Big dreams begin with Latino plantain treats

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 sixth article in the series.

Cesar Cuevas has a vision. He would like to have a Papiajo Frituras food vending truck or restaurant in every city and town in Rhode Island.

His specialty product is a plantain basket stuffed with meat or vegetables and fried. It’s called “papiao.”

Cuevas started the business three years ago, by purchasing a food vending truck and equipment. He operates in the evenings, from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., near the corner of Broad Street and Prairie Avenue in South Providence.

“Every month, I see more new customers,” he said. “More people are asking for the same product.”

To grow, he’ll need another truck or a bigger truck or a permanent location, he said.

That’s why Cuevas 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 state’s growing number of Latino entrepreneurs.

At a recent class, SBDC business counselor Tomas Avila invited marketing consultant Leon Mesa to speak.

Mesa described the perfect marketing mix as consisting of four P’s: product, price, promotion and publicity. The first goal is to differentiate the product or service, he said. The second, to price it.

Before thinking about promotion and publicity, “you have to define your marketing segment and customer segment,” he said. “The more we identify and get to know our client the better we’ll be able to satisfy them.”

Cuevas said his client base is mostly Hispanic families and young adults. And they tell him what they want. He recently started making larger orders of papiao for parties and other events, because his product works well as an appetizer.

But Cuevas hasn’t done any promotion or advertising, because he doesn’t have the resources to supply a large influx of customers.

Even those like Cuevas who haven’t invested in business cards, a Web site or ads, Mesa said, can use price as a marketing tool. “You can sell at a low cost when you have a variety of complementary products that will allow you to recoup the loss on a particular product,” he said. “You can sell a product at a higher price than your competition when you have a superior and differentiated product.”

Cuevas charges $1 per papiao, he said, because he wants his product to be affordable to his customers but also profitable.

Cuevas moved here in 1993 from New York City. A native of the Dominican Republic, where he was a police officer, he has a wife and three daughters, ages 12, 13 and 16. He had worked in construction and as a taxi driver before going into businessm because “it’s a better economic base for my family.”

From the class, Cuevas said, he’s learned “the importance of giving to people the best service and trying to be different from others doing the same business.” No one, to his knowledge, makes papiao in Providence besides him, he said. He also stands out by singing to customers sometimes.

Even having a phone number and proper answering-machine message are marketing, Avila said, because they help represent the business.

“Everything [they] said is new for me,” Cuevas said, adding that’s why he took the class, to gain more knowledge before expanding. He would like to eventually have a Papiajo Frituras in every state, like McDonald’s. “It’s in my head,” he said. “I can dream.”