Hi, I'm Jeff Rea.

Your host for Economic Outlook.

Welcome to our show.

We help you make plans each week to join us as we discuss the region's most important economic development initiatives.

Efforts are underway to grow the number of minority and women owned businesses across the region and to give those businesses access to new economic opportunities.

We'll hear from an employer on why this is important practice and take a closer look at one of the programs coming up on Economic Outlook.

Northern Indiana Minority Business Association is working to create a sustainable, diverse business community by connecting minority businesses to resources and opportunities to help them further develop and grow their business.

Their efforts are gaining traction and are driving economic growth here in our region.

To talk more about that organization and efforts here and across the region to grow minority businesses, we're sitting down with Paula Sours, the owner of Vision GPS Branding and the current president of the Latin American Chamber of Commerce of Saint Joseph County and current president of NIMBA.

We'll talk about those here in a second.

And Emmanuel Newman, the owner of Conchita.com and president of the Northern Indiana Minority Truckers Association, and Rick Fedder, the chief operating officer of the Indiana toll road.

Welcome, guys.

Thanks for joining me today.

And my apologies.

I probably messed it up.

Paula, we'll have we'll have you correct that here as we get back.

But want to thank you for for joining us.

Important topics today.

We're grateful to have you for this discussion.

We're going to learn a lot in this session.

Maybe just to get started, maybe just a quick introduction to sort of talk about those roles you and Paula we'll come your way first.

So tell us a little bit about some of the things that you're doing.

I'll give you a quick introduction, but tell us about the things you're involved in there.

Oh, yeah.

Every day it's a different hat is, as you well know and as everybody in this room understands.

I call it community work, working with the community.

So being the Latin American Chamber of Commerce president has been amazing in awarding.

We work with small businesses and minority owned business, helping and get certified and introducing them to other businesses and creating that ecosystem as well as quickly with NIMBA Well, we are then Indiana Minority Business Association, which was a sister company to NIMTA.

And Emmanuel, tell me a little bit more about that.

Where we are a for organization that is creating sustainable, minority owned businesses by identifying those in the local community, making these businesses aware of resources and opportunities to help them further develop and grow their business and to further have an economic impact.

Great.

Thank you, Paula.

We'll come back to you in a second.

So, Emanuel, let me come your way.

So somebody who doesn't know conchita.com or about NIMTA tell us a little bit about those two organizations.

Conchita.com is a small trucking company here in northern Indiana, and I'm also the president and chairman of the Board of the NIMTA And we're trying to further the diversity of the northern Indiana work region.

Government studies have shown that a diverse workforce does do better than homogeneous workforce.

And of course, the bottom line for a business is profit.

So having a diverse workforce is going to make companies more profitable.

We want to see more minority and disadvantaged individual not only succeed but be successful in their trucking ventures.

Great.

Thank you, Emmanuel.

We'll come back and learn more about that in a second.

Rick, let me come your way.

So people are familiar with the Indiana toll road a little bit, but for those who aren't.

Tell us a little about Indiana toll road and what you do there.

Yeah, well, obviously, we traverse the seven northernmost counties of the state of Indiana.

Look, if you're driving the Indiana toll road we want you to focus on a safe and pleasant trip to get to where you're going.

Behind the curtains, there's a lot of moving parts going on to operate an infrastructure of this size.

It takes, you know, a diverse group of employees, dedicated employees, along with a lot of supporting efforts from from the communities, from businesses, from contractors, whether it's paving or bridge work, general supplies, any and everything.

You probably think you would need to operate a highway.

We need that.

So our focus has been on how do we grow that that community of vendors and suppliers.

How do we reach that that diverse group, which I think we'll talk about a little bit later.

Sounds good.

Paula let me come back your way.

Talk to us a little bit about just give us a general state of minority owned businesses in the area.

How are we doing as a community?

What's that look like?

Excuse.

That's fine.

Thank you, Jeff.

That's a great question.

I want to start out by saying I am that person.

And because one, I'm a woman owned business, two Latina owned and three small business, and I and I work with the community and small businesses kind of lock arms together where I can't do something.

I find another small business that can.

And so when I'm working with a client, I always say, Hey, I have an arsenal behind me.

So I hired that mother who was a mother of four who has a small sewing machine in her home that she can create product.

So that's one of the ecosystems.

And what we've learned with Nimba in the last couple of weeks is like taking, for instance, the truckers.

They have one trucker who owns a business and he then somebody else come in and has no clue of how to run a truck or what the needs are.

He's taking over and mentoring those people.

And so we're starting our own little ecosystem and locking arms together to help create those things so that we can go to the primes and say, We're ready, We're locked and loaded.

Great.

