Latina entrepreneurship is on the rise in Miami and across the U.S., report finds
Latinos account for nearly half of Miami’s population — and 27% of local small business owners, according to a report released this week from consulting firm McKinsey.
Latinos are creating 36% of new businesses overall in the United States, nearly double their representation in the population, the report says.
“Latinos are about 18% of the population and that they’re starting businesses at twice the rate is outstanding,” said Alberto Chaia, an economist and senior partner in McKinsey’s Miami office.
That phenomenon has been helped by a rise in Latina-owned businesses. From 2017 to 2021, 31 percent of new Latino businesses were started by Latinas. A 33 percent growth in the amount of Latina-owned companies also occurred during that period, almost five times larger than the growth rate of businesses not owned by Latinas.
The report also found that 34% of Latina entrepreneurs are younger than 45, slightly higher than the percentage for Latino business owners, at 31%.
While working on the report, Chaia was surprised to find that more than a third of all new businesses in 2023 were started by Latinos. Compared to most U.S. metropolitan areas, Miami is the only area where Latino small business productivity — or amount of labor used to generate products or services — is higher than non-Latino businesses, Chaia said. He said that it is easier for Latino entrepreneurs to network with one another in Miami and considers it a byproduct of the city’s large Latino population.
Maria Budet, chief marketing officer at the Miami-Dade Beacon Council, a local development agency, agrees with Chaia and believes that success is often the result of the support that Latino entrepreneurs give one another. She’s found that many of the city’s Latina entrepreneurs in particular help each other develop their businesses.
“We want to drive an inclusive, sustainable community in Miami,” said Budet. “Women are very much a part of that. These women look out for each other. They make sure if they’re the first, they’re not the last.”
Karla Hoyos, a chef and the owner of Tacotomia, a taco restaurant with locations in downtown Miami and downtown Doral, said the majority of her staff is Latina and that she trains them with hopes that they can also one day pursue entrepreneurship.
“My goal is to support them and give them an opportunity,” she said.
Hoyos worked as a chef in Indiana earlier in her career and said she prefers working in Miami. “The industry [here] is very supportive of woman-owned businesses and minority-owned businesses,” she said.
While data suggests that entrepreneurship among Latinos is improving, Chaia also found there is still room for improvement in leveling the playing field.
Credit ratings of Latinos have been on the rise, but Latinos are 15% less likely than white entrepreneurs to get approved for loans. Nearly 50% of Latino credit applicants do not receive the full amount they are requesting, and Latino business owners are five times more dissatisfied with large banks than white business owners. Many end up borrowing money or getting investments from loved ones instead, Chaia said.
“There’s nothing wrong with friends and family, but it’s different from what we’re seeing among non-Latino groups,” he said. “We feel this is an opportunity for financial institutions to look at opportunities of serving Latino entrepreneurs.”
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