Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Boston

Welcome to the spring edition of VISION, the quarterly publication of the Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce. Each issue includes news, Hispanic business trends and information on past and upcoming chamber educational programs.

Jumpstart Your Business!

Jumpstarting Latino Businesses

By El Mundo

On Friday October 20th, The Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Boston joined forces with the Small Business Administration and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts in presenting an all morning affair that culminated with a business forum luncheon and a special awards presentation. The event was primarily directed to helping Latino-owned businesses grow to the next level. It included several workshops featuring seasoned business experts who offered their expertise on a number of different topics such as joint ventures, technical assistance resources, and financing strategies. The MC for the luncheon was Emmy-award winning television reporter Jorge Quiroga of WCVB-TV Boston.

For more latino business news, please visit El Mundo.

Winning ways

Clinton business owner honored

Ariel E. Schmidt, owner of Atlantic Graphic Services in Clinton, was recently honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration. (T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR)

By Lisa Eckelbecker TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

CLINTON� The first time he saw a printer use ink and paper to produce a page of text, Ariel E. Schmidt got goose pimples.

Just 11 years old and loitering in the printing shop of the Cuban college his father was leading, Mr. Schmidt suddenly stopped agitating for one of the shop workers to take him to a local swimming spot.

�Then I didn�t mind staying there,� he said of the moment that would set him on a career path as a printer and businessman. �I don�t know if we even went to the river.�

From that revelatory beginning, Mr. Schmidt worked his way up to ownership of Atlantic Graphic Services Inc., a printing business with about 50 full-time employees and $6 million in annual revenues. This year, Mr. Schmidt, 64, was honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration with the 2006 Minority Small Business Person of the Year Award for Massachusetts and New England.

The award goes to successful businesses that have overcome obstacles and gotten involved in their communities. The description fits Mr. Schmidt, according to Nader Acevedo, executive director of the Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Boston and the person who nominated Mr. Schmidt for the SBA award.

�I always admired him, because not only does he run a good business, but he�s a good person,� Mr. Acevedo said. �He gives a lot back to the community.�

A commercial printing operation that turns out advertisements, brochures and quarterly or semi-annual materials for clients in the financial, educational and medical industries, Atlantic Graphic Services operates out of 55,000-square-foot space on Plain Street. The business is something of a family enterprise: Mr. Schmidt�s son, a daughter and her husband work for the company. Another daughter used to work there. Until her death, Mr. Schmidt�s late wife, Enid, was what he calls �the rock� of the business, signing the checks and playing golf with female customers.

In addition to running the business, Mr. Schmidt is chairman of the Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Boston, where he presses for educational programs for members and greater economic development, according to Mr. Acevedo. Atlantic Graphic Services has been named to the Hispanic Business 500, a ranking of the nation�s top Hispanic-owned businesses by Hispanic Business magazine.

Getting the business to the point that it could make such a list came after years of work. Born in Peru to Seventh-day Adventist Argentine missionaries of German descent, Mr. Schmidt spent his youth and high-school years in Cuba. After his first view of a galley proof in the Cuban print shop, he announced to his father that he wanted to become a printer. He started working at the school�s print shop within a week, a job that typically paid 11 cents an hour but that his father knocked down even more.

�My father said, �Well, since you are the son of the administrator, I�m going to give you 8 cents an hour,� � Mr. Schmidt said.

At 17, Mr. Schmidt arrived in the United States to attend Andrews University. He did not stay enrolled, however. He went back into printing.

Mr. Schmidt later graduated from Atlantic Union College in Lancaster and went to work for Eusey Press in Leominster, becoming vice president of manufacturing and plant supervisor. Then in 1982, he acquired the college printing operation at Atlantic Union College. The printing entity had just $100,000 in annual revenues.

Mr. Schmidt said he bumped up revenues to $1 million a year in his first year of operation. In subsequent years, the tribulations of his customers in technology and banking would challenge the commercial printing company.

�When Wang went bankrupt, that was a major hit for me,� Mr. Schmidt said, referring to the 1992 bankruptcy of Lowell-based Wang Laboratories Inc. �They were over 50 percent of our business.�

The company also lost about 20 percent of its business during the region�s banking mergers, when Bank of America acquired Fleet Bank, Mr. Schmidt said.

His response has been to attempt to diversify the company�s clientele. Although the company still prints for financial clients, it has also secured customers in education, such as Dartmouth College, and medicine, Mr. Schmidt said.

The company�s success, he said, flows from the people who work there.

�It�s the spirit the people have,� he said. �The majority of our employees are very, very customer oriented, and they will do anything to make things happen, with the exception that I will not open the business from sundown Friday to after sundown on Saturday, and that�s because of my religion,� he said.

That schedule, said Mr. Schmidt, a Seventh-day Adventist, has never cost the company work.

�I have been threatened (with) losing business, but I have not lost a single job because of it,� he said.

Contact business reporter Lisa Eckelbecker by e-mail at leckelbecker@telegram.com.

THE CHAMBER endorses Conociendo Boston: La Historia de Boston en Espanol by Luis Fernando Velez

Foreword by Nader Acevedo

Conociendo Boston is an applause to the effort of Luis Fernando Velez, a lawyer who has been committed to social work in Boston. The experience of Velez as a judge in his homeland Colombia, strengthens his capacity of going in depth into the social aspects of a city as rich in culture as Boston.

I personally admire Luis Fernando for his tenacity and persistence to pursue a literary adventure that will raise the critical interest of an important community. Publishing this work will not just give great satisfaction to the author but even more to you our friend, the reader. As executive director of the Hispanic American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Boston, it is a pleasure to endorse an author that lives and works among us. It is part of our social and cultural responsibility to make available to professionals, families, workers, and students this important book about the academic capital of the United States.

Our associates, clients, and the extended community will have an invaluable social value publication. The book deposits knowledge, imagination, and stories about the story of a city that has given a lot to the Hispanic immigrant, who everyday wins more space and relevance in this land of pilgrims and colonizers. As he did researcher work, I want to highlight the effort of a thinker who is looking to accomplish a goal that will leave a historical mark to be recognized by residents and visitors. It is wonderful that Boston has a book about its history, written in Spanish and with interesting content for everyone.

This book can be found in Amazon

THE CHAMBER IS BACK! The Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Boston helps Latino-owned businesses grow at its business forum

BOSTON, October 27- Over 100 Latino businessmen and women gathered at the bi-annual Hispanic-American Chamber of Commerce Business Forum held at the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts' headquarters in the Landmark Center in Boston. The topic of the business forum was Jumpstart Your Business: Helping Latino-Owned Business grow to the next level and was co-sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA), its resource partners and SCORE, the nation's largest volunteer business counseling service.

Attendees enjoyed several workshops on various topics including financing strategies, legal considerations, marketing and e-commerce strategies in the context of small businesses. Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino was the keynote speaker at the reception and luncheon that followed the workshops and spoke about the importance of minority-owned businesses.