good morning. it is the biggest event of the year. connecting minority owned businesses with potential clients and organizations that support their growth. it's the minority business expo presented by the greater washington hispanic chamber of commerce coming up april 18th. if you're looking to grow your business it's become quite the ticket here at the nation's capital. joining us to talk about it is anna harvey and angela franco, president and ceo of the greater washington hispanic chamber of commerce and the owner president and ceo of asci translations. thank you for joining us. >> thank you so much for having

>> tell us about the chamber and what you do and how you're expanding your outreach. >> it was founded 41 years ago. and our mission is to help businesses to grow. that's really our mission and main focus are minorities and we help them through education, advocacy goovrndment representation. we have several programs to serve them. one is technical assistance and we help them either with a marketing plan, with a financial plan, we help them to incorporate this business and to think through ideas. the second program we have is networking opportunities so basically we match company with opportunities and the third problem is being in the

meetings in the western hemisphere and we look for opportunities to connect. >> how many members do you have. >> and no business is too small of a business to join the chamber? >> no and we have some individuals for people that want to open a business. it is really a chamber of commerce is a place for people to connect, to network and to look for opportunities and that's the way we have invisioned this organization. to be in the middle of people that want to connect and want to go to a different level. >> you have been a member of the chamber for, is it 7 years? >> about 7 years, that's correct. >> that's how long you have been running your business. >> actually, that's right. we have been proud members of the chamber since the company started and have lege

relationship in the different stages of our business. when we were a start up we had different needs than the ones three years ago and different than the ones now. >> what do you do? >> provide enterprise language consulting solutions. anything from multilingual translation and interpretation services as well as complex consul t cons consultancy from a staffing perspective or to outreach customers around the globe and nationally. >> so when you started you joined the chamber. a assume you also got help from the district? >> absolutely. we're a local d.c. based company. very proud. the city believes that the company earns money in d.c. that company is going to spend money in

employees. it leveraged a lot of the services and the city provides great technical assistance for small businesses. >> so if i want to start my own business i'll come to you. >> the small and local business development and you talk about it. we support small business in the district and encourage them for good financing and good solid footing to grow and expand it higher. >> so the expo started in 2010. >> 2010. >> i understand it's

since then. >> it has. there's not really others in the region and we get them from all the business organizations here in the district. like for instance the d.c. chamber will be there. we have support from the association and it's really become a place where we have services and anything that a business needs to look for. and will be there providing them. the chamber will be there providing services from other non-rofts and then we extensively were very big advocates for certification for businesses. if a business wants to grow they can get certified on a federal level and local level they can get certified as a women owned business so we have the organizations that provide those kind of certifications and then for companies certified like in this case and there's this company we provide opportunities.

the possible client and on top of that we're going to have education throughout the date. >> okay. we'll take a quick break and then we'll continue talking about the 8th annual minority business expo coming up april 18th at the convention center. we'll be right back.

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we're talking about the minority business expo coming up later in april at the washington convention center. and andre, tell us what you're going to be doing atforhe last the benefit of knowing how to take advantage of the expo. if you are business owner just starting out or someone thinking about starting a business it's a great opportunity for you to do a couple of things. look what businesses are out there. don't try to copy someone's business. just talk to people and learn what drives someone to grow a business and also look at big corporate

government and use that opportunity for relationships. it is a great opportunity also to touch base to a lot of our small business colleagues that are day in and day out granting the work and i look forward to a couple of things. the technical assistance aspect of it and taking advantage of those panels. the chamber does a great job at inviting folks that understand very well a particular topic in our company we have been able to sign up for a event and we benefit from a couple of businesses. we got our first contract almost four years ago out of the match making event where we had taunt to meet federal agency and we have also met other companies like that. >>

ten years ago hispanic business ownership was surging in the region doubling the number of all businesses at the time. what does the landscape look like today? >> it just keeps going. the trend keeps moving in that direction. we have not only hispanics and minority owned businesses that are growing. you only have to drive up and down not only washington d.c. but the suburbs to see how many small businesses are minority owned and coming up so what we want to make sure is that we wrap our arms around it and make sure that those businesses are strong enough to understand the nature and needs of the community and serve the community. we talked about technical assistance provided to them and capital that is incredibly important. making sure that they are wise in their choices in terms of how they're going to finance their starting period or their growth so we are actually wng

you see it, you see what happened in the district, right? and how do we manage how that spills over. that's our job to do. making sure that anybody wants to start growth or finance in the district of columbia we're right behind them. >> where are most of the businesses now? where are most of the jobs? where are we seeing most of the companies pop up? in which industries? >> construction is the main industry that we see i have seen a lot of technology based marketing companies like doing social media and videos online. i havee

getting into the business the chamber is a regional organization and they're also seeing a boom in minority businesses. you see, for example, prince george's counts 30% hispanic. 70% african american. it's extremely diverse. hispanic, asians, african americans, caucasians. the same in the district. in arlington 25% of the population is hispanic. >> when you started what would you say were your biggest obstacles and your biggest challenges? >> i came back from corporate and you take it for granted. on the outside every business looks very successful but now that i have been in the trenches fo

behind that success there's many, many hours and sacrifice and time away from your family. so behind the business, people think that money comes immediately and that is far away from the truth. what comes very is shortly is the satisfaction that you know that you're doing your best every day of the week and that you're making a difference and that difference starts really coming into nature when you're having an opportunity to provide employment to others and create economic development so people sometimes think that having a business means a lot of money. >> yeah. >> we're going to take another quick break and we'll continue our talk about the expo. stay with us.

