Contact Us At 863-838-2084



Welcome to the Puerto Rican  Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Polk County!
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Our Board
  • Benefits
  • Events
  • Membership Fees
  • Online Application
  • Member Businesses Directory
  • Supporters / Sponsors
  • Gallery
  • Advisory Board
  • SABOR de POLK
  • 15 YEAR ANNIVERSARY B2B & GALA
  • Think Puerto Rican/Buy Puerto Rican
  • BORINKEN MARKETING GROUP
  • CHAMBER DISTRICT CHAPTERS

CHAMBER NEWS!

RSVP for Chamber member Meeting - Friday Feb 8 hosted by Southeastern University ...Special Guests SBDC 

1/30/2013

0 Comments

 

First Chamber Meeting

Picture
Please RSVP to 863-838-2084 or Contact Jose Ocasio at SEU / Johnson Chapel - Bolin LibraryA 863.667.5601 863.370.65771000 Longfellow Blvd. Lakeland, FL 33801

Business in the News

Click on image to read article

Picture

Sponsorship Opportunities for our
Miss Polk Latina 2013

Picture

News on Immigration Reform

Picture
Click on Senator Rubio's image for the proposal from "The Gang of Eight"

White House Reform Proposal aslo

Business of the Week

Picture

Latest QUE Pasa Show!

Are you involved with the community , do you have a grass roots outreach program , do you sponsor a local soup kitchen? Tell us about it and lets have you on our show. Call me 863-838-2084

Picture
Biography---IYABAKOSO is what a real percussion ensemble should be.Dancing, Vocals and Drumming..iyabakoso plays the roots of Afro Caribbean music including music from all over the globe. From all over the Caribbean islands in a musical journey to Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, etc.....with a different twist and fusion with all kinds of percussion instruments. “IYABAKOSO” THE ENSAMBLE Hi, my name is Manny Lopez, director of IYABAKOSO AFRO CARIBBEN DRUMMING ENSEMBLE. The drumming show “IYABAKOSO” is an ensemble of drums vocals and dancers. A musical, educational and cultural new show in the Tampa Bay area. same as an African Ensemble but with the Latino Caribbean Flavor. We are a group of 3 female dancers and 6 percussionists doing folk music from Cuba, Puerto Rico, The Dominican Republic and other Afro Antillean influences. An awesome 30 to 45 minute show full of energy, drumming, dancing and vocals, featuring rhythms like Cuban Rumba, Guaguanco, Puerto Rican Bomba and Plena, Afro Dominican Palo and Salve, etc. “ IYABAKOSO Show” is available for fairs or festivals, school shows, college seminars, recreation centers, senior centers, private parties, corporate parties, theatre shows, etc. IYABAKOSO music is the roots of today popular latin music......

0 Comments

RSVP forFirst Chamber member Meeting of 2013 - Friday Feb 8th at 9am SEU

1/23/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
Please RSVP to Ana Rivera via prhccpc@gmail.com Where Johnson Chapel - Bolin Library
First Meeting
Special Hosts
Southeastern
University
Special Speaker
SBDC
Janette Blanco

Picture
Great Article for Small Businesses:
Korean immigrant John Kim worked in New York City restaurants for 30 years
before opening three large delicatessens that employ more than 100 workers. But
Kim doesn’t bank with the major financial institutions that are his Manhattan
neighbors. His lender is Noah
Bank
, which caters to Korean-American entrepreneurs and has four
branches in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey. “Whatever we need, they work
with us. We couldn’t have done it without them,” says Kim’s wife, Maria.


Noah Bank, with assets of $228 million, is tiny compared with megabanks like
JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C). Yet in 2011,
its first year of operations, Noah topped every other bank in the Small Business
Administration’s New York district in SBA-guaranteed 7(a) loans, lending more
than $88 million to 68 entrepreneurs, according to data from the agency. Most of
its loans are to small, immigrant-owned ventures, says Doug Smith, the bank’s
chief credit officer.


