Hispanic Business Women's Alliance - “The best way to help Latina businesses is to buy from them”

San Juan, PR, April 23, 2010 -- The Hispanic Business Women’s Alliance (HBWA) has announced that it is spearheading a national campaign promoting the theme: “The best way to help Latina entrepreneurs is to buy from them”.

Lourdes Aponte Rosario, President of HBWA and a past recipient of the prestigious U.S. Small Business Administration Women in Business National Champion Award, stated: “We are actively encouraging government and corporate procurement officials, Hispanic business leaders, and the Hispanic community in general—the U.S. Hispanic population, including Puerto Rico, now exceeds 50 million— to do more business with Latina-owned firms—now estimated at over 700 thousand. Doing so, helps them grow faster, enabling them to significantly increase their contributions to the socio-economic development of their communities.

To facilitate finding Latina-owned companies throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, we have created the online U.S. Directory of Latina-Owned Businesses at our redesigned and content packed website www.latinamarketplace.com. This state of the art Directory helps buyers easily find and do business with Latina owned firms. It also helps Latina firms gain exposure on the Internet and be easily found by persons seeking to do business with Latina owned firms that otherwise might never find them.”

Ms. Aponte-Rosario also anticipates that non-Hispanic business owners seeking to penetrate the rapidly growing U.S. Hispanic market, estimated at $1 trillion, will utilize the online Directory to identify potential Latina suppliers, distributors, clients or strategic partners.