Please don’t take this wrong – I love the (mostly) free market in the US and the fact there has always been the notion of an ‘American Dream’. I’m a big supporter of it.
* My question is, I meet a lot of immigrnats (some who have been here years, and some not so long. They are already established in their own businesses, and that’s wonderful, but they often tell me stories of coming to the US with nothing.
* As inspiration, I’d like to know how they managed to start their own businesses?
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If you’re energetic and entrepreneurial in spirit, you take a job, or multiple jobs, live as cheaply as possible, save some money and open up a shop or whatever. Immigrants that come to the US are *hungry*. The type of people who want to bust it and make some money.
It’s not as hard to start one as a lot of people think, especially if you’re running a proven business model.
You do need some credit history and seed money even with small business loans and such, but that can be gained by working.
Now…making that business successful can be a lot harder and plenty fail, but starting it isn’t as rough as people think.
It’s all about networking. If you live in the United States from birth you can meet enough people who can steer you towards a job. Unless you have some insane skill or degree that is highly desirable, that’s a common way a lot of us get our jobs. A lot of people actually go to work for the companies that their parents work at. I work with a lot of people at the hospital that I’m employed at who have family members that work here. If your mother is a good employee with a good record at work then she can recommend you for the job and help you through the process.
In the case of immigrants who don’t know anyone here they’re not pressured to go into something by their parents and can translate their ideas into a business.
If you come with nothing and have no professional connections, it may be easier to start your own business.
“Start a business” is pretty broad. The guy working at a convenience store chain may well be the owner, and a lot of those franchises are essentially buying yourself a job. Many are lucky to be able to afford 1-2 employees in addition to themselves.
Easy access to credit
If you are willing to work hard and take a few risks our economy can and will reward you.
My completely anecdotal story is my former colleague who came here from Morocco on a diversity lottery visa. She started out selling insurance with a heavy accent and no family support and two kids. She was actually shy about even meeting with clients because of her accent.
Within three years she was one of the best sellers and was making six figures and training new people. The job just suited her and was completely unavailable to her in Morocco. She just puts people to shame with how good she is at matching people with what they need and getting them to realize it. It’s impressive. She’s also an amazing trainer. Wonderful mom too but that’s besides the point of business but not really because it all fits together.
There’s a pretty low bar for entry when it comes to starting a business here. Many businesses start in garages or basements. All it takes it hard work to start a business with whatever you have here.
That being said, immigrant is also not a synonym for poor. A lot of immigrants have a lot of money.
My father in law bounced around Europe and south America before coming here in the 80s he started a concrete/masonry business and wound up earning enough to build a 7mil dollar home. He was hard working and hard drinking but came from Europe and built the American dream
If you’re an immigrant you could move to a location with other immigrants from your native land, where they can connect you to services and jobs.
For example in Chinese communities there’s a big job board promoting jobs and businesses. A Chinese restaurant looks for new workers and later those workers could save enough to open up their own Chinese restaurant and so on. Many immigrants work their way up from service jobs such as laundromats or bodegas, brought in by other expatriates.
Keep in mind that most don’t, but some people do have the determination and are willing to work long hours to do it.
I assume it’s due to the fact that back home, where ever that is, it would be impossible or very difficult, where here companies like Apple and Dell started in garages and dorm rooms, so I suppose it gives the notion that as long as you have the motivation to do it and follow through, you can do it here.
Alot of businesses started from nothing during the oilboom here, from food trucks out of the trunk of an old 70s car to trucking companies that started with trucks they found in a scrap yard and looked like a rolling disaster yet a decade later they have brand new trucks.
I’m a child of immigrants that came here with nothing and grew up in a poor immigrant community. At least for the people in my area that ended up with a business, they were willing to sacrifice and live/work in rough conditions that many Americans would consider sub-standard in order to save money. It’s not uncommon to have an entire family (mom, dad, 2-3 children) live in one room of a shared house or apartment or work jobs at odd hours that might not be following labor laws until they get on their feet.
Some of these businesses are in low income communities where it doesn’t cost as much to rent. Family members are often employees, and in many cases there is a community of immigrants from their country who are also business owners, who can explain the process and help them get started.