At least five of the top 25 SBA lenders nationally are banks with deep
roots in immigrant communities, including Noah. Especially since larger banks
have backed off small business loans following the financial crisis of 2008,
these smaller lenders court immigrant entrepreneurs by looking beyond credit
scores and cash-flow projections.


VIDEO: How Can the Small Banks Outperform Big
Banks?

Small lenders in immigrant enclaves require most employees to be bilingual,
and they understand how culture influences borrowers’ financial priorities and
business sensibilities. Noah’s chief executive officer, Edward Shin, establishes
personal relationships with entrepreneurs, visiting their companies and getting
to know them. “In loan committee [meetings], Mr. Shin will ask, ‘He’s got a
brother who’s married to a doctor, right?’ We’re looking for character and
professionalism and family success rates,” Smith says.


Lending decisions that may look questionable on paper may make sense with
closer scrutiny, says Samuel Ahne, a Korean-American attorney whose Manhattan
business law practice serves many entrepreneurs. Banks catering to immigrant
communities “may look like they are more liberal in lending, but that’s because
they know the inside story” of their clients’ businesses, Ahne says. “They know
the mother and father work there and there are a lot of people who will be
willing to pay off a loan if something happens.”


Lenders catering to immigrant entrepreneurs may struggle to reach clients who
are distrustful of or unfamiliar with U.S. financial institutions, says Ahne.
“In Korea, if you don’t pay your loan, it becomes a criminal matter,” he says.
“Your credit history controls your life. If you make a mistake, it follows you
forever.” That cultural difference puts the onus on banks to do extensive
customer education not often seen at mainstream U.S. banks.


STORY: A Year-End Checkup to Keep Your Small Business
Healthy

While some immigrant-focused lenders, including Cathay Bank (CATY) and
East-West Bank (EWBC), have
assets in the tens of billions, small community banks often thrive in SBA
lending. “We’re very big on hand-holding and teaching our clients,” says Jesse
Torres, CEO of Pan American Bank, with $38 million in assets. It
was founded in 1964 by Romana Acosta Bañuelos, owner of Ramona’s Mexican Food
Products and the first Latina to serve as U.S. Treasurer, under President
Richard Nixon.


Pan American also offers financial and computer literacy classes at its
headquarters in East Los Angeles. Torres, who grew up in the area, estimates
that 40 percent of people in the surrounding neighborhood have limited access to
financial services.


Small business owners who approach him have often operated on a cash basis
for years and don’t have the financial records to qualify for loans at larger
banks. “We break bread with them and look at their application in a manner that
larger banks are not able to,” Torres says. “If they honestly are not ready for
financing, we pass them over to a nonprofit that helps them with their financial
statements.”


STORY: Helping Businesses and Banks Hook Up
Nonprofits and professionals like attorneys and loan brokers in immigrant
communities steer clients to smaller banks that can meet their needs, says
business consultant Francisco De Vivo, owner of FAJ Consulting in Los Angeles.
Many of his clients believe that banks are strictly for the wealthy and
well-connected, he says, because in many countries, “your last name has to be
right in order for you to get a loan.” As a result, some immigrant-owned
businesses reach the limit of how much they can grow without financing. “I find
people doing more than $1 million a year in revenues who have never had a loan,”
De Vivo says. “They’re doing it all on cash flow.”


That’s what happened to Juan Ramirez, an immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico, who
has owned seafood restaurant El Rinconcito Del Mar in East Los Angeles for 25
years. The restaurant was bursting at the seams a decade ago, when De Vivo
helped Ramirez get a $700,000 loan from Americas United Bank in Glendale,
Calif., which caters to Hispanic business owners. The money allowed him to move
into a location five times the size of his original space. “I’ve never really
tried to do any major transactions with mainstream banks,” Ramirez says, “but I
know they’re more strict.”


