In a tucked-away building at the Pera Club in Tempe on a July afternoon, with more than 50 tables, each decorated with the names of local auto repair shops, dance studios, ice cream companies and other small businesses, Fuerza Local is hosting a graduation for the 22nd cohort of their Acelerador de Negocios program.
The lively event showcases companies, networks and the achievements of the graduates.
In that room a woman flees from table to table. A smile, a conversation here and there, a hug. Small check-ins. Every table she stops at seems to light up with her presence, and the tables radiate her smiles.
She’s not the main event, and she’d probably tell you that, but the energy and impact she has on people is palpable. For nearly half of this year’s 53 graduates, Jeovanna Gonzalez, program coordinator at Fuerza Local, is the one who helped them get where they are as a teacher, mentor and friend.
Her very first business consultation
Before working at Fuerza Local, the Latino-focused arm of the nonprofit Local First Arizona, there was the first company González was crucial in kickstarting: the company she co-founded with her husband.
Their entrepreneurial journey began on a baseball field when young Gonzalez met a Texas Ranger minor league baseball player and the pair fell in love. After they got married, a neighbor invited Gonzalez’s husband to work at their flooring business during the off-season. Sixteen years later, when her husband began to own more of the flooring business, Gonzalez saw an opportunity.
“And then I said to my husband, ‘You have the resources to start a business,’” Gonzalez said, “and he said, ‘Well, I don’t know how to do it.’”
After a few years of nudging, she took matters into her own hands. Little by little, she taught herself what it took to start a business in Arizona.
“I started teaching myself how to open a business, how to get my licenses and permits and how to register,” she said. “One day I said to my husband, it was his birthday, ‘we’re going to sign up now. We are now going to open a business online. ”
Thus, GK2 Floor Prep LLC, with the initials of their daughters’ first names, began its journey, at least in name.
The next step was a little more difficult. After saving money for the first few years, they took the plunge and spent their savings on two machines to start their flooring business.
There was a moment of doubt, Gonzalez said. What if they didn’t get contracts and couldn’t convince customers? “Then I said to my husband, ‘You know what, I don’t care. We can eat beans all day, but you know what? We are going to make it,” she said.
She was right. Their company has been in existence since 2017.
This experience led them to Fuerza Local, where she and her husband were part of the 13th cohort of a program for which Gonzalez would eventually work. This fact alone allows many of the participants to connect with her, given the personal success she has seen in the same program they hope to graduate from.
“She has that experience and she knows how difficult it is sometimes to start a business, get the license and have everything in order,” says Angelica Meza, a graduate of Fuerza Local and co-owner of Mondald AZ Framing. “She knows we need help and she always has an answer for us.” And even if it doesn’t, she makes it her mission to find out, Meza said.
What pushed Gonzalez to help others is seeing pieces of those she loves in the participants she helps. She recalled a moment she experienced with a woman who called her about starting a tortilla business. The woman had been laid off in March and was hoping to grow her business selling tortillas as a source of income, so Gonzalez connected her with programs like Fuerza Local’s Community Kitchen.
“Every time someone comes, I see that person is my daughter when she is 20 and starting a new business. I see a 60-year-old woman who wants to start selling her tortillas — that could be my mother,” Gonzalez said. “I will see someone in someone, someone I love. Because, you know, they can be that person.
How Fuerza Local is helping boost Latino businesses in Arizona
According to its website, Fuerza Local offers its group of participants a variety of lessons and resources in Spanish on setting up an LLC or growing an already established business. It also offers programs including the Acelerador de Negocios and Nivel Ejecutivo, business accelerator and leadership programs.
The organization also helps connect businesses with local credit unions, a response to the predatory lenders or scams that many small businesses, especially Spanish-speaking owners, can face.
While the program tries to protect itself against such instances, there are times when some owners slip through the cracks, and that’s where having someone like Gonzalez in your corner can be an advantage.
“She’s been there with the community. She knows how we struggle,” said Javier Cervantes, co-owner of Cervantes Ice and graduate of Fuerza Local. “She knows that our community is not very well informed about all the different things that the city or the people can have for you, I think that makes it even better.”
Part of that support is a chat group that Gonzalez runs, where participants she has worked with can ask questions about their various activities. It helps people like Meza to know how to get in touch with the Arizona Registrar of Contractors for her framing business.
“It’s not easy to start a business here in the United States if you’re Spanish. I don’t think there’s a lot of information for us, and it’s difficult,” Meza said. “And then people are afraid that they don’t have a citizen service number or what if they do something wrong. It is very important to have someone like Jeovanna so that we can get educated and find the right information.”
Through the chat, Jeovanna has created a sense of community by promoting people inside and outside Fuerza Local to support their fellow local businesses as much as possible. Like when Gonzalez, as Meza shared, sends messages encouraging participants to attend events that other companies are hosting, or when she likes and leaves comments on their social media pages.
The sense of community makes the biggest impact.
“It has had a big impact. We not only have a company, but also ourselves because we can provide more things in the community,” says Rocío Cervantes, co-owner of Cervantes Ice and graduate of Fuerza Local.
According to Gonzalez, that community is only growing; the latter program had about double the number of registrations compared to the 60 spots available for each multi-class class in Arizona, including classes Gonzalez facilitates in Avondale and South Phoenix.
Empowering women in Arizona starts at home
Outside of the office, Gonzalez is an active part of her daughters’ lives, whether it’s volunteering at school, family movie nights or mother-daughter outings. She, together with her husband, also sets an example for them when it comes to empowering women.
“We make decisions, both of us, and sometimes, in our culture, who makes decisions? Men, right? Not in my case,” Gonzalez said, “we will always make decisions together.”
Just as she does for her daughters, she also does the same for many of the women she meets in her office. As part of the Fuerza Local program, business owners or aspiring entrepreneurs must interview and present their business plans in the initial process. During those interviews, Jeovanna noticed a trend.
Women were more likely to describe their role in a business with their husbands as “just helping,” often minimizing their involvement, which she said also involved administrative tasks such as running payroll, processing checks and taking phone calls were.
“You’re not helping, you’re a partner. You need your 50% share,” Gonzalez said. “I see in my community they think they’re just helping, but you know, you’re not helping. You are a partner, that is yours too. Take it. Fight for it.”
Gonzalez also supports the Latina community through her involvement in events and other partnerships, such as when she joins Meza on her podcast Mujeres al Aire, where Meza first heard about Fuerza Local by inviting its leadership as a guest. She has since brought on Gonzalez as part of the podcast’s larger mission.
“Our goal is to help our Hispanic community, especially women, because I think Hispanic people have a lot of talent and a lot of dreams, but they don’t know how to get there,” Meza said. “With Fuerza Local, counseling, different businesses, nonprofits, they have a lot of different resources, so my job is to share those resources with my people. Jeovanna is part of those resources.”
According to Fuerza Local’s 2023 Impact Report, the program has had more than 1,100 graduates of the six-month Business Accelerator program since its inception in 2013.
“As a business community, we are a strong community,” Gonzalez said. “I mean, we buy local, you know, you have to go buy from the neighbors, not from a big company, because you want the Latino families to succeed and have the generational wealth.”
As the alumni community grows, so does the ability to support it.
“Sometimes you have a talent or you have a dream, and you don’t know how to realize it. You feel like, ‘I don’t know English, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the education,'” Meza said. “I think Fuerza Local helps a lot of women and Hispanic people in this country, especially in Arizona.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How Jeovanna Gonzalez is working to uplift Arizona’s Latino entrepreneurs
