DC-area immigrants pushing through barriers to entrepreneurship

People come to the D.C. region because they want to change the world. Immigrants come to this country because they’re entrepreneurs—and what’s more entrepreneurial picking yourself up and moving to a new place, one where you can’t even speak the language? Our next guest, Daniel Parra, is director of small and minority business development at Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation, and someone who has specific experience with the entrepreneurial challenges that immigrants face.

ABERMAN: Daniel, first of all, thanks for joining us.

PARRA: Thank you for inviting me.

ABERMAN: Tell me about your entrepreneurial journey. You literally just showed up, you moved here with a handbag twenty years ago. Tell me about that.

PARRA: It was a change in my life to the point that I remember exactly the date and the time that I was here. I moved to this country because I was in need of political asylum. I couldn’t live any longer in Colombia, unfortunately. At that time, it was difficult. Now, it’s different, but at that time, it was so difficult.

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ABERMAN: You had a real problem, right? In that, you had to make connections, but you also had to be able to speak the language of a business person. That ended becoming your first business, didn’t it?

PARRA: I had to leave my business behind, and try to connect with the same type of businesses here, but it was so difficult at that moment, because I needed my papers, all types of things. So, I started working in a different environment, with nonprofit organizations. It was a good change, because it connected me back to my business background as an economist, and as a previous business owner in Colombia.

ABERMAN: As you grew your career, you saw that one of the biggest challenges that immigrants often have is it that they don’t speak the language.

PARRA: Yes, that’s one of the many barriers. The thing that I saw when I started working with ESL programming, was that immigrants were, and still are, in need of changing mentality about how to do business in the United States.

ABERMAN: You’ve worked with a lot of businesses. I know you spend time working at Avon helping people sell mascara and lipstick. You’ve helped out a lot of businesses. Let’s fast forward to today. You spend your time helping minority business owners grow their business here in the D.C. region, which, by the way, I believe is a great place to grow a business, because of the government programs. What are the three things that seem to be the biggest impediments to minority entrepreneurs being successful here in our region?

PARRA: One of those, definitely, is still overcoming their own barriers, and their own barriers start with the language, even though there are many programs that are bilingual, et cetera. One of the things that I have always said to business owners is that businesses have to be run in English. Not just here, but worldwide.

So, that is one fierce barrier that they should overcome. The second one has to with access to capital. It’s so difficult for many, just starting a business, to get access to capital. And I would say that the third one has to with the way that they have to get prepared for their business to be at the front. You cannot be behind. You should be in the right knowledge of computing, the latest application, the latest news in regards to your product or your service.

ABERMAN: What I have seen, from other guests and also being in town is that, there’s a significant and large and successful immigrant and Latino business community here in town. You work with a lot of these folks. What is it about being in the D.C. market that’s allowed some these businesses to thrive?

PARRA: It is a very good experience because, additionally, one of the things that I see in not just Latinos, but in terms of minority businesses, is the entrepreneurial spirit on one hand, that it is very well required, and the second thing that I see in business owners is the creativity. There are so many things that they have to do, sometimes very artisan, instead of very well-prepared. But then, the second stage for them, of course, is to go to university, Montgomery College, other colleges, and obtain the knowledge that they need to move their business to the next step.

ABERMAN: Do you think that we’re not doing a good job, in our country and our region, at really pointing out that immigration is often a crucible for which we can really evaluate somebody’s ability to succeed?

PARRA: Partially, I agree with that, but I’m saying something that is very important, and what I’d like to share with all the audience is that, now we are saying, I’m so glad that you’re a second-generation immigrant, because that is making a difference. The first immigrant generation has different types of difficulties in front of them, like being new in the country, et cetera. But then, having their children with an opportunity to have education, and so on, is giving this second generation the opportunity to improve, and to grow, and to go and to come back to the first generation parents. I have seen business owners that, with many difficulties, have raised their children, and then they go to the university, and they come back to run their business!

ABERMAN: Daniel, thanks a lot for taking the time to share your personal perspective. That was Daniel Parra, director of small and minority business development at the Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation.

PARRA: Thank you, Jonathan.

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