Dallas, Texas, January 11, 2025:- When it comes to the diffusion and projection of Latinos, the name of Jorge Ferraez is undoubtedly one that comes to mind. The visionary Latino entrepreneur who, as he confessed to us during this interview, has no intention of retiring anytime soon, continues with his firm and clear mission of being a bridge for the broadcasting and showcasing of successful Latinos in the United States. In our recent conversation, Ferráez told us about his experience, his vision of the Hispanic market in the country, as well as his projections and expectations, both for his own business, as well as the opportunities and challenges that Latinos have in the near future.
The Mexican businessman, through his media company, which he runs together with his brother Raúl, and which operates between the United States and Mexico, has produced the Latino Leaders Magazine for more than twenty years, which circulates in more than half of the country, as well as a series of networking events for businessmen, entrepreneurs and Latino talent. We had the honor of talking with him about the above, and other things, exclusively for Franquicias Magazine readers.
FM: How would you describe the concept of Ferraez Group and Latino Leaders Magazine?
JF: I founded Latino Leaders Magazine in 1999 in Dallas, Texas. The idea of the magazine was to make a publication that would interview great leaders of the Hispanic community in the United States, and when we talk about business leaders, we mean political leaders, business executives, doctors, scientists, lawyers, athletes, among other professionals. For almost 25 years we have published this magazine, which is national, we have 425,000 subscribers and it is also distributed digitally, which allows us more reach. Every month we release different stories, interviews, profiles of leaders in different fields, and we cover topics such as the best companies to work for, the most important Latino companies, Latinos in the travel industry, Latino company executives, among others. Parallel to the magazine and as a result of the editions we do with the magazine, we also began to develop a series of events so that people could connect. That’s how we started doing these events, almost twenty years ago. They are not large events, our magazine has priority in the quality of the people over the quantity of those who read us. We are not massive, we are very niche, and it is published in English. Our events try to be very similar then, with an invitation to certain people, certain leaders, who are in a certain industry and that’s why we do it that way.
FM: As you know, our magazine is a publication of the Latino Franchise Association, created by Rafael Álvarez. In your opinion, what is the importance of the work that he is doing with this organization?
JF: It is evident that when you start to see such strong activity and interest from both sides: -on the one hand, a working community and on the other hand these big brands interested in growing- it is necessary to have groups or organizations that can facilitate or help both parties to grow or develop. Now, the great organization that has promoted this industry is The International Franchise Association, which has grown a lot with the membership of all these brands and businessmen, but I feel that they have lacked more support, or more emphasis on creating a Hispanic or Latino section. They themselves have left the gap, so that someone like Rafael Álvarez, with a very good idea and a very good initiative, comes and says we are going to create an organization like the Latino Franchise Association, where the members are all the Latino companies that want to do business within the franchises. I see it as something not only necessary, but as something that will be very successful in the future.
FM: How do you think the interest in franchising with Latino businessmen began?
JF: What brought us together with Rafael Álvarez and with the Latino Franchise Association, in fact, is that ten years ago we started holding events that we call ‘The Latino Franchise Symposium,’ which we started here in Dallas. There we began to work with many franchise companies, such as Pizza Hut, T-mobile, Burger King, 7 eleven, among others, and we began to realize that they were looking to expand their franchises in the Hispanic market. Why? Because some of them have proven over the years that when the ethnicity of the store owner reflects the same community as the customer, that store performs 30% better than when there is someone from another ethnicity or culture. When the two coincided, the stores did better, there were more customers, the owner understood his environment more, his clientele, so in the last ten years there has been a very large wave of these companies that are looking for Hispanic franchisees to expand their stores. That’s why we started inviting brands that had that interest and inviting Latino entrepreneurs who were interested in expanding.
FM: What do you think are the most important values, skills or strengths to create a successful business in the United States?
JF: Businesses are like people, there are many ways and personalities, who can be successful for a while and then no longer, who can be successful while an industry is in vogue and then no longer. Businesses live their circumstances. Obviously, there are several things, but first of all I would say that reputation, professionalism and quality are the pillars of success. The quality with which you do your work, the quality with which you deliver your product and offer your service. Especially in this highly competitive country. I think that this works out very well for us Latinos, because Latinos naturally have that vocation of service, of making people feel happy. The other part is understanding finance, understanding money, the business in the end is defined as an operation that makes a profit, I think it is something very important. Sometimes we Latinos need to have more discipline, more knowledge, and be a little more professional. In addition, we need to do more innovative, more technological businesses that help us capture the needs of the market.
FM: How do you see or project the future of your own business in the coming years?
JF: We have six editions a year, one of our goals is to be able to have more editions, that is a challenge for us. Another challenge is to cover a larger number of clients. Today, of the 500 largest companies in the country, only 68 are advertised, which means that we have other spaces to cover there. We would like to reach at least half of those companies. We would like to try to reach every corner of the country, not only to do business, but to contribute to Latinos like you, like me, to see that there are other Latinos who have managed to do things, who are working and being successful, to motivate them to say “well, I’m not alone, there are other people doing the same, let’s support each other,” that kind of challenge is very important. Personally, I would like to work for many more years in this company that I founded. The word “retirement” is not on my horizon. I still have not conceptualized that in my mind, I really like what I do, there are times when I enjoy it more than others, of course, but I am interested in continuing to be motivated to work for many more years.
