Pilsen couple serves up success at Malinche Coffee & Tea House, with guidance from local non-profit
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, we want to talk small business. Hispanic business owners are thriving in Chicago, but it's not easy.
We caught up with a husband and wife who are making it work, and someone who helped them get there.
Hector Aguille and Yvette Valdez have owned Malinche Coffee & Tea House, near 21st and Halsted streets in Pilsen, for a little over a year.
It all began with a dream years ago back in their native Mexico City.
"When we moved to Chicago, our dream was to get a café as well, to build our own café. We say, 'Well, maybe if we can have our café in Mexico, we can make it in Chicago.' We love this city," Aguille said.
But they soon learned that dreaming it and making it can be a long way apart. Enter Alex Esparza and the Economic Strategies Development Corporation – a non-profit specializing in helping small businesses in Pilsen and nearby neighborhoods to start and grow.
"We focus on the startup of businesses, retention of businesses, attraction of businesses. We also pride ourselves in promoting our community," Esparza said.
For entrepreneurs like Aguille and Valdez, that's pretty sweet.
"An individual can walk into our office, and ask us anything from reviewing a lease agreement for their potential storefront to marketing – the development of marketing their logos, their marketing campaign, access to capital. So we pride ourselves in being a one-stop shop," Esparza said.
Esparza said "hiring local" keeps business owners and neighborhoods thriving.
"An employer will pay his employees, that employee lives in the community, that employee that lives in the community spends his money in the community, and the cycle keeps going," he said.
Aguille has some of his own advice for other entrepreneurs.
"It's not gonna be easy, but when you have passion to make it, any of the challenges that you find, you're going to come through them," he said. "You just gotta follow the passion and you gotta be tough."
The Economic Strategies Development Corporation also holds financial literacy classes for kids as young as ten.
For more information, log on to esdcchicago.org.