Under the scorching sun, Heriberto Nogales waters Japanese Maple saplings on a rented half-acre lot just off the Tualatin Valley Highway.

For the past two years, Nogales has spent mornings, evenings and weekends tending to trees and plants, infusing leftover energy and income from his full-time nursery job into soil, stakes, and seed. His goal: To jump-start his own nursery business.

But it can be tough going for an immigrant with little capital and English skills. There are days when sheer determination pushes Nogales to graft plants and fix rickety greenhouses.

A new program may help. Adelante Empresas, launched this spring by Forest Grove nonprofit Adelante Mujeres, is teaching Nogales and half a dozen other Washington County Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs to overcome barriers and develop skills to start or improve their small businesses. It also encourages environmentally sustainable businesses.

The program is crucial in a county with a growing Latino population - 15 percent of the total population, according to the 2007 American Community Survey.

“We’re helping Latinos be more economically viable,” Adelante Empresas coordinator Ali Brown, said. “It will allow them to invest back into the community, and lead to more community development.”

Latinos face special challenges in developing business ventures, Brown said, because language and cultural barriers abound. Many Latino entrepreneurs may have trouble communicating in English with clients, she said. Or, they may not know how to properly greet a client who walks through the door.

Some lack formal education, Brown said, and “need to be taught how to think the same way as an entrepreneur who was born and educated in the United States.”

Latino immigrants often lack social capital. Their communities are self-contained and isolated, she said, with little access to clients in other Metro area neighborhoods.

“Opening them to a larger community is key,” Brown said.

Turning dreams into reality
Adelante Empresas helped Nogales establish a marketing plan for his nursery and figure out what kind of permits to obtain.

Nogales, 38, who lives in Forest Grove, recently went to register his nursery license, pesticide license, and to buy insurance.

“It’s tough when you’re here without your family’s help,” Nogales said. “The laws are different and you need a lot of money, it’s harder to start.”

The nursery pesticide applicator has lived in Oregon for nine years with his wife and five children. He said his parents ran a farming and ranching operation in the Mexican state of Hidalgo.

Nogales worked in the fields since he was 6 years old, he said. Through Adelante Mujeres, he took an organic farming class and hopes to run his nursery pesticide-free.

His dream: to buy his own land, where he can plant at will and sell plants to large companies.

“My goal is to be independent, to get ahead in life,” Nogales said. “I want to show people that Latinos come to help. If we all had businesses, we would help the country and we would not require government services.”

Adelante Empresas provides a cooperative referral system — a mini chamber of commerce of sorts — and consumers who visit its website can do one-stop shopping for several locally owned services.

It also is developing a mentorship program with local business owners and executives. The goal is to match practiced volunteers with the Latino entrepreneurs, so they can learn and become integrated into the county’s small business community.

Cleaning Wizards is the result of a successful match. In the fall of 2007, a group of three women who participated in Adelante Mujeres’ Adult Education Program launched a sustainable cleaning business. Two years later, Adelante Empresas matched them with a business mentor who is helping the women take their business to a new level.

For over a year, Idolina Ibarra, 38, of Hillsboro; Gabriela Perez, 31, of Beaverton; and Margarita Plancarte, 41, of Forest Grove sold food at construction sites to raise money and chipped in their own savings. The women, who have lived in Oregon between three and 17 years and originally hail from Mexico, worked cleaning for other companies, but dreamed to be self-employed.

“I came to this country to work and get ahead,” Ibarra said. “It was hard, but my goal is to make a better life for my children.”

Adelante Empresas taught the women to write a business plan. They learned about marketing, communicating with clients, and becoming part of community events.

Allison Gordon, a financial analyst who became their mentor, helped with business development: How to price services, gauge and improve job quality, and capitalize on strengths.

Gordon, who started a micro-enterprise venture while at the Peace Corps in Bolivia, also offered business training, including how to keep track of expenses and save. She helped the women open a savings account to save for liability insurance.

“For me, it’s fantastic. I work in corporate America and I felt like I needed to reach out. I like seeing a small business grow,” she said. “And I get to practice my Spanish.”

Cleaning Wizards now has 25 clients, and cleans both private homes and offices. The business earns a profit, enough for a modest salary for each woman. And with the help of an individual development account, which matches savings, the three partners were able to purchase a business car.

“Adelante Empresas prepares us, supports us, and helps us to improve,” Perez said. “We all have grown as people and as women. It showed me that if you work for something, you can achieve it.”

They dream to hire employees and have several cleaning crews.

“Without this program,” Ibarra said, “we would simply be a group of ladies who cleaned our friend’s houses.”

The women say their success serves as motivation for their spouses, children and friends.

“I hope that we can be a model for other women,” Perez said, “to show them that you can have your own business, that the sun comes out for everyone and everyone can take the opportunity.”

Focus on Latino businesses
The name means “wake up.”

Despierta! Hillsboro is a free monthly bilingual networking event aimed at minority business owners.

The goal: Showcase and encourage local Latino businesses, or bring together those who want to connect with the Latino community, said Jon-Michael Kowertz, business development manager for the Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce.

Despierta! Hillsboro is held at restaurants, markets, cultural centers and other Hillsboro-area Latino businesses on the second Wednesday of each month, from 8 to 9 a.m. Several dozen people attend; refreshments are served.

The chamber launched Despierta! Hillsboro last September, as part of a continued effort to provide outreach to the growing Latino community. While the chamber also holds a mainstream networking event, it targets groups such as young people, women and Latinos, Kowertz said.

“Latinos are a significant part of the economy,” Kowertz said. “Latino businesses directly benefit this community.”

The chamber provides some funding to help jump-start minority businesses. The big challenge, Kowertz said, is that Latinos may not be aware these programs exist.

The next Despierta! Hillsboro will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 9 at Centro Cultural, 1174 N. Adair St. in Cornelius. For more information, call Jaime Miranda, business development coordinator, at 503-726-2150, or email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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