A major minority: Hispanic businesses are changing Utah ... and Utah is changing for them.

• Author: Blodgett, John
• Position: Hispanicbusiness - Company Profile

For Leonor Olivieri, owner of Mi Ranchito Mexibachi Grill in South Jordan, business is all about family. Her business is one of six Mi Ranchito restaurants located in Salt Lake and Utah counties, each one owned by a member of the family. "The core of [Hispanic] society is family," she says. "If you want to deal with a Hispanic-speaking person, if you build rapport and talk about the family, you will win their hearts. Relationships grow more slowly, but once you build that trust you have it for life."

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Olivieri has been involved in the family business ever since her in-laws opened the first Mi Ranchito in Orem in 1983, just months before she graduated from BYU with a degree in travel and tourism. Other family members brought culinary experience; Olivieri brought her management and bilingual skills. What she lacked in wisdom she made up for with gumption and enthusiasm; over time, she acquired business acumen and thousands of satisfied diners.

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But it could have been easier. Had the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce--of which she is now a board member--existed back then, she says it would have been a valuable one-stop shop where all of her family's questions could have been answered: how to write a business plan, negotiate a lease, and more. The Hispanic Chamber is just one of a growing number of organizations that are responding to the rapidly increasing demands of Hispanic businesses (see sidebar, "An Economic Force").

Serving the Hispanic Business Community

It took eight years after Olivieri's family began their business for the Utah Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to open. Founded in 1991 and based in Salt Lake City, the Hispanic Chamber operated on a completely volunteer basis until September 2004, when Miguel Rovira was hired as full-time executive director. His goal in 2005 is to double the Chamber's present membership of 200 companies. That might sound like a tall order, but according to Robert Rendon, chairman of the Chamber's board of directors and community reinvestment director at Zions Bank, the membership roster has grown tenfold in the past three years. Attendance at the Chamber's monthly networking events reflects the increase. "I remember days when we used to get 25 to 30 [people]," Rendon says. "Now if we only get 100, we're disappointed." Rovira saw a tremendous surge in membership in the third and fourth quarters of 2004 alone, with room to grow. "There are a lot of business owners who are native Spanish speakers, and we truly have not marketed to that group yet," he says.

Chambers of commerce typically serve a particular region, city or town, but the Utah Hispanic Chamber's reach is more cultural than geographical. "Our involvement is on a more expansive level" than other chambers, Rovira says, and his membership roster, though weighted heavily around the Salt Lake...