• This is the launch of a national effort to get Hispanic-owned businesses online. It is a continuation of last year’s successful 50 state tour of “Get Your Business Online.”

• Now workshops and the website are in Spanish to help encourage more Hispanic-owned businesses to get online.

• We’ve partnered with Intuit to provide the websites, with support from local and national small business organizations.

• See blogpost here with summary of 50 state venture.

• These events will have multiple workshops that provide businesses with a fast, easy, and free way to get a website and tips on how to build an online presence.  Everything that is available at the event is also available online at www.gybo/espanol (please use this link http://goo.gl/Ut4nq so we can track traffic from LATISM)

• We hosted events in LA & Miami last year and are thrilled to be back and offering the events in Spanish.

• Get Your Business Online is a Google-led program dedicated to driving economic growth by providing local businesses the tools and resources to get online, grow and expand.

• One of the most important ways that we can help small businesses and the economy is to help businesses increase their presence visibility online -  this enables them to find new customers and sell more products and services.

Research

• According to the US Census, Hispanic businesses have seen 44% growth in the past 5 years.
• US Hispanics generate new ventures 3x faster than the general population.
• US Hispanics represent the fastest growing segment of SMBs in the US. The potential economic impact of getting these businesses online is huge.
• While 97% of internet users go online to look for local products and services, 58% of US small businesses do not have a website.

Why did you choose to do a specific program for Hispanic owned businesses? US Hispanics represent the fastest growing segment of SMBs in the US. The potential economic impact of getting these businesses online is huge. This initiative will increase access to the web for Spanish-speaking business owners.

What’s in this for Google?

We are committed to a vibrant web, and think that small businesses have a large role to play, as 97%  of users look for local products and services online. We also believe that the more small businesses we can help, the more we can help the US economy.

More opportunity to connect customers with businesses. If someone is searching for “plumber in Miami” and there are no results, a plumber will lose that business opportunity. The searcher won’t find what they are looking for, and that is bad for Google.

Where else have you done this program?

We have now done events in all 50 states, but are continuing to make our way across the country to get even more businesses online.

What are the goals ? How many businesses do you want to get online?

We want to get as many businesses online as we possibly can over the next year, we hope many hundreds of thousands.  We are working with our partners to reach out to all  businesses around the country who aren’t online yet. We think that if we can help small businesses grow and expand around the country, we can help our economy.

Where else has Google done this?

Google has launched programs very similar to Get Your Business Online in 40+ countries including Great Britain, Canada, Ireland, Australia, Thailand, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, Hungary and Poland.  These were very successful in helping businesses get online and start expanding their customer base.

In the US, we have been to all 50 states!

How much will domain hosting cost in the second year? According to Intuit, after the first year, the website costs just $4.99/month and the domain name $2/month. It can be cancelled at any time.

College.  Did you go? Are you still there?  Are you paying off your loans? Would you like your children to go? Do you know how to get them there? Amazing how this one little word brings more questions than answers.  Those of you who are familiar with the college process know what it takes to get from point A to point Z, but for many others – myself included – it’s insanity!! Thankfully there are many resources that can help us, como padres y familia, work through the process.  Organizations like New Futuro who have partnered with LATISM for a series of online chats as they kick-off their college prep courses (all of which are free! no se lo pierdan!). The first online chat will take place with our LATISM LA chapter on Tuesday, September 25th at 6pm PST/9pm EST.  You can follow online on Twitter using the #NewFuturo hashtag or on Facebook.  We’ll talk about the 1st steps in the college plan:

• Explore Careers/Explora Carreras
• Build Your Support Team/Construye tu Equipo de Apoyo

Join @NewFuturo, LATISM LA, @gabespeaker and @mikeperiu tonight via Facebook or Twitter.  Just follow the hashtags #NewFuturo and #latism.

We hope you are all enjoying your summer! We have been plugging away here at LATISM building our LA chapter. We would like to introduce you to our two new contributors Emerson Quevedo and Carmen Melgoza.

