HispanicBusiness

At age 24 he hired programmers to create the first database parts program for Mexico's Volkswagen dealers, and with those proceeds he and his father purchased two VW dealerships. That move led Mr. Alvarez to discover franchising when McDonald's bought out their Cuidad Juarez dealership and used the land for a restaurant. He was so impressed that he spent 18 months attending the franchise's Hamburger University in Oak Brook, Illinois.

"McDonald's has a system that trains you to be the best," he says. "Learning that system was the best thing that ever happened to me." When Mr. Alvarez returned to Mexico, McDonald's sold him two restaurants, including the one on his former land in Juarez. His franchises won awards, but when devaluation of the peso made them impractical, he sold them and looked for something in the United States.

He found a neglected hotel near the El Paso airport. "I didn't know what I was getting into," Mr. Alvarez says. He spent three years renovating the 91-room property before it was fit for affiliation with a franchise company. "When I talked to Travelodge, they had a program for minority owners and gave me a $100,000 grant, which I won't have to pay back if I operate the hotel for 15 years," he says.

He certainly will keep the property, because Mr. Alvarez's hotel is now so profitable – it turned a profit of $250,000 in the first eight months of this year – that he's thinking of buying more. It's difficult to borrow the big chunk of money needed to buy a hotel now, he says, "but if you have the money, owning a hotel franchise is a good business," he says.

It also signed on an impressive list of banks and other lenders and presented franchising seminars to more than 1,000 Hispanic and African American adults. So far, 10 African American and four Hispanic franchisees have formed as a result of the partnership's efforts.

Meanwhile, Hispanic executives in the franchising industry say opportunities exist for savvy individuals.

"Franchising provides a tremendous opportunity," says Javier Parraga, in charge of international franchising for five Cendant brands – Century 21, ERA, Coldwell Banker Residential, Coldwell Banker Commercial, and Sotheby's, responsible for 4,800 franchises with over 35,000 brokers in 64 countries. "Hispanics who know Spanish and want to work internationally can thrive here."
Julie Bennett writes the "Franchise Insight" column for the online Wall Street Journal.