Starting a business is not a simple task. Among Columbia’s business community, there is a smaller community that often goes unseen. The lack of diversity in businesses represented by the Columbia Chamber of Commerce has resulted in minority business owners’ voices going unheard. The Hispanic community in Boone county noticed just that and began exploring the idea of starting a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. 

Hispanic-business owners make up a small percentage of Boone County’s total firms, but the Hispanic population in Boone County continues to rise. According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center, there are 290 Hispanic-owned firms in Boone County. Cruz Chavez is one of these business owners. He owns his own company called Cruz Custom Construction and explains how the Hispanic community faces cultural, educational and language barriers when it comes to starting their business and even navigating the business world. A group working to establish the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce hopes to change that. With Chavez being a second-generation Mexican-American with a college degree, he said he hasn’t experienced the social stigmas to the same extent as the rest of the Hispanic community, however, it’s something he has definitely dealt with at times throughout his life.