George Burciaga > www.smarTECHS.net

George Burciaga Chief Executive Officer of smarTECHS.net

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
You need a great idea as well as the focus and passion to turn that idea into reality. You have to be ready to risk everything to win it all.

What did inspire you to start your business?
Necessity. I was raised in an environment where I needed to succeed in order to survive.

How did you finance it?
I financed my business through hard work or what I like to call “sweat equity.” I worked many nights with little to no sleep. I have worked for every penny that I have ever made.

Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
Yes, I grew up in a culture where working hard with a strong commitment to family and community was very important. It’s where I get my work ethic.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
Adversity is part of my everyday business routine. I have no choice but to overcome adversity. I have a lot people who depend on me: my family, my staff, my clients and my community. I have made a commitment to them that I will succeed and that my support will help them succeed too.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
After Y2K came and went, so did my business. In order to survive in the marketplace, I had to completely change my company’s business model. I had to reinvent and re-brand my business, converting it into a full service IT firm in order to continue to grow.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
I would have started my business sooner. As they say, hindsight is always 20/20, so I wish I possessed the business acumen I have today. I wish I could tell that 22-year-old kid all the things I know now.

What was your childhood ambition?
I wanted to have the power to change the way people live for the better.

Tell us about an entrepreneur that you admire?
Oprah. She’s built an incredible brand and has actually changed the way people think. It’s amazing the way great entrepreneurs can actually change the way people behave.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Lunch.

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
I had to completely remove myself from the equation in order to succeed. I had to sacrifice a lot and give up some my personal desires like getting sleep and buying things that I wanted. I had to work harder and work smarter than everyone else.

What is your favorite quote?
If you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you will get there?

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
No. I have always been outside of box. I have never been inside it. In fact, I don’t even know what the inside of the box looks like.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
Yes. I think to be an innovator you have to be the first one to do something new, without worrying about success or failure. True innovation takes a willingness to risk it all. I have never been afraid to risk everything in order to win big. If I know what I want to do and it makes sense to me, I believe I will succeed and I take that risk. I have always liked to do things that other people won’t do.

About smarTECHS.net
smarTECHS.net is a Chicago-based IT firm that provides full-service, innovative technology solutions for national and local clients in both the private and public sectors. By building strategic partnerships with global corporations such as Microsoft and Dell, smarTECHS.net offers tailored IT solutions that specifically align with the mission and goals of each client. Recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the country, smarTECHS.net is a privately held company with a strong commitment to community service and development. For more information, please visit www.smartechs.net.

Annette E. Alvarez > www.tostobueno.com

Annette E Alvarez Owner of Tostobueno LLC and Multi-Ethnic Talent & Promotion, Inc.

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
My first reaction was to write about the need for vision and a 100% devotion to that vision but found that that answer was too simplistic, so I hit delete. I asked my friends for their thoughts. They also talked about vision. So I guess vision wins in everyday conversation, but truth be told I don’t think that’s the magic entrepreneurial ingredient. Lots of people with vision are still punching a clock. What am I missing? I turned to Webster. The dictionary. Entrepreneurs “assume the risk of a business.” Hmmmmm . . . we are risk takers. Got it! Fearlessness! To be an entrepreneur you can’t be afraid. That sounds about right!

What did inspire you to start your business?
Need.

How did you finance it?
I own two businesses, with two sets of partners.

A) Multi-Ethnic Talent & Promotion, Inc. manages ethnic actors. As a home business, we were able to keep costs down. Not long after we started in 1992, our first client was hired by MTV as the face of their newly launched MTV Asia network. I remember our first commercial—AT&T; it paid very well. That same actor went on to be one of the first faces of Viagra. Very funny. The Sopranos was good to us. As well as all The Law & Orders. Our actors are now all in Los Angeles, and one just booked a pilot. Let’s hope it gets picked up.

Still, I needed to work for the first five years of our business and I did, as an overnight news editor at WNBC. So if you count, it was 18 hours days.

B) Tostobueno®, LLC designs and distributes high-end, ethnic kitchenware. Our signature product is an eco-friendly, bamboo tostonera. It takes a village to raise a child. In this day and age, it also takes one to get a business going. We
have a wonderful village of family and friends who have surrounded themselves around us, giving of their time and money. So to answer the question we self-financed except for $20,000.

Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
The immigrant work ethic. Yes, I work 7 days a week and I am on the computer dealing with both coasts until, basically, my head can’t take it anymore. (Read below) But – here is the big BUT, what I do is because my parents gave me the best education that money could buy. I went all the way to the University of Miami School of Law. There I met my Multi-Ethnic partner, Joan C. Silverman. I studied Broadcasting at Miami-Dade Community College, North Campus. Burt Delgado, the BEST TV professor EVER. He is still there. I worked at WNBC; that is were I met my Tostobueno® partner, Don Williams, the station’s reporter/anchor. My parents were factory workers. What I do is fun. Now, let’s not confuse fun with easy. At Multi-Ethnic my job is to convince people “in power positions” that my actors should be given the opportunity to auditioned for a role that in their minds they see a caucasian actor playing. With Tostobueno® my job is to convince people “in power positions” that America is ready for high-end, ethnic kitchenware, specifically our signature product an eco-friendly dual tostones and rellenos tostonera. My parents worked the same amount of time. SEWING! Their fun, the radio-novelas and the dream of one day having their on place.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
You just “do” with great faith that it will all work out. And it usually does.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
Business Challenge:For Multi-Ethnic: keeping afloat after 9/11. For Tostobueno®: educating businesses that Hispanics as well as non-Hispanics will spend money for quality and up-scale ethnic cookware.
Personal Challenge:In 2000, I was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor. I must tell you, it hasn’t been a fun ride, but with the help of family and friends we were all able to keep it going.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
Change happens, with or without me.

