SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Ashley Sullera's career started with a pandemic hobby, determination and a fresh idea.
Sullera is a second-generation Filipino American and owner of Kandelita Company, a soy candle company offering scents inspired by Filipino and other Asian flavors and culture. During COVID lockdown in 2020, Sullera found herself missing big family parties, so she decided to channel that energy into her newfound hobby — candle making — by creating scents that would remind her of home.
"Things are inspired by memories of going to parties and eating certain pastries.... and even certain phrases based off of things that we would hear growing up," she said.
Sullera's business launched after people grew interested in her products and encouraged her to start selling them. She converted part of her garage into a makeshift candle making studio and opened up Kandelita Company in August 2021. Some of her most popular scents include ube and sampaguita.
"Sampaguita is like our number one top seller just because it's the national flower of the Philippines. It's really strong, it's very fresh and it's really sentimental for a lot of people like, 'Oh, this reminds me of my Lola. Oh, my mom would love this,'" Sullera said.
Two years later, her business has grown beyond her imagination.
"I'm getting orders literally from all over the country, Canada, Singapore, Europe... It's kind of crazy thinking about how big this has all become just from a hobby, like literally making candles in my garage," Sullera said.
But Sullera says getting to this point wasn't easy. In fact, small businesses face greater challenges of staying open. According to Forbes, 20% of businesses fail in the first year and 50% close by the fifth year.
Sullera's business was featured in the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce's 2023 AAPI-Owned Holiday Gift Guide, just one of the ways Sullera says the Chamber helped her throughout her entrepreneurial journey.
"The holiday guide started about 2020. During the pandemic, it was especially hard for small businesses and makers as we call some of them to get a foothold. So we decided to put this out mainly to give them some additional exposure, but to also let the general public know that there are places that you can go to get things that are handmade or very specialized," said Roy Arimoto, the operations and membership manager of the Sacramento Asian Pacific Chamber of Commerce (SAPCC).
Many small businesses rely heavily on holiday sales as their way of staying afloat into the new year.
"Holidays do make a big difference. Especially because I sell kind of seasonal items as a candlemaker. I think it's like 30-40% of my whole entire income comes from the last two months of the year so I think a lot of times it can make or break a business," Sullera said.
A "State of AAPI Small Business Owners" report by Hello Alice found most Asian American and Pacific Islander business owners believe raising capital and operating their businesses are the biggest challenges they face.
"A lot of times if somebody's starting their own business, they're calling on their mom and dad, aunt and uncle to try to generate enough revenue. Sometimes it's not enough to create a sustainable way of starting that business," Arimoto said.
That's why SAPCC runs the Minority Business Development Agency, which helps minority-owned businesses with marketing, getting credentials and technical assistance. The chamber also hosts sip and socials multiple times a year, as well as invites vendors to their annual Night Market to increase exposure.
►Find SAPCC's full list of AAPI-owned businesses HERE.
Events are one way the Sacramento Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SHCC) also promotes local Hispanic and Latin-owned businesses, such as with their annual Latina Estrella Awards event, which honors women who are leading in their professions, business and community.
"It's an opportunity for us to get people introduced to businesses that are there so that you will go to their actual location or look them up online," said Cathy Rodriguez Aguirre, President and CEO of SHCC.
The chamber also has an Emprende Sacramento program, which lasts for 10 weeks and helps entrepreneurs in the early stages of launching their business. Rodriguez Aguirre says — like many businesses — Latino/a business owners also struggle with access to capital.
"Banks and financial institutions are more likely to give you a loan about the time you don't really need it. It's because they want to see that you have a good business plan, that you have success before they want to take the risk on investing in you. That's just a culture shift we need to change," she said.
According to the 2022 State of Latino Entrepreneurship report by the Latino Business Action Network, Latino-owned businesses have substantially lower approval rates for national bank loans compared to white-owned businesses. White-owned businesses requesting between $50,000-$100,000 get 78% of the amount requested, compared to only 40% for Latino-owned businesses. That's despite the fact Hispanic-owned businesses contribute more than $800 billion each year to the American economy, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
"We have more businesses that have stayed and are bringing on new employees or finding second locations or adding a brick and mortar to their food truck. There's a lot that's happening out there and we want to speak to that," Rodriguez Aguirre said.
►Find SHCC's full list of Latino-owned businesses HERE.
Angelica De La Cruz participated in the Emprende Sacramento program and is the owner of La Gran Tenochtitlan on Northgate Boulevard.
"I got to meet a lot of people like direct business leaders in finance, accounting, and (they) answered questions like on permits and things. It just made me feel like I was more comfortable going out to do these things," De La Cruz said.
She started her business selling handmade items from Mexico at flea markets after she graduated high school in 2014. She established her brick and mortar in 2022.
"My family is from Mexico City, so we kind of paid like a homage to where we come from," De La Cruz said. "That's where my love for the Mexican product came from, growing up, going over there and seeing everything."
While visiting different states in Mexico, De La Cruz door knocked and connected with various vendors, who she still supports through her store today.
“I love that I'm able to bring pretty much Mexico to the states for people who aren't able to travel as often or can't bring stuff back," she said.
Throughout the holiday season and also year-round, Rodriguez Aguirre says shopping small is important because many small business owners are working to support their families and community. Small businesses in California contributed a net increase of nearly 770,000 jobs between March 2021-March 2022.
"I always say it's true when they say we do a happy dance when you shop small with us," De La Cruz said.
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