Because it’s the Land of Opportunity! You can start a pizza chain to even your own company!
it is much simpler that you think: The EB-5 direct investor program currently enables investor immigrants to get green cards by investing as little as $ 500,000 in their businesses, provided they create ten new jobs. This opportunity is temporary and is likely to close by the end of the year with the amount required likely to go up to $ 900,000 as it was before. A regional center variation of this program is currently closed and awaiting reopening by Congress.
also once you own the business, or get a loan to buy a business you can work there and your family can work there without a green card.
I think the reasons many Immigrants start business here is in the first part of your question.
> there has always been the notion of an ‘American Dream’
Most come here not looking to get by with just a job, but rather to have the American Dream. and they know it takes a ton of work to have it. They have, in most cases, shown that hard work and fighting the odds doesn’t scare them by just getting here.
Starting your own business is not hard, it’s success that is hard. It’s failing forward that’s hard. it’s patience that’s hard. Many immigrants have faced the fails, and have had to have immeasurable patience just to get here, so a failed business or the lack of immediate success is no big deal. Find a business idea. Work to build that business. Fail. Learn from the failure. Try again with what you have learned. Fail *differently*. Learn. Try again. Eventually you’ll be “successful” and… you’ll fail again. Overnight success takes years to happen, this is a concept immigrants have already internalized as the work to get here, and that many non immigrant Americans fail to accept.
We (non immigrants), are willing to trade “success” for security, where as many immigrants started with little security to begin with. We also are wary of many opportunities presented to us. We dismiss them as scams, impossible, too hard, too expensive, too this or too that. We say *”what if it doesn’t work?”* or *”what if I fail?”* Those who are successful ask “what if it *does* work and I don’t do it?” and “how do I keep going?” We also worry about what others will think about us if we step out. Having a “good job” is the default, many immigrant cultures it is the exact opposite…ownership is the default and a job is a means to an end.
>As inspiration, I’d like to know how they managed to start their own businesses?
They said “Yes” to an opportunity and became focused on the success of the endeavor above almost all things. Family and business was all that mattered. And for some family came second. I am willing to bet that you’ll see this in all successful people, immigrant and native.
They had the courage and audacity to leave the safety of the familiar environment in the old country. They are self selected to be driven and hungry for success.
You get a pool of hungry, driven individuals compared to the native population, you’ll get a higher percentage of hard workers and entrepreneurs compared to the native population.
I’ll give my cousin’s example. Came here with nothing and immediately started doing anything for money. Saved up to pay rent for a table at a flea market and started fixing jewelry. Then that turned into a jewelry shop and he continued buying and selling anything of value for profit. Within two years he bought a foreclosed house and had a car and he kept hustling.
I think keeping things simple helps. There’s no I don’t have this or that, it’s grabbing something and selling it. I think Americans get paralyzed by “I need an LLC, or website, what’s my brand? I need business cards. “ An immigrant arrives and needs to pay for food immediately and they might not speak English so they are desperate for money. They skip all that and go for the actual money making side of business and they’ll figure out the rest later.
I think it’s mostly because they have no other options.
They either don’t fit in well with the American culture or are rejected by it so they have to start their own business so nobody is required to hire them and nobody can fire them.
Jews perpetually have this problem, which is why they have a high percentage of business ownership.
Even if you’re a doctor or lawyer immigrate you can’t legally use those skills here.
Starting a business is pretty easy. I have started two of them but to be transparent, neither one is my primary source of income. One is supplemental and my wife runs the other as her primary employment.
So, I can’t remember exactly where I read it but it was about nail salons in particular and the history surrounding them. Short version, Tippi Hedren does humanitarian work with Vietnamese refugees and the women loved her nails and she has the idea of getting them licensed to be nail techs.
Fast-forward and eventually you have a population of people opening their own salons and then the whole diaspora and recent immigrants learning the trade from relatives and friends of relatives etc.
Grow a big enough network and then you get to the interesting part with money pooling, or whatever the term is, where people are paying into a collective fund to essentially create loan opportunities without the banks. You learn the trade, buy in, open a shop and then pay back the other investors and train up new people as they come along.
Entrepreneurial spirit plus a good network and bam, business owner.
In some cases, they find a niche, work at it, and eventually bring family and friends in. I think one very good example is Indian-Americans and the hotel industry. Get a fairly poor motel/hotel, live on site, and run it cheaply with family. Eventually, buy a better hotel, go run that, and bring in a relative to take over the first one.
America in general is super pro business, we make it easier to get loans to open businesses and some places offer tax credits for new businesses