Thursday, April 18, 2024

Latinos Absent in Franchising Businesses

Despite Latinos making up 16% of the United States population, they are relatively absent from the franchising industry, where only 5.2% of businesses are Latino owned.

Hispanic Intelligence estimates that the spending power of Latinos was $1.2 trillion last year, and by the end of the year, that number is expected to be 15% more than total spending in the entire United States.

“The interest from the franchisee side has moved up significantly,” says Jose Torres, Principal Partner and Founder of BuscaTuFranquicia.com.

Torres believes that the lack of awareness and commitment to go after a new market is what has slowed down Latino franchises.

According to Franchise Update, franchisers are guilty of making crucial mistakes when targeting the Latino market, including a lack of Spanish-speaking employees, the use of software translations rather than rewriting ads, financial misunderstandings, and most importantly, generalizing Latinos.

“It’s not one-size-fits-all,” says Guillermo Perales, the largest Latino franchisee in the United States. “All Latinos are a little bit different. Some franchisors don’t really understand the culture. A Latino here from Mexico for three generations is different from a first-generation person that moved from Brazil. There is different type of mentality and type of Spanish.”

The Street