These days just about everyone wants to be an entrepreneur. Here are eight people - women, immigrants, corporate refugees, minorities, even kids - who got in on the action. Here's what they have to say about it.
Small-business ambassador
Small-business ambassador
Salvador Guzman, 46
Guzman Group of Mexican restaurants
Nashville

I opened Camino Real, My first Mexican restaurant, in Franklin, Tenn., in 1991. Now I have 14 restaurants across the region, and I own the first Spanish-language radio station in the state.

I was a veterinarian in Mexico but could never bring in a satisfactory income. When the peso was devalued in the mid-1980s, interest rates on my business loans kept rising, from 32 percent to 90 percent a year. I came to the U.S. when a friend of mine in Chattanooga offered me a job as a busboy in a Mexican restaurant. I was planning to stay for two years and save enough to buy a house in Mexico. But when I noticed that the owner was two years younger than me, it turned around my way of thinking. I left and started my first restaurant with three partners and my savings of $18,000.

I was the first person from Degollado, Jalisco, to own a restaurant in the U.S. Now there are more than 100 restaurants scattered across the U.S. owned by people from my hometown. They became restaurant owners because they saw me doing it. Now they inspire others. Mexican immigrants are used to working hard.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8
Are you thinking of starting a business? Got a question about financing, technology, taxes, team management, or any other topic related to launching or owning your own firm? The FSB editors are standing by to help. (more)
Battle of the business plans Startups operating on the cutting edge dominated FSB's fourth annual student business. (more)
8 tiny companies that play big How small companies are using new technologies to compete like champions. (more)

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.