| The US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, a national organization based in Washington, D.C., has been working hard since its founding in 1984 to promote business opportunities for Asian American and other minority-owned businesses across the United States. Its Midwest Chapter helps members find business opportunities in the Asian market; get minority business enterprise (MBE) certification; join a growing business-to-business network; get access to industry experts and consultants who can help; meet with corporate and government decision-makers who can help procure contracts; and participate in trade missions and diversity managers' forums; among other things. With these avowed USPAACC goals, a core group of Asian American entrepreneurs met in Milwaukee on July 31 to plan the launching of USPAACC-Wisconsin Chapter before the end of this year, and from there, recruit as many members as possible. Spearheaded by Ritu Sharma, president/owner of Polymorph Media Solutions in Milwaukee, the planning session was attended by Leni Siker (WI Minority Business Opportunity Center), Heidi Pascual (Asian Wisconzine), Jane Huang (DragonTech Solutions), Jacqueline Ward (Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation-WWBIC), Cuauhtemoc "Temo" Rodriguez (Aztlan Business Consultants-ABC), and Nicole Ralph (International Professional Association), among others. "What we're trying to do here is to have a unified, all-inclusive network of Asian professionals and business owners," Sharma said. "We want to be a go-to organization for giving information on how to start a business, to stay in business, how to connect with each other, how to go about getting state and corporate contracts, and hope that each other learn more and grow more." Jane Huang, who has worked in government for 10 years and has done a lot of IT consulting, noted that there is indeed a need to work together and to not treat each other as competitors. "I want to contribute to this group by promoting that sense of working together," Huang said, observing that people can work on large projects that individually can't be done. Leni Siker currently runs the Wisconsin Minority Business Opportunity Center that's funded by the U.S. Dept of Commerce through the minority business development agencies, to provide minority business in Wisconsin with better access to capital and better access to contract opportunity (website www.mboc.org). "We've been in existence since February 2003, and since then, we have almost disseminated over a billion dollars of contract opportunities," Siker reported. "I think we also pursued $40-some million in contract opportunities, and our annual goal is $25 million in contracts and $10 million in financial transactions. We're facilitating about $25 million worth of contracts to minorities and $10 million worth of contracts for helping them get loan get funding. That's pretty much what we do." Siker also informed attendees that her organization will begin to focus on accountability for giving access to minority businesses. "You know, 'Well we can't find any qualified minority business,' so we're trying to call all that talk by 'prime posting.' We're approaching prime contractors to host one of these events, then ask, 'What's coming up? What do you need? Do you need an electrician, whatever? In our database, we have over a thousand small businesses, which include minority, woman-owned, disadvantaged, and emerging businesses.' So then once we found out what is needed, we'll query our database and then submit a list to them and then notify the potential MBE subcontractor of all these opportunities. It's about time that we sit down at the table and get access to contract opportunities instead of just the big players getting access." Cuauhtemoc "Temo" Rodriguez, president of Aztlan Business Consultants (ABC), said that his organization helps people get financing to start and grow their business. "There are a number of reasons for business planning, but we usually get people connected," Rodriguez said as he introduced ABC. "I'm also on the board of Latino Entrepreneurial Network which is a relatively new organization. We started late last year and I'm working on getting another nonprofit started. It's basically an organization that's going to help look at the programs that exist for small business as well as the policies that influence small business so that there can be reports generated to make better programs and policies for small business. I'm looking to get some people involved in that, try to keep the organization small so that we can be stable and perhaps grow from there." Nicole Ralph, founder of a new group in Madison called the "International Professional Association," was also enthusiastic at what her group can do to help. "We started a year ago with about 200 members," Ralph said. "I used to live overseas for seven years. When we moved back to Wisconsin, I found that the international community is there but it is very broad and fragmented. There are different segments and then there's the cultural, language hodgepodge, so where do you go to find out about all these opportunities? There's no umbrella organization. So we're very new, and we want to partner with your organization in whatever way we can to help each other out." Jacqueline Ward, financial coordinator of the Wisconsin Women's Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), introduced WWBIC's work. "We help individuals start and expand their business," Ward said. "We're also a certified financial-development institution; that means we can offer micro-loans." She distributed a schedule of classes for would-be entrepreneurs and invited the planners to join WWBIC at the Governor's Mansion on August 16. A growing force in the U.S. economy In Wisconsin alone, there are 4,957 Asian American businesses with gross sales receipts of $1.5 billion, according to the 2002 U.S. Census data. The fuel behind the burst of Asian American-owned businesses throughout the United States, according to Midwest Chapter's report, was the huge Asian immigration in the last 20 years that accounted for 43% of the 6.3 million U.S. immigrants in the '80s. "There are 1.5 million Asian American businesses in this country today," Chacko said. "There are about 1.5 million Hispanic-owned businesses, 1.2 million African American-owned businesses, and 3.2 million women-owned businesses. The government has a so-called 'minority quota' that is set aside for contracting out to these groups. This is one major way for small, minority businesses to partner with each other to bid for government contracts," he added. BE A MEMBER OF USPAACC 1915 N Martin Luther King Dr. Suite 213L Milwaukee, WI 53212 www.uspaacc-wi.com; (414) 267-2488; Fax 414) 267-2489 Membership Benefits: * Receive USPAACC Quarterly Newsletter, EastWest Report * Receive USPAACC monthly E- News * Receive national and region-specific announcements on events and contract opportunities * Access to USPAACC database (create company profile; view title and summary of opportunities; search for corporate members and suppliers and submit online requests for connection to corporate members and suppliers) |
| U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce-Wisconsin Chapter To develop and promote Asian American businesses |
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| by Heidi M. Pascual Publisher and Editor, Asian Wisconzine |
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| Ritu Sharma |
| Varghese Chacko |
| Leni Siker |
| Jane Huang |
| Varghese Chacko used to be a small business owner who started his warehousing, distribution and marketing services in a garage. Today, he has 50 employees and has started a bank, the Asian American Community Bank of Des Plaines, IL. Chacko wanted to help other Asian American entrepreneurs like him succeed so he joined the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce and became its Midwest president. Most recently, he began to help Wisconsin Asian American business owners start their own chapter of USPAACC. |
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