Hispanics Are Largest Minority-Owned Business Segment

I read recently about Hewlett Packard starting a dedicated website for Hispanic-owned SMBs in the United States, so I went back and looked again at the latest U.S. business census data.

Hispanic-owned businesses are the largest minority segment in the United States.  They run the largest number of minority-owned businesses.

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses have grown at a faster rate than average.  The number jumped 31% in the five years between business censuses, compared with 10% total growth of all businesses.  The following chart is extracted from the latest (2002) U.S. business census, released just two months ago on July 28, 2005 (see Summary Table for full chart):

The majority of Hispanic-owned businesses are small businesses.  In fact, the census shows that over 87% of Hispanic-owned businesses are very small microbusinesses, and have no employees — just the business owner.

Let’s see if HP’s approach pays off.  I see that Office Depot also has a Spanish-language site for U.S. Hispanics.

One of the questions is how many Hispanic business owners use Spanish as their main language.  For first generations, yes it is a given.  But second and later generations do not always adopt their parents’ native tongue as their primary language.  Even when they do, it is often spoken-only and not written.

However, I suppose that even if used by only the first generation business owners, a Spanish-language website will be worth it.  With Hispanic immigration – legal and illegal – on the rise, this minority group will only grow.