USA (By Jim Hopkins, Hispanic Business) May 7, 2004 - Greg Cortez, founder of a San Antonio tech consulting company, is in a business spending mood.

Cortez, 37, who started AMGtech about four years ago, recently bought six desktop computers for $10,000. He expects to rack up another $10,000 in business spending on his Bank of America credit card over the next 12 months.

For years, marketers have drooled over the Hispanic consumer market as it soared with population growth. Now they're also focusing on the more narrow slice of Hispanic-owned companies, like AMGtech, and their growing appetite for computers, cars, credit and other business gear.

Thursday, eBay announced the debut of the Entrepreneur's Center, a Web site partly in Spanish to help aspiring small-business owners. Ford Motor unveiled a similar site last week.

There are 1.2 million Hispanic-owned firms in the USA -- about one of every 16 companies. Ford says there could be 2 million by 2007. What's more, many Hispanic firms are becoming behemoths with growing spending plans. Annual revenue at each of the top 10 exceeds $400 million, says Hispanic Business magazine's most recent list of the USA's 500 biggest.

Many, such as Goya Foods in Secaucus, N.J., still cater to the traditional sweet spot plumbed by Hispanic firms: other Hispanics. Goya, whose rice and snacks are staples in many Hispanic homes, ranks No. 4 on the magazine's list, with $735 million in revenue.

Still, more Hispanic companies like AMGtech are aiming for hot sectors like tech consulting services far from the Hispanic community. That boosts their revenue and spending muscle, drawing more attention from marketers like eBay and Ford.

"Hispanic businesses are outgrowing that stereotype of the small mom and pop," says Joel Russell, senior editor at Hispanic Business.

EBay has a growing base of small-business customers, so it could benefit from emerging niches such as Hispanic entrepreneurs. It gave $175,000 through its charitable foundation to a non-profit group that created the Entrepreneur's Center at www.thebeehive.org. The site, also in English, targets low-income people.

EBay has about 430,000 customers who are at least part-time small-business owners. They spent $2 billion on the site last year -- twice the amount in 2002.

Vehicles, technology and more

As more Hispanic firms prosper, they are spurring interest from marketers peddling:

* Vehicles. Ford's new Web site is a joint venture with Time Warner's America Online. The site features Spanish versions of articles from Fortune and other Time Warner titles. Also included: marketing tips and chat sessions with entrepreneurs and other experts.

The site is at www.ford.com/go/minegocio. Ford hopes it will make the automaker "top of mind" when Hispanic entrepreneurs shop for cars, says Nick Scheele, president of Ford Motor.

* Technology. Hewlett-Packard is another aspiring player in the Hispanic business market. In a pilot project last year, it showed H-P products on a local Hispanic business TV show in Houston. H-P is eyeing similar shows in other cities, says Denise Marcilio, head of H-P's Hispanic business marketing in the USA.

IBM also is cozying up to owners like Jorge Quintero, owner of QCM Technologies, a growing tech consulting firm with 22 workers in Scottsdale, Ariz. QCM had about $15 million in revenue last year. This year's revenue is on track to hit $18 million.

Quintero, 44, mostly sells IBM software and hardware to a range of companies and government agencies in Arizona and elsewhere. IBM recently asked him to step up marketing to Hispanic and other minority companies in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and west Texas.

* Bank services. Wells Fargo, which has earmarked $3 billion to lend to Hispanic business owners, in January launched a Web site with start-up advice in Spanish on writing a business plan, hiring employees -- and getting a bank loan.

The site, also in English, has gotten 1.3 million hits. About 18 percent of visitors come through the Spanish version, www.elfuturoentusmanos.com. "That makes us very happy," says Pamela Erwin, a senior vice president at the San Francisco banking giant.

The federal government is getting into the act, too. The Small Business Administration, a big guarantor of small-business loans, started monthly online chats for Spanish-speaking business owners this year. The agency created a Spanish-language version of its Web site in 2002 after President Bush appointed Hector Barreto, a Hispanic, as SBA's chief.

Wells and its competitors are trolling for customers like Patty Quinonez, owner of a financial advisory firm affiliated with American Express near Cleveland.

Local banks have been pitching to the Hispanic business community, she says. That's won some of her business. It's also inspired Quinonez to refer several of her nearly 200 clients to the banks.

In Mesa, Ariz., Cecelia Chavez, a consultant on human resources, also is swayed by financial firms appealing to Hispanic entrepreneurs.

Chavez, 47, started her company about six years ago. She expects to spend as much as $24,000 for airfare and other business expenses on her new American Express Blue credit card this year.

She picked the card partly because American Express is courting minority entrepreneurs. "They're trying," Chavez says, adding, "They still have a way to go."

Trendsetters

Hispanic entrepreneurs, besides being customers, have another role in marketers' campaigns: They are trendsetters in the broader Hispanic consumer market.

The cars they buy and banks they patronize often influence spending by neighbors, says Nanette Johnson of Mendoza Dillon in Irvine, Calif. The firm specializes in Hispanic marketing.

For marketers, the trick is to win business from entrepreneurs while their companies are small, then sell more goods to them as they prosper.

Cortez started AMGtech just four years ago. He now has seven employees and hopes his company will be two to three times bigger in the future. That could mean more business for H-P and Dell, who supplied the six computers he bought last month and in March.

"Hispanics are very loyal to products that we like and that we have good experience with," Cortez says.