Emerson Quevedo is a serial entrepreneur in the entertainment and social web industries.  He is the founder of BLVD29 Studio a creative think-tank studio, SlackFeed a social media agency, *.Web Studio a web development firm, Latino Fit Club a fitness related social web community for hispanics, ViveLA a weekly show about LA lifestyle, CoolturaLA an online community for all things Cool and cultural in LA (Fall 2012) and FM Agency international the first international social-focused Talent agency (winter 2012).

He is also a well known personality in Spain and Latin america in topics such as social media, podcasting, blogging, branding, personal branding, influence and the social web.  His podcast “Vida Tech” was on of the first 3 podcasts in the world in spanish, he held the record of most consecutive daily episodes and was the first spanish podcaster ins publishing 100 episodes.  He’s a prolific bloggers and public speaker traveling around Latin America speaking in conferences and seminars in different fields: Social Web, Science and Technology, Innovation, Creativity, Online Publishing, Personal branding, Blogging and Podcasting, Marketing and Web development.

Besides his entrepreneurial endeavors; He has worked, consulted, collaborated and advise top 100 and top 500 companies such as NFL, Impremedia, FOX and Ovation TV as well as a variety of successful companies, Organizations and small business including Oishii Creative, La Opinion, La Revista, El Diario, Impremedia Digital, SiTV/NuvoTV, StreetVirus, University of Mexico, University of Guadalajara and Voto Latino among over 50 other companies.

He’s a computer science engineer and plans to obtain a Ph.D. in Neuroscience before 40; He’s a collaborator and advisor to the UNAM – LA campus -  (one of the biggest universities in latin america and the most important in Mexico) he is passionated about science, technology, Art, Music, Design and critical thinking and reads a book per week in average and plans to publish his first book in 2013.

Emerson was born and raised in Guatemala City resides in the US since 2000, He’s the eldest of 5 siblings and currently lives in Downtown LA with his wife and 2 puppies.

Carmen Melgoza is a PR and web marketing professional, Fitness coach and blogger. Born in Michoacan, she moved to the US in 1999 and went on to have a successful career in 3 different fields: Accounting, PR and Web Marketing.

She was a prominent member of the Hispanic association of colleges & Universities and in 2002 she was offered an internship with the department of defense, the department of health and the department of human services.

She is part of the founding and organizing committee for the “Feria del Nopal” in los angeles, an active member of “Latinos con Corazon” and a Founding partner of BLVD29 Studio, a creative think-tank studio in Downtown Los Angeles.

Following her passion for health and fitness in 2009 she became an independent beachbody coach and a blogger and developed an impressive following of over 2,500 users and growing in less than 4 months. Today, Carmen is invested full time in her career in PR, Marketing and Fitness and her community now in the thousands is still growing exponentially.

In 2010 she launched Latino Fit Club (www.latinofitclub.com) a community focused in health, fitness and well-being for the hispanic community in the US and Latin America.

As a podcaster, Carmen was one of the founding members of “ViveLA Podcast” a LA based weekly show about all things LA. She was a frequent guest host at PinPodcast and she is one of the co-founders of Cooltura LA a Social discovery site of all things LA for local residents and tourists (to be launched in Fall 2012).

Her life in this country represents the quintessential image of the American dream of an immigrant. Her first job in the US was harvesting grapes in the fields of bakersfield and the success she achieved in less than a decade is simply inspiring.

Carmen is the 11th of 12 siblings, lives in Downtown LA with her husband and 2 puppies and plans to go back to school to study nutrition.

LéaLA is back! With over 36,000 people in attendance last year, this year’s fair promises to be even bigger and better. Hard to imagine!

LéaLA is a cultural festival for Latinos and Spanish Literature readers designed to foster recognition of the Latino population and their customs. It’s a great opportunity to rediscover your Latino roots and learn about other cultures throughout Latin America. There will be more than 130 authors and 180 publishing houses present. Between May 11th – 13th, you can attend panel sessions with renowned authors and celebrity led reading workshops for children – for free.

And music lovers, you don’t want to miss this year’s line-up – Gloria Trevi, Tigeres Del Norte, Calle 13 and more!

For more information, please visit LéaLA or you can follow the LéaLA2012 hashtag on Twitter!