Lizbeth Cardozo > www.LaCosmopolatina.com

Lizbeth Cardozo, Co-Founder, La Cosmopolatina.


What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
You need vision, persistence, discipline, a level and calm head, a sense of humor to endure the tough times, and the gift to be able to inspire your employees, vendors and investors to work with you and share your dream. But most of all, you need a goal in mind and plenty of passion. If you do what you love those caffeine filled late nighters or weekends you mostly likely will pull won't ever feel like work.


What did inspire you to start your business?
My business partner and I are proud, bi-lingual and bi-cultural Latinas of Colombian descent. We noticed there is very little Internet content that caters to English dominant Latinas who embrace their Latina roots. We decided to fill that void and provide a voice for aspirational and trendsetting US Latinas.


We also noticed that the face and perceptions of Latinas is evolving. They're more educated. They're becoming entrepreneurs. They're climbing the corporate ladder. They're mothers and full time employees. And while they balance all the things that they feel make them successful, they have very little time but they still worry about their beauty, health, their finances, their love lives, etc. We offer fast and funny tips written in English with Spanish language words that hit the cultural heart strings.


How did you finance it?
We financed it ourselves.


Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
Absolutely. I'm the target market. My business partner and my backgrounds allow us to see the world with a Latino perspective. We cull our surroundings for tips that we think our readers will find novel. Then we write them in a way, that all women will understand, but will have a more special meaning to a Latina.


In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
What drives us is putting Latinas on the map and painting them in a positive and sophisticated light. With the growing and under served Latina market, we are the first movers in this segment. According to posts from our followers on Facebook and Twitter, we are uniting proud Latinas in the US.


What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
We write mostly in English and pepper the tips with words in Spanish that Latinas can culturally identify with and that evoke nostalgia. Many offered their opinion and attempted to sway us into writing more in Spanish or in Spanglish, but we decided we didn't want to be like other Latina websites. We stuck to our guns. Our readers have done nothing, but praise us for understanding and entertaining them.


If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
would have launched this website earlier. I have wanted to be the eyes and ears of the US Hispanic market for years; a sort of Latino Ambassador, if you will.

What was your childhood ambition?
I wanted to be an artist or writer, so I could express myself and evoke emotions and understanding among my followers or readers. I also wanted to right any wrongs or injustices in the world. I still do.

Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
Steve Jobs
My business partner. She is relentless and has amazing discipline and focus.
My parents. They are one of the hardest working people I know. They came here as immigrants to the US, with very little money, young 20 somethings, but with big dreams and aspirations. They have endless energy and still continue to educate, improve themselves and take on new business ventures and personal challenges, but with a passion and joie de vivre that is unequaled to most. I have complete admiration for them.

For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Lunch. Typically energy is still high for positive discourse and great ideas!


What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
Leisure time and personal relationships.


What is your favorite quote?
All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them.
Walt Disney


Is it difficult to be unconventional?
No. Not at all. It's fun and challenging.


Biggest mistake made?
Not launching my business earlier.


Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
Yes. We're first movers in this market. We haven't seen any websites like ours that caters to the English speaking Latina market.


About the Company:
Launched by two Colombian-American Latinas in late 2009, LaCosmopolatina is daily newsletter of lifestyle tips for the sophisticated chica on the go; who can walk a mile in her designer shoes, but comes home to her arroz con pollo. We are devoted to bringing Latinas daily tips on everything that’s cool, hip and new in beauty, style, technology and la vida. And since we’re all busy chicas we do it in a fun and fast way infused with our distinct sabor Latino and nostalgia that tugs at our heart strings.
http://www.lacosmopolatina.com/

Vanesa Rodríguez Maza > http://lavidadeserendipity.com/

Vanesa Rodriguez Maza, Founder, International Magazine & La Vida de Serendipity Blog.


What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
I think that in order to become an entrepreneur you need first of all, all the experience you can get. Working for other people in order to know how to be a boss, facing the market, learning how a company works from the bottom up gives you all the knowledge you will need to start your own business, experience is really important from my point of view. Then you’ll need all the will, constancy and discipline you can get, because it isn’t easy.


What did inspire you to start your business?
After working for so many years in a couple of companies in different areas, and after having a brain surgery, I decided that life was too short and that I needed to do what really made me happy (even thought I didn’t really know what that was at the time). I started a blog just to have a place to express myself, and everything slowly came out of that.


How did you finance it?
My parents helped me a lot, and at the same time I had other free lance jobs in order to maintain myself.


Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
I think that because of being Hispanic and working in fashion I get influenced by the whole world (fashion magazines, blogs, runways, etc) and my struggle comes when trying to adapt what I see to the Latin American market, and of course, to what I personally like.


On the other hand, being Peruvian and the richness of our language gives me the opportunity to be as casual or as formal as I want. When it comes to my readers, I get to be really friendly using their expressions and knowing what they want, when dealing with designers, I have to be more polite and serious and I believe that Spanish is one of the languages that really allows me to do that.


In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
Keep going was my only chance, I never considered going back and working for others, I worked really hard to succeed.


What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
On one side, hiring people and having to let them go, that was really hard because I never had to do that before. On the other side, since the business was basically online and the market really new (in Peru), it was a slow beginning that required a lot of patience.