Thank you Paula, Emmanuel Let's come your way, talk a little bit about this, this this idea of starting your own.

You obviously have a long history here in our community.

You're now you're the entrepreneur, though, who owns the business.

You're trying to help others get started like you did.

Give us a little backstory, history, how you came about, decided to pursue your own opportunities.

Well, my mother passed away in 2017, and on her deathbed, she made me promise that I would try to give back to the community.

She had been the president of the NAACP here in South Bend back in 1969 to 1972.

And when she looked around, she still saw a lot of disadvantage from minorities going on.

I particularly try to go out of my way to to spur as many young people as possible, because not everyone's going to college high schools used to teach woodshop, plumbing, auto shop.

They don't do that anymore.

And a lot of students have they have, you know, particularly mechanical skills.

They need to be put to work.

And so by snatching them up, coming out of high school, we helped them avoid many of the pitfalls that they would run into throughout life.

That's something I really want to do.

As a matter of fact, I do do my own company.

I have an employee.

I have a very diverse work group, work for me, and I try to get as many young people as possible.

I want to offer internships, the young people, the good one, so we can save some of them and get them started in their own good.

Possibly get them employment with the Indiana Toll Road Commission.

I would be a beautiful thing.

I'm happy to take that partnership.

Emmanuel, Just let us know.

Yes, sir.

I love it.

And Emaunel stick with you for a second.

You know, obviously, you've worked for other people before.

Now you're sort of running the show a little bit.

What's been the maybe the most rewarding and the most challenging piece of of starting your own venture?

There?

Well, the most rewarding is seeing people's faces when I pay them, knowing that they're able to feed their kids, pay their house, go, and they're happy.

That to me.

And knowing that one day I have to meet my creator and when I do, he might look back on my life and see all the bad that I've done and look and say, You know, you actually did some good.

Come on in.

That means a lot.

Trust me, right?

Mr. Rea.

No, that's great.

Appreciation and Paula, I'm going to come make your way.

Go ahead.

I was just wanted to add to him and just watching when we have our meetings on Friday at the networking that happens and things are happening when like Emanuel can connect with a new truck driver and a new construction person or whatever it is.

That is the magic of the whole thing.

I love it.

I've had a chance to be at one of those meetings.

It's great to see the conversation that's happening there.

Rick I want to come your way.

you know from an employer perspective, you mentioned as you're running this highway that stretches from Ohio to Illinois across the entire state, you've got a lot of needs as an employer.

And obviously you're like many, you want to find people who can supply it on time and on budget and all this the Indiana toll road has made hiring a minority and women owned businesses a top priority.

Talk a little bit about how that priority came about and the fruits of some of that labor that you're seeing from that effort.

Yeah, Jeff, again, thanks for.

Thanks for having me on, it's good to be on with the panel.

I guess if you can look back to the to the concession lease agreement that we have with the state of Indiana, that gives us the right to operate the toll road.

There are some some requirements within that concession lease agreement that some of our spends a percentage of our spends needs to be with disadvantaged business.

We'll call those women owned business, minority owned business and veteran owned businesses.

We refer to that as just an XBE if you will, XBE Enterprise.

We're going above and beyond that.

So the requirement that's in the concession lease agreement is fine.

We've taken it a step above and we're setting ourselves for the last couple of years.

A goal of 20% of our spend needs to be with an XBE connection.

Whether that's a spend directly with them, it could be a subcontractor to a contractor we're working with.

So we've been growing that base over the last several years and we we do that through connections such as the Indiana Minority Trucking Association and Business Association.

And we've been to some of the breakfast has been to see this the small business workshops.

So it's through those connections.

And look I think that I think in northern Indiana the the supply the supplier diversity is is lagging a little bit in our efforts have been to connect not only ourselves with with the XBE vendors and companies, but just the suppliers.

And where can we hook up our vendors and our contractors with XBE subcontractors.

And we've been pretty successful in that.

On 2022, we connected and worked with about 50 separate XBE companies and met our 20% target.

And again, I think we're going to we're going to strongly meet that again this year and hopefully we exceed that.

So but it's only been through many years of connecting with the communities.

Jeff, with organizations such as you and Elkhart County, with the chambers that put us in touch with with those minority vendors or those veteran owned businesses, that we can start to grow those relationships and really cultivate what we think will work out best for the community.

And by doing that, I think, increase the business development and promote economic growth through the entire region as well.

Rick, you touch briefly to talk to us on two things.

One, like your most critical need, for example, in terms of running a running a road, running a highway.

I mean, a lot of things, but generally what your most critical need is and then two over the seven counties you're working with, again, from Chicago all the way to Ohio.

Talk to us a little bit about how this region is doing in this space as compared to the whole state or the whole territory you cover?

