Eladio Castellano's family started a retail business 24 years ago as Cuban immigrants. An SBA loan two years ago let them rebrand as Mommy and Me, build a bilingual website, and expand from two stores to five, with a sixth planned.
Questions this video answers
1967.
24 years.
Two years ago (from time of speaking).
Before: two locations; After: five locations; seeking a sixth this year.
Coming out next week (from time of speaking).
Chapters
Okay. This business began 24 years ago. My dad started it for the family to have somewhere to work and somewhere to have an opportunity to grow in life. And two years ago, I seeked a loan from SBA. Our family came from Cuba in 1967. My father came, met my mother here, actually also Cuban, and started this business 24 years ago and still growing and enjoying what we do. Definitely the last years were challenging and having the opportunity of getting the SBA loan helped us expand and get into a new market, which is the new image of the company Mommy and Me, where we have product for the girls as well as the mom. Exactly the same. And fortunately for that sba, we were able to grow and expand. Actually also having a new website that's coming out next week as well. It's important to celebrate small business. Me and my family do it. We shop in the local boutiques and we go to the local family run restaurants. And fortunately for sba, for us, it helped us go from two locations to five locations now and seeking a six location this year. Also getting into the Internet business with a website. And we can thank SBA for giving us that opportunity, giving us that loan and the facilities. A small payment that allows us to grow in this tough economy. The new website in Spanish is definitely going to help a lot of people that are going to start being in South Florida. We have a lot of people that come from Central and South America that don't know the English language as well, and they feel more comfortable being able to read it and understand it themselves than have somebody else translate it for them. So I think it's definitely a great opportunity, especially for communities like ours here in South Florida. Felicidades. Mucho gracias. Yamos mucho gracias. Y por favor, saludos a su familia. Okay. Saluda familia. Being recognized by the administrator is something great. Knowing that you work hard and that somebody is seeing that you are growing and that the SBA loan has been a great tool for us to grow and continue in this hard economy. Being an immigrant and coming to this country, this is the country of opportunity. If you work hard and you do what you need to do, you will succeed. It's just a matter of never giving up and being innovative in what you're doing, doing something different and unique. And when the SBA or the government can help you accomplish that, it makes it even better. Definitely. Immigrants can definitely make it of America. If our family did it, I don't see why no other family can do it as long as they work hard and do things.
