The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce’s 24th annual convention and awards lunch is just a few days away as Hispanic Heritage Month comes to an end. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey Chairman Carlos Medina told NJTV News Correspondent Michael Hill that Hispanic Heritage Month is a way to put the spotlight on the Hispanic community.
“It’s really just to put a spotlight on all of the positive contributions that the Hispanic community makes and in particular our organization is concerned with what the Hispanic business population contributes,” said Medina.
Medina said that some of the problems Hispanic businesses in New Jersey face are access to capital and access to training. Medina said that the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce will be launching an entrepreneurship training program in January to help entrepreneurs.
Access to financial services is one of the biggest challenges for small businesses, according to Medina. He said that some businesses don’t have the proper background or have not been in business long enough to obtain financing in banks.
Other challenges facing Hispanic businesses in New Jersey, according to Medina, are language barriers. In order to help solve that, Medina said that the chamber does literature workshops in English and Spanish. It also hosts bilingual events and workshops.
The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is preparing to host its annual convention and awards, where some workshops will be taking place.
“We have exciting workshops, access to capital, business action centers will be there telling you how to start and how to expand your business,” said Medina. “And then we have a unique workshop this year — Latinas in social media. So we’ll have some very prominent Hispanic women who will be talking about what they do to promote their businesses.”
Some of the guests to attend this year’s convention, according to Medina, are Lieutenant Gov. Kim Guadagno and Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto.
Recently the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce won a monetary award from the state, which Medina said will go toward training.
“Yes, we won an award from the state of New Jersey to have entrepreneurship training, so we’ll be launching that in January,” Medina said.
The Statewide Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of New Jersey will host its 24th Annual Convention and Expo on Thursday, Oct. 23 at The Brownstone at 351 West Broadway in Paterson.