If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
I wouldn’t change a thing. I’m the kind of person that thinks that everything happens for a reason, and I learn my best from every experience.


What was your childhood ambition?
I wanted to be famous! Kidding apart, I would be lying if I said that I always knew what I wanted to do. I finished school and studied marketing because it sounded like a good choice and on my way I discovered that I really liked it. I loved fashion at the same time and it is just now that I get to do both things.


Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
I admire my dad, he is a really hard worker that managed to give to his 3 children everything he could and he still does. As well as I my mom, who runs the house in a really smart way, and trust me, running a house is whole business.


For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
I prefer breakfast because I’m a morning person. I wake up really early so I like to start my business day the same way, although I also like the different aspects of a business evening, specially being on fashion where image is so important. Getting dressed for a business dinner or drinks is quite an art form on itself.


What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
I had to stop shopping! I had to reduce my personal debts (a.k.a credit cards) while telling people what was in. It was quite an ordeal talking about trends, what to wear and not to wear while I couldn’t afford to follow those trends or take my own advice in shopping. I also had to quit most of my social life with my friends in order to stop spending money that I could later need for my business. That was in fact quite frustrating.


What is your favorite quote?
Know your body, know your closet and then go shopping.


Is it difficult to be unconventional?
It was hard trying to explain what I do to most of my friends, especially when most of them work in huge companies, and have a big monthly paycheck. Most of them thought I stopped trying –especially while they noticed I stopped going out- to get work in somebody else’s company.


Biggest mistake made?
So far I wouldn’t know what to say, I’m really proud of what I have accomplished and if there were mistakes on the way, they happened for a reason.


Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
I think that my business is innovative but I consider myself as a hard worker. I would’ve worked just as hard in any other business I would have decided to have.


About the Company
International Magazine is a small company that specializes on fashion. We develop trend reports and collections for fashion designers as well as specialized copyrighting and personal styling. But what got me to magazines like Vogue, TV shows and made me a “known person” is actually my fashion blog, "La Vida de Serendipity" and I’m planning at some point on living from it.
http://lavidadeserendipity.com/

Juan & Karen Chaparro > www.Gmaids.com

 Juan & Karen Chaparro, Founders, Gmaids.com

What do you need to be an entrepreneur?
Discipline to Dream, Plan, and Execute. And passion to continue the cycle going.


What did inspire you to start your business?
Specifically Gmaids started by accident, really. We saw an opportunity to offer maid services online as a way to reach out to new customers. 5 years ago green cleaning in Dallas was a rare yet exceptional offer (even more with online booking), and it attracted press, interviews, and enough customer base to have us both working full time on it.


How did you finance it?
Oh that? Sweat equity + bootstrapping like crazy!


Being Hispanic…Does it have any influence on your business?
Absolutely. Hispanic culture is so heart warming and welcoming...very attentive. Something key to a service business.


In the face of adversity, how do you decide to keep going?
Trust God for the results of my decisions, get motivated by listening to hardcore entrepreneurs, and rewarding ourselves by traveling and participating in activities we enjoy. It's so important to learn to enjoy every step of the way and play hard as much as you work hard. I don't believe in restraining yourself from enjoying life and the people we love, I prefer to grow organically.


What is the biggest challenge your business has faced?
Having to change the whole model under which traditional maid services operate, and venturing out into something completely new, such as selling maid services online. All, while it being our primary source of income.


If you could change one thing about your business, what would it be?
Have more Cleaning Teams!...We're growing and need more Teams working with us in Dallas and for Austin and Miami which are our next markets in mind.


What was your childhood ambition?
To change the world. It sounds so blissful, but really all I wanted was to make certain wrongs right at a large scale, and that included providing assistance to children in under privileged countries. I think we all can do something at any level we're at and we actually started doing so with a charity program in Pereira, Colombia, helping an awesome group of children providing them with meals every month.


Tell us about three entrepreneurs that you admire?
Peter Daniels, Richard Branson, and Johnny 'Cupcakes'.


For business meetings: breakfast, lunch, or dinner?
Skype. Anytime on skype.


What sacrifices on your personal life did you have to make in order to become a business success?
Working the 3 roles: entrepreneur, manager and technician, all at once, which meant 12 hr working days, sometimes more--from both of us. I can not say we stopped spending time together, since we both work as a couple and are co-founders, but we did learn to delegate technical tasks to have freedom of time and jump into activities out of the working scope.


What is your favorite quote?
Today's seed is tomorrow's fruit. And today's fruit is meant to be enjoyed today.


Is it difficult to be unconventional?
It is difficult to not be unconventional. Every great brand stands out. Seth Godin calls it being a "purple cow".


Biggest mistake made?
Not reading The E-myth by Michael Gerber early enough.


Do you consider yourself an innovator? Why?
Yes, trying to change old business models to provide a better experience for the Customer and not the pockets of the corporate conglomerates.


About the Company:
Gmaids.com is the online maid service that provides ecological cleaning through certified Teams. Our motto is to deliver Cleaning Awesomess™.
http://www.gmaids.com/ 
www.twitter.com/gmaids
www.facebook.com/gmaids

Juan and Karen offer consulting for small businesses in the areas of online strategy, branding and customer service through http://www.juanchaparro.com/.