Yeah, I guess if I break those down into two sections, you know, what are what are our biggest needs?

And it's really straight across the board and it's sometimes can be seasonal.

So in the wintertime we're primarily focused on winter maintenance, which is, you know, if there's snow and we have to have salt, it's connecting with the salt companies.

We buy our salt from making sure they're subcontracting to to minority trucking companies to get us our salt in any of the supplies that we need throughout the winter season as well.

I mean, if you look at just the summer or throughout the construction season, whether it's large paving projects, bridge projects, general supplies that we need to operate a toll road could be safety supplies for our employees.

I mentioned it's you know, it's connecting and trying to find those different sources which can be a challenge at times.

And I don't think there's a cookie cutter answer that, you know, or a silver bullet that addresses the need in general.

It's it's outreach community outreach, connecting with with businesses as we as we have on the call here.

And like I mentioned, Jeff, organizations such as yours, that puts us in touch with those folks that are in need of expanding their business and and learning a little bit more about what we do to run a highway and what our needs are.

Again, could be wintertime, summertime, or we're just straight across the year.

And I'd probably be remiss if I didn't mention Emanuel broached the subject about his his employee base.

And we do strive to have a a diverse employee base as well.

And, you know, we stretch for some from some urban into some rural areas of northern Indiana.

We set ourselves some targets as well, promoting that that diverse workforce.

And hopefully one day we'll be able to connect with Emanuel and he can give us some help in in hiring some people that he may recommend.

Emanuel Let me come back to your way because we talk NIMTA, the trucker Northern Indiana Minority Truckers Association.

So obviously a great need for folks like Rick, but also for the city, the state highway, a lot of different folks.

Talk to us a little bit about the need that you saw and why why trucking made made sense for you to pursue.

Well, I saw opportunity in trucking myself.

I ran into a man by the name of Jesse Cash.

He was the one who originally got me started trucking idea.

And God bless him for doing that.

But my little company has been profitable every year that I've been office this year eight.

I've just recently purchased a dump truck and I'm getting into dump truck calling.

As a matter of fact, I hope to haul salt for the toll road one day.

Dump trucking is new, but it also allows me to meet new individuals and new places and learn new things about the trucking industry that I never knew before and all the individuals that I meet.

This is all diverse and new.

I've met Irish farmers and we feel Indiana, who I didn't know existed before, who gave me ideas on how to do my own business and make it more proper.

I've met people in central Indiana just at what you call life Indiana, right outside of Indianapolis, who have shown me how to better take care of my trucks, do better, keep them on the road.

And of course, I've hired all kinds of mechanics, I'm happy to say I have on hand now comes to me.

It is my intention, particularly if I can start an intern program, to teach young people, not just trucking.

I have mechanics that want to teach young people how to be diesel mechanics.

There's really big money in being a diesel mechanic you have in your shop.

This would not only spill over from my business, but it will help other individuals with, say, the Indiana toll road trust and who knows they buy want to contract out some of their repair work of course now.

But my sister organization, she'll teach them how to operate their businesses and keep going.

May I say one thing right now?

The hardest thing that minority businesses and disadvantaged businesses are having is because of the times that we're living here.

It's finding not only loans and funding, but grants that will help them be able to maintain jobs that they bid on A lot of minority contractors and disadvantage contractors bid on jobs and don't have enough money to follow through on the job is doomed to fail.

Jeff, If I could.

If I could if I could interject really quick.

And I think Emanuel raised a good point.

You know, not only is it connecting and trying to find those those XBE businesses or the minority businesses, it's helping them gain certification with the state of Indiana.

And I think there's a there's a challenge in that.

One of the if if we're trying to educate other the businesses to get in this space and to help small businesses out, that's an area I think that's a bit underutilized is you need to point people in the right direction.

So we've done that, you know, multiple times, help small minority businesses connect through the certification process, have actually helped five small minority businesses obtain that certification through our direct efforts as well.

So it's one thing to find them, but it's it's a whole nother thing to be sure that they're certified.

And if not, we need to get them the resources to help them get certified because we know government bureaucracy can sometimes be challenging.

And I think it's up to us to help move those obstacles out of the way for them.

And I will add to that, too, is that is what LACC does.

The certification process as well is NIMBA Now we are walking people through that certification along with and thank you.

It has been instrumental in helping with the group that we have now have gotten a couple of people certified thanks to Renaldo and some other people there.

So we appreciate all the help.

But let me stay with you.

If a minority business is watching and thinking about this, like who should be certified are all I mean, is that an opportunity for all businesses or are there particular industries where that makes more sense?

Help make the pitch for why people should think about that certification?

And I know I don't.