welcome back. what are the main things that i would need to know if i wanted to start my own smart business. >> when you want to run a business i assume it's because you want to make money and that's the basis of it so what you need to do is if you choose to come in we'll say this is what i want to do. >> you help them develop a business plan? >> we do. we have resources to help develop a business plan. sometimes we're actually facing the choice to say you know what, this is overcrowding in this industry and perhaps you should modify your business plan or just wait because my responsibility is to make sure that you stand out. the second thing is how are you going to

is it your retirement? because i'm wary about using your retirement to do this. there's ways to do it in an intelligent way and third thing is who is your client base? it's a completely different market. all of those things need to be clear in your mind so what we're trying to do is just clear the past and then just work really hard. we're going to make sure that you have everything and you're successful faster than you wouldn't otherwise be. >> angela, a different washington now and the administration has changed, budgets are being cut. there's the focus on immigration issues. how will all of that impact your members. >> well, there's a concern there. i don't know exactly.

would effect our members or our businesses. what i can say is that the services that the chamber is providing are not federally funded so we have our own resources with local support and we receive that support because we believe that supporting minority business is a way of helping things moving forward. the chamber was invited to a meeting with the transition team and other national hispanic organizations and four local chambers on the national level and we have had opportunity to share what we do and the services we provide in a positive way because it's to help people understand regulations. >> does it cause you concern? you know,e

budgets cut and living in a climate where you might have fewer clients? >> so i think that's an opportunity. every time you have change that provides big paradigm shift. we were certainly used to a different environment. but right now we have to operate on a circumstance that is real. i want to make sure that i represent properly all business ownership around the year. we provide jobs. we provide social security with our tax payments. so i surround our vendors so that we buy from immigrant vendors as well. that's number one. and number two there will be cuts but opportunity to some agencies because let's remember the flow of government works in a way where money is not going

that money has to be spent elsewhere. and certainly they have a view where they want to spend their money. well the opportunity is to look at those opportunities. look at those agencies and find opportunities as a subcontractor or prime contractor. we have customers where we know that budgets are going to be cut but as a business owner you have to understand your risk and always new sources of revenue to not be undermined by those cuts. >> okay. let's take another break and we'll continue talking about the expo in a minute.

welcome back. tell us about the minority business service. what is that? >> we have a certification it's ed

business certification and it gives you a license to hunt for opportunity with the district of columbia. if you are a local company or small or both, then you have a little bit of an advantage of the other companies that are out of the city to actually obtain contacts with the district of columbia. we're very proud that they made it clear that the agencies should spend a minimum of $500 million with the small businesses. it's quite a bit of money. it's one of the most progressive set aside in local programs in the country so you have to learn about these opportunities. >> tell us about the

new this year. >> so this year we have to put effort into work force development. we also have social media room. we're excited. we'll have a certification opportunities that businesses have and an international room where we'll talk about international opportunities and then at the end of the day we'll put together the million dollar panel that are four successful business owners that started from scratch. one of those we have here. we have him from prince george's county. she is the owner of crystal insurance and she was one of the first hispanic women to be certified as an insurance brokerage firm and then president and ceo of access green swe

i really hope that everybody can attend. it's a great opportunity. you'll get to meet great people and first that in business. >> andreas tell us what you know now that you wish you had known when you started your business. >> i didn't know the amount of revenues it took to replace my corporate sally aary and the am of dwree of years to get there and the amount of people required to get to that level. >> it's been a learning curve for you. >> certainly. >> what would you like to leave our audience with this morning? how important is this to the distri

>> in one room you'll find everything you need to grow your business. it's all in one room. >> well, nbc 4 is a media partner this year and erika gonzalez will help to mc the ribbon cutting this year. ba barbara harrison will be participating in one of the panels. it takes place on april 18th. 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the washington convention center and to learn more about it, also to sign up open the nbc washington happen and search minority business expo. and that's our program this morning. thank you for being with us. news 4 today is next.

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news 4 today starts now. at 6:00, a violent start to easter morning. two killed in a fiery wreck while others are recovering. an investigator speaking together this deadly two car crash. decade later, mow the campus community is remembering the victim of virginia tech students and pushing forward to honor their legacy. easter diplomacy. vice president mike pence landing overseas for a ten day trip as tensions rise over the threats of a nuclear north korea. on this sunday morning, the 16th of april, easter sunday, we welcome you into news 4 today, i'm david culliver in.