An accomplished Latina wants to mentor others

Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of Rhode Island entrepreneurs. To get a sense of the issues they face, Providence Business News is following 15 people through a 12-week business planning course for Latino entrepreneurs at the R.I. Small Business Development Center. This is the seventh article in the series. Latinos are the fastest-growing segment of Rhode Island entrepreneurs. To get a sense of the issues they face, Providence Business News is following 15 people through a 12-week business planning course for Latino entrepreneurs at the R.I. Small Business Development Center. This is the seventh article in the series.

Sandra Lake started the Extraordinary Woman Awards because she admires the many women who, like her, came to the United States from other countries and are improving themselves and their communities here.

Lake established the program as a nonprofit almost immediately after moving to Providence in 1999. Each year, it honors nine local women and one woman abroad who have achieved personal or professional improvement in one of 10 categories.

Most of the winners are Latinas, she said, but the award isn’t limited to them.

The awards ceremony is held on March 8 every year – declared International Women’s Day by the United Nations 31 years ago. This year, about 200 people attended.

Now, after seven successful years, Lake said, she is ready to expand the nonprofit to add workshops and seminars and help women improve their personal and professional lives year-round.

But first, she’ll need more capital. That’s why she is taking the R.I. Small Business Development Center’s Primer Paso FastTrac business planning workshop – a 12-week course taught in Spanish to reach out to the growing number of Latino entrepreneurs.

In a recent class, marketing consultant Leon Mesa taught the entrepreneurs how to balance expenses with pricing to come to a break-even point.

Mesa said he doesn’t believe a business has to lose money to make money. He told the class to strive to meet the break-even point in their first year of business, and then build profit through pricing in subsequent years.

Lake, who wants to keep her company as a nonprofit, said she already breaks even. She raises funds by selling ads in the awards ceremony’s program.

But to function year-round, she’ll need more ways to raise funds, said Tomas Avila, an SBDC business counselor and the class facilitator. He is helping Lake develop a proposal she can send to corporations, inviting them to buy tables at the event or make donations. Whatever she does, Lake said, she will continue to honor exceptional women.

Even when men share in the responsibilities, she said, women do “double work,” at home and on the job. It’s even more of an accomplishment, she said, for women who are also adapting to a new country, new customs and a new language.

She can identify with that challenge. Eight years ago, she moved to New York City from the Dominican Republic with her husband and three daughters, now 13, 15 and 16. She had the equivalent of a bachelor’s degree in education and 16 years’ teaching experience, she said, but with limited English skills, she had to take a job in a factory.

Since then, Lake said, she has worked hard to improve her English, and she’s now a special education teacher’s assistant in a Providence school.

By expanding her nonprofit, Lake said, she will be able to help others. “I can improve myself,” she said. “I can become an employer. I can build a future for my family.”

Lake also wants to eventually own and operate a preschool, she said, because “the early years are the best years to teach good things, to model the personality.”

From Primer Paso, she said, she is learning the first steps of organizing her business. “I don’t want to start and then learn; I want to learn before I start.”