0 Comments

February 8 - first member meeting hosted by South Eastern University RSVP by JAN 25

1/16/2013

0 Comments

 

February 8 Meeting - RSVP by 1/25 

Picture
This is the address of where we will be holding our meeting. Johnson Chapel – 8am to 11am Bolin Library – 8am to 12pm Bolin Conference 11am – 12pm

Also as guest speaker will be the offices of SBDC 

Picture
Bring your notepad and intuitive minds to ask many questions

Read here about " The 5 Issues Facing Small Businesses in 2013"

0 Comments

TOY Drive a great success! Thank you Tiffany's Latin Restaurant and now to a great year ahead!

1/9/2013

0 Comments

 

Message from President/Founder Ana Rivera

Picture
Dear Members & Friends,

Another year has gone by. 2012 brought much vigor. Surprises , disappointments ,ups and downs ...but most of all it surely showed that as a small business and entrepreneur we never gave up on the task at hand. Our chamber gained 27 new members in 2012. That's a record!

New marketing and networking techniques like Cash Mobs and so forth making us a business owners trying to get that piece of the pie in market share.Many grand openings and many firsts.Take a look at some other trends that happened in 2012..

These were a few trends also: 
  1. Social Networks from Facebook to Twitter to Google+ and how they’re connecting to influence-rs and businesses
  2. Geolocation check-in services such as Foursquare and Facebook location updates to share locations and earn rewards or opportunities for discounts
  3. Crowdsourced discounts and deals including Groupon and LivingSocial and what’s valued and why
  4. Social commerce services like Shopkick and Armadealo and how they create personalized experiences that are worth sharing
  5. Referral based solutions like Yelp, Service Magic, and Angie’s List to make informed decisions and how shared experiences can improve your business, products, and services
  6. Gamification platforms such as Badgeville and Fangager, and why rewarding engagement improves commerce and loyalty
  7. Consumers are using mobile devices today and what apps they’re installing. Also, how they’re comparing options, reviewing experiences and making decisions while mobile
  8. The online presence your business produced across a variety of platforms such as tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktops. You must realize how consumers are experiencing the online presences you create and whether or not they deliver a holistic and optimized experience for each platform.
  9. Consumer clickpath based on the platform consumers are using. Are you steering experiences based on the expectations of your customers? And are you taking into consideration the device or network where the clickpath begins and ends? Are you integrating Facebook F-commerce and m-commerce into the journey?
  10. The expectations of connected consumers, what they value in each channel and platform, where they engage and how your business can improve experiences and make them worthy of sharing.

But no matter what you decided to venture in , it just was not the same as a FACE to FACE situation. Our fifth year anniversary was just that an anniversary celebrating hard work and innovation to stay alive. This year as we venture into 2013 ( as last years 2012 It's All In The Brand) this year our slogan will be : 2013 - 500 Years of Discovery and Exploration
Which in short means , socially interact  and be mobile. Go outside your neighborhood and grow your market share. 


At PRHCCPC , we will have new avenues for you to join in and interact with to help grow your market share. I look forward to seeing you all at the very first meeting on FEB 8th.


So my friends go the distance to discover & explore.


Yours Truly - Ana Rivera

RSVP for FEB 8th Chamber Meeting - RSVP by Jan 25th

Picture
South Eastern University At the Boling Library / Conference Room Friday Feb 8 from 9am to 12pm RSVP to Ana Rivera at 863-838-2084 or email at prhccpc@gmail.com Light breakfast will be served
Picture

Open House at SEU Feb 7-8

JOBS: Puerto Rican Candy Sales Rep Needed

Picture
Jose Delgado ‎***AVISO*** Vendedores, Distribuidores y Amigos. Latin Delights te da la oportunidad de ganar dinero y estableciendo tu propio negocio. Conviertete en un distribuidor independiente de nuestra gran variedad de productos puertorriqueños. latindelightsdistributor@gmail.com

January is :
National Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness Month

We are looking for Sponsorship's/Donations for the Miss Polk Latina Pageant

Picture
Picture
Your Queens doing what is neccessary to represent you all.In Grand Openings , office work etc. Wont you support them? Sponsorship's due March 1st Please contact me for more information or visit our pageant website. www.misspolkllatinainc.com
Picture
Picture

Highlights of the Regalos Para Un Pueblo / Three Kings Celebration

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

2013 and the best is yet to come! PRHCCPC welcomes you to a new year of events , new members and new board members!

