Gender `Advantage'? Not Much

It's a common refrain from white males: "If only I had been borna woman or a minority, I could have special privileges, too."

Generally, such comments draw a scoff from feminists. Afterall, haven't white males historically have had all the privileges?

"Sometimes I feel sorry for those white males who are not asfortunate as we were to be born a minority. It can be adisadvantage," said Rita Alborez-Pozniak, president of GoldenExpress.

Just kidding, she said.

"In reality, it's a very big hurdle to get over."

Gender and ethnicity might help them get some business becausecompanies or government entities want to achieve some undefined"goals" for contracting with female and minority business owners.

But the entrepreneurs still had to break into male-dominatedfields and they still have to perform to keep the business, the womensaid during a Wednesday meeting of the National Society of HispanicMBAs.

Their minority status helped them break into the business. Butthat doesn't mean it has been easy or that they made it by relyingsolely on their gender or ethnicity.

Getting financing was the first big hurdle for Alborez-Pozniak.Her former bosses at corporate behemoth McDonald's called the banksand asked them to talk with her. Even with that entree, she had tofight for the $1 million loan she and her husband, Wayne Pozniak,needed to buy Golden Express - something she doesn't think a whiteman would have had to do.

"McDonald's gave me business references and made calls to banks.Some of them really intended to talk to us, but some just wentthrough the motions," she said.

Not one to allow an injustice to pass, Alborez-Pozniak made surethose who "just went through the motions" won't do it again. Shereported them to their superiors.

"I really did a number on them. I was feeling badly about allthe Hispanics who came before me and who will come after me."

Once she bought the company, she had to win over the customersas well.

Take the sales appointment made by her husband. He didn'tmention that his wife, the company president, would be doing thetalking. The company officials were clearly surprised to see her inthe lobby.

"They thought, `What did he bring his wife for? Is she going tosit out in the lobby and knit?' " After a few minutes in themeeting, "they knew my husband was just nice enough to drive methere."

She recommends developing networks of business contacts and notbacking down from a challenge.

"You have to be in their face. You have to be convincing,"Alborez-Pozniak said.

That's because you can't count on your minority status to getthe business, especially in this recessionary economy, said ElizabethScully, coordinator of the Women's Business Initiative for theWomen's Business Development Center.

Her office helps women and minority business owners through thecertification process that pronounces them officially women-owned orminority-owned enterprises. But certification is not enough - especially in a tight economy whena skittish purchasing agent fears for his job if he doesn't hire thebest possible supplier.

"We stress developing relationships. We ask women to go out andfocus on the corporation or government agency they want to dobusiness with and tell them what they can do for the corporation -`I'm the fastest'; `I'll provide better service'; `I'll followthrough.' Then they can add the piece about certification. That'sthe gravy," Scully said.

That's how Margarita Perez, president of Fortaleza AssetManagement, does it.

"The important thing is, I'm a good money manager. It just sohappens that I'm a minority woman."

But, she said, she got started in the business because of hergender and race. Companies are looking for minority-owned firms tomanage their pension funds, she said. Demand is so high thatcompetition is getting tough as more and more minorities move intothe business.

Maria Prado, a partner in the Chicago accounting firm Crozier,Prado & Renteria, said her minority status helped the firm wingovernment contracts but "I believe that is only the starting step.Once we're through the first step, we have to prove the work we cando to maintain the relationship."

Leticia Herrera, president of Extra Clean, an industrial andcommercial janitorial service, said being a minority "is only adisadvantage if you see it as such."

Cindy Richards' Working Women column appears every Friday.