What was your childhood ambition?
To be a teacher.

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
When I was younger I read all the business books, etc. However, at the end of my day it's my parents who I admire most - they were my Wharton. And from what I just found out, my mother as a kid loved to work at her dad's "bodega" in Cuba. My father -- when he wasn't at the factory, he was selling jewelry or electronics. I'm a first generation Cuban-American. My parents came to this country in the early 50s, and shortly after I was born in '58, the goal was set: to move from Brooklyn to Miami and open a factory. And they did. Basically, they taught me the value of effort and hardwork.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Honestly, I prefer meetings where there is no food. Coffee, si! Meetings for me are all about going in and getting out. Now, for networking I prefer lunch. And when we want them to try, my partner's Don--aka Chef DonClark-- tostones rellenos-with sweet and savory toppings-- and plantain muffins and well, the best Café Espresso EVER . . . it's home for dinner. Don was awarded a design patent on June 27th 2006 after spending three years perfecting the Tostobueno ® design.

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
I don’t know, really. I've modeled my life to accommodate my love of business.

What is your favorite quote?
Luck is the residue of design.

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
I find this to be the question that most resonated in me. I’ve always, always been unconventional, and I guess I still am and probably always will be. I didn’t realize it, until, well, I read this question that being unconventional is a good business trait. I remember being yelled at by my 5th grade teacher for having done something the complete opposite of everyone else in the class. That’s when I realized I was a bit . . . different. And 40 some odd years later, nothing’s changed. The upside—I’m not phased by much and can continue any pursuit without fear. Wow. . . Who would have thought?

Biggest mistake made?
Not buying a Blackberry sooner.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
I can’t answer this question without bringing in ALL my partners. And even then it is not to say we are innovadors but visionaries. Both Multi-Ethnic and Tostobueno® are chipping away at an archaic business model. . . one that doesn’t include the financial power of ethnic America, with Hispanics representing $1 trillion in spending power by 2010, according to Jose Cancela, founder of the marketing and research firm Hispanic USA Inc.

Joan and I started Multi-Ethnic in 1992. It wasn’t until seven years later that what we knew was actually said out loud by the likes of Ricky Martin and then NAACP President Kweisi Mfume. Yes, a very unlikely duo. Ricky’s groundbreaking “Cup of Life” Grammy performance showed EVERYONE that Hispanics were here and, well, HOT and not going anywhere. Mr. Mfume also in 1999 took TV execs to task for what he called the whitewash of TV.

Don, Ainsley C. Williams and I started Tostobueno® a few years ago. . . well, let me leave you with this. Just look at the Food Network. Does it reflect even a little bit the Hispanic population of this country?

Visionaries. Yup . . . that’s what we are.

About the Companies

Multi-Ethnic Talent & Promotion, Inc. manages ethnic actors.

Tostobueno®, LLC designs and distributes high-end ethnic kitchenware. Our signature product is Tostobueno, The Ultimate Tostonera® an eco-friendly, bamboo tostonera that can make up to six toston chips "tostones" or toston cups "tostones rellenos" with one smash.

Contact Annette at http://www.tostobueno.com/

Daniela Rodriguez > www.riverplatefulfillment.com

Daniela Rodriguez, Owner, River Plate Fulfillment

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
Believe in your self,always a positive attitude,discipline, honesty.

What did inspire you to start your business?
My business started by accident, from a necessity when my husband had a very bad car accident and I had to put food on the table for my kids.

How did you finance it?
I finance it with quarters and dimes that were saved in my piggy bank.

Being Hispanic? Does it have any influence on your business?
It's great to be Hispanic, you have the best of both worlds, many times we run in to people in warehouses that do not speak much English, is great to be able to speak the Spanish language in order to do business, also our employees that the majorities are Spanish is the strongest access to the company.

In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
I always see the glass half full, never half empty, and in life nothing comes easy if you want to be successful, I believe you never have to step back, always forward, and that other than death, there is always a solution for everything if is with in you. Like my good right hand and friendSandra my employee said, it is what it is, and we take a day at a time. I focus on the positive never the negative.

What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
The fire on October 21, 2007 I saw my 15 yrs of hard work burned down to ashes. All of my dreams had fallen apart, all of my employees without a job. My biggest challenge was how was I am going to get all that back, and was like the whole world colapse on me on that day.

If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
Nothing, I would not change a thing, if anything I would add more services that would enhance it according to my customers needs.

What was your childhood ambition?
To be a pilot

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
Donald Trump, Fernando Lamp, and Mitzie

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Lunch

What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
I had to sacrifice family time, I had to cut on all my personal expenses, meaning not taking a vacation for 10 years, no eating out, sleeping time. I was lucky if I got to sleep 5 hours a day. Not seeing much of my friends. I became a workaholic.

What is your favorite quote?
If there is a will, there is a way. In Spanish (Querer es poder)

Is it difficult to be unconventional?
No it's not

Biggest mistake made?
The biggest mistake I ever made was not having enough insurance. We can never be insured enough, and for that you have to do your homework. Know the value of the merchandise the company is keeping in inventory for customers, know the value of your own machinery, and even when our insurance agent, is letting us know what covers and you seamed to be happy with it, please read it yourself and ask questions. It's too late after the facts. Ask for a second opinion if you are not sure of the policy you have in your hands.

Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
No, I don't consider myself an innovator, I consider myself a person with a very strong inner strength.

Riverplateinc.com does fulfillment for all types of industries, trucking nation wide, warehousing and distribution.