1/2/2013

0 Comments

 

Reminder: Toy Drive
Jan 5 @ Tiffany's Latin Restaurant - 4pm

Picture
Bring unwrapped gitf for boys & girls and get a 10% off your meal. Share a nice time with friends and celebrate the coming of the 3 Wise Men!

Jan 19 - Castings
Miss Polk Latina
Lakeland Sq Mall

Picture
We will be taking applications and interviewing on the spot the new candidates for Miss Polk Latina 2013.Ages from 4 to 27 yrs old Photo: 2012 Queen Miss Kristel Pabon

RSVP for PRHCCPC
First Meeting of 2013
Hosted by SEU

Picture
bring plenty of cards and an open mind. We will be laying out the networking programs and events for 2013. A light breakfast will be served. Please RSVP to this email. Or contact me at 863-838-2084

Meet your new PRHCCPC Vice President - Mr. Rafael Torres

Picture
Rafael Torres was selected to fill the post as of this December 2012. Mr. Torres has been a member of our chamber for three years . Rafael is a true believer of our mission and on numerous occasions he has stepped into help with setting up events to being an ambassador to our cause as a chamber.

Rafael ,comes with years of experience in the music and insurance industries.Mr. Torres will be assisting me/us in various duties/tasks. Additionally he will help us launch ourselves into the next growth for our / your chamber during 2013 and beyond.

Come to our meeting on Feb 8 to officially induct Rafael in front of our members and get to meet him for yourselves.

FEBRUARY is Go RED for WOMEN

Picture
February 1 is Red Dress Day for the cure of heart disease. Help us raise awareness as the chamber steps forward to help with this cause. I personally was born with issues with my heart and my mother at the young age of 40 had a mild heart attack.So the heart disease is a major issue for me. Latina women are a huge number of women with this silent killer. 

So let's get together and help raise funds for a great cause. 
Final venue , date and time will be announced on next weeks newsletter so save the date! FEB 1 2013


Business NEWS for 2013 

HBIF Workshops

Picture

Business of the WEEK

Picture
With Angie Aguilera at Evolution Martial Arts of Lakeland on W Daughtery
Picture
Checkout this article for Small Businesses 

Four 2013 Tax lessons
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-12-27/four-2013-tax-lessons-for-small-business-owners#r=nav-f-blog

0 Comments

    RSS Feed

    PR/HCCPC News

    Stay up to date with what's happening with our chamber.

    Archives

    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    February 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    September 2010

    Categories

    All
    Ana Rivera
    Anniversary
    Asi Baila
    Asi Canta
    Biz
    Cafe
    Cesar De La Rosa
    Cuban
    Dinner
    Directair
    Event
    Eventos
    Festival
    Flights
    Float
    Gene Conrad
    Gilbert Colon
    Gow Fields
    Hispana
    Hispanos
    Iris Chacon
    Junno Faria
    Justin Troller
    Lakeland
    Latina
    Latino
    Latinos
    Linder
    Magazine
    Mi Gente
    Miss Polk
    Miss Polk Latina
    Miss Polk Latina Enrollment Special
    Mj
    Networking
    News
    Patsy Feliciano
    Polk
    Pr Birth Certificates
    Puerto Rico
    Sba
    Teresa Martinez
    Theatre
    Tito Puente

    Picture
    Picture
















Also Email Us At : prhccpc@gmail.com

Chamber Business 
​By Appointment Only

New Mailing Address:
PO Box 2135
​Bartow, FL
​33831-2135
​863-838-2084

Picture

Useful Links :

https://www.myfloridalicense.com/
www.openmyfloridabusiness.gov

Sunbiz.org

www.irs.gov/smallbiz

http://www.lakeland.net/

www.mywinterhaven.com

www.prosperausa.org

www.polktaxes.com