that person."
How Fuerza Local helps boost Latino businesses in Arizona
According to its website, Fuerza Local provides its cohort of participants with a variety of classes and resources in Spanish on creating an LLC or growing an already established business. It also offers programs, including the Acelerador de Negocios and Nivel Ejecutivo, which are business accelerator and leadership programs.
The organization also helps connect businesses to local credit unions, a response to the predatory lenders or scams many small businesses, especially Spanish-speaking owners, may encounter.
While the program tries to protect against such instances, there are times when some owners might slip through the cracks, which is where having a person like Gonzalez in your corner can be an asset.
"She's been there with the community. She knows how we struggle," Javier Cervantes, co-owner of Cervantes Ice and graduate of Fuerza Local, said. "She knows that our community is not very knowledgeable about all the different things that the city or people could have for you, I think that's what makes it even better."
A part of that support is a chat group that Gonzalez runs, where participants she's worked with can ask questions related to their different businesses. It helps people like Meza know how to get in touch with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors for her framing business.
"It's not easy to start a business here in the United States when you're Hispanic. I don't think there's a lot of information for us, and it's hard," Meza said. "And then people are scared about not having a social security number or what about if they do something wrong. It's very important to have somebody like Jeovanna so we can get educated and find the right information."
Via the chat, Jeovanna has created a sense of community by promoting those within and outside of Fuerza Local to support their fellow local businesses as much as possible. Such as when, as Meza shared, Gonzalez sends out messages urging the participants to attend events that other businesses are hosting or when she likes and leaves comments on their social media pages.
It is the sense of community that makes the greatest impact.
"It has had a big impact, not only do we have a business, but we have ourselves because we can provide more things in the community," Rocío Cervantes, co-owner of Cervantes Ice and Fuerza Local graduate, said.
According to Gonzalez, that community is only growing, the last program had around double the applicants to their available 60 slots for each class with different classes around Arizona, including classes that Gonzalez facilitates in Avondale and south Phoenix.
Empowering Arizona women starts at home
Outside of the office, Gonzalez is an active part of her daughters' lives, whether it's volunteering at school, movie nights with the family or mother-daughter outings. She also sets an example for them, along with her husband, to be empowered women.
"We make decisions, both of us, and sometimes in our culture, who makes decisions? Men, right? Not in my case," Gonzalez said, "We always will make decisions together."
Just as she does for her daughters, she does for many women she meets at her office. As a part of the Fuerza Local program, business owners or aspiring entrepreneurs have to interview and present their business plans in the initial process. During those interviews, Jeovanna noticed a trend.
Women were more inclined to describe their role in a business with their husbands as "just helping," often minimizing their involvement, which she said included administrative tasks like running payroll, processing checks and taking phone calls.
"You're not helping, you're a partner. You need your 50% share," Gonzalez said. "I see that in my community, they think they are just helping, but you know, you're not helping. You are a partner, that's yours too. Take it. Fight for it."
Gonzalez also supports the Latina community through her involvement in events and other partnerships, like when she joins Meza on her podcast Mujeres al Aire, where Meza first learned about Fuerza Local by inviting its leadership as a guest. Since then, she has had Gonzalez on as a part of the podcast's larger mission.
"Our goal is to help our Hispanic community, especially women, because I think Hispanic people have a lot of talent and a lot of dreams, but they don't know how to get there," Meza said. "With Fuerza Local, counseling, different companies, nonprofit companies, they have a lot of different resources, so my job is to share those resources with my people. Jeovanna is part of those resources."
According to Fuerza Local's 2023 Impact Report , since its inception in 2013, the program has had over 1,100 graduates of the six-month business accelerator program.
"As a business community, we are a strong community," Gonzalez said. "I mean, we buy local, you know, you need to go and buy next door, not a big corporation because you want the Latino families to succeed and have the generational wealth."
As the alumni community grows, the ability to support it grows as well.
"Sometimes you have a talent or you have a dream, and you don't know how to do it. You feel like, 'I don't know English, I don't have the money, I don't have the education,'" Meza said. "I think Fuerza Local is helping a lot of women, and Hispanic people in this country, especially in Arizona."