I love and I have a close relationship with the deputy commissioner, Keesha Rich, who's amazing and everybody who's a minority owned business should be certified.

But you need to know where you're being certified and your numbers and if you don't know those things, then you're just floating out there anywhere.

But if you're in the construction business and the trucking logistics, those are the main ones, right now that please get certified.

I can't even emphasize that enough.

There is a great need for those people right now everywhere I turn and I speak to people and they're like, well, we don't have the the minority list of those minorities certified.

We have a list of people who are minority owned business, but they're not certified.

By the way, conchita.com is NIMBA certified.

So, Emmanuel, talk for a second about that process.

So somebody who's at home who has thought about it, but it hasn't gone through how hard of a process is that for you for somebody to go through?

The NIMBA process is not difficult.

If you're going to read the instructions carefully.

A lot of people get lazy you must read the instructions carefully.

Of course, there is documentation that you have.

There are several numbers that you could reach if you call down to Indianapolis to the high income office, and they have counselors or workers who will actually work with you through the process, the DBE certification, which much more difficult, but then that's federal certification.

It took some time.

I made a lot of mistakes.

I had to hire a paralegal to assist me.

But now that myself and Paula know how to do that, we want to help other individuals get through the process as painlessly as possible so they won't have there is no fee, so it's free.

If we can find the time to put an individual in, we will help that individual get through the process because this might help the community as a whole.

Right.

Paula, let me come back your way.

So in our last 5 minutes or so, think about Nimba a little bit.

And as we mentioned, the opening, you know, one of the key things is that it help connect minority businesses, the resources out there.

Emmanuel mentioned financial.

Rick and Emmanuel both talk a little about certification.

What what are other things that somebody who's thinking about starting a business who hasn't done what should they be thinking about or what other resources might be out there to help them?

Well, there are other resources that we are connected to, like SPDC Score and then other programs at the City of South Bend has that we have been working with to help guide them through the process, whether it's starting your business and if they're starting from scratch, starting your business, getting all getting it all legit right away.

Because I just want to mention it really quick.

You can't get certified unless you've been in business for over a year and you have to be in business.

So I always say if you're starting a business, this is the process to go through for a whole year.

But get all your papers legit and having that support from us and from other organizations working together.

And let me just real quick follow.

So as we mentioned, you're an entrepreneur, you own Visions GPS What's the one thing you wish somebody would have told you when you started or I mean, any any advice as we're wrapping up to somebody who's on the fence about starting their own thing, it's hard.

It's lonely if you have it.

The support group, it's the best thing ever.

And I always I always joke about it.

I can live on this can of soup for a couple of days.

It's all good, you know?

But knowing that tomorrow brings another day, never giving up.

And it is very hard.

And just knowing, having that attorney, having the insurance person, all those people that are your support, and that's just not family.

You're talking about all the things that you need to be certified and those groups of people.

Right, Rick, as we're in our last couple minutes here, come back to you and give the shout out to employers.

You know, obviously employers sometimes go the direction they think too easy, right?

Somebody they work with for a long time, somebody they know.

But the toll road, for example, is leading the way in terms of giving new businesses and small businesses an opportunity to give advice to other employers as to why why they should take a page from your playbook and follow a similar track.

Yeah, no, that's a great question, Jeff.

And I think first and foremost, I would say, look, it's it's an ongoing process.

It's not anything you can accomplish in a day.

Look, we're all we're all living in a world today where, you know, supply chain issues exist, trying to get goods and materials you need or services you may need or harder and harder, you know, unlocking that the minority business groups or women owned or or veteran owned is another source for your business to succeed another another subcontractor that you can use to help you gain contracts with larger companies, which obviously is is all profit driven for your company.

So again, it's not a it's not an overnight process.

And we're happy to jump on the phone with you.

We're happy to to lead the way.

We take it extremely serious in the community.

And again, we will partner with with any expert if you've got questions or with any company that's looking to get into that space or looking to expand their procurement opportunities, give us a call.

Give our procurement manager, Rob Steed a call.

We will take the time needed.

We will walk you through what we've done, how we've done it, the successes we've had, the pitfalls that that we unfortunately fell into, that everybody probably will.

So use our lessons learned to help your business succeed quicker.

Thank you guys so much.

I appreciate the introduction.

We'll share resources on on the show and in our notes and stuff will direct people your way.

We'll look forward to having you back.

You guys are doing some amazing work in the community.

We're grateful for you spending some time to just help us understand that better today.

Thank you for watching or listening to our podcast to watch this episode again or any of our past episodes.

You can find Economic Outlook at WNIT.org or find our podcasts on most major podcast platforms, but also encourage you to like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

I'm Jeff Rea.

I'll